AIA Hong Kong presented 2020 Honors and Awards to five projects on November 12. The jurors selected projects that promote a sustainable, diverse, and inclusive community, advocating for change and positive impacts on our society. The only Honor Award this year was for the HKFYG PH2 Tai Po Youth Hostel for design excellence in promoting low-income housing and acting as an inspiring incubator. The Chapter also revived the Architecture Firm Award. This award has not been made since 2004 and was presented this year to Ronald Lu & Partners for their contribution to the profession and to the community at large. The firm continually demonstrates an unparalleled depth and breadth of completed work and has designed many buildings that provide both a sense of place and a connection to the natural environment.
Honor Award presented to Tai Po Youth Hostel
Our Community Citation is for The Mills, for its distinguished achievement in adaptive re-use of three former textile factories into a center for innovation, culture, and learning. The Mills demonstrate the value of heritage conservation to the public and bring new life to Tsuen Wan and to the Hong Kong community at large. Due to the 4th surge of COVID cases in Hong Kong, we have cancelled all public gatherings but hope to host our Honors and Awards exhibition in January 2021.
AIA Hong Kong has worked with our 2019 community citation recipient Light Be on a communal space design competition inside their affordable housing. On December 14, we will be announcing the winner of the competition and invite other speakers on affordable housing to talk about their input to solve the housing crisis in Hong Kong. We will conduct two children’s workshops after the symposium to spread the message of design excellence in affordable housing.
Before the end of 2020, we will launch more articles and virtual workshops about Canberra Accord. We want to promote to students graduating with an architectural degree from Hong Kong and China that they are entitled to take the Architect Registration Exam and enrolled into NCARB. We hope this effort will give students more options about their career's future.
