Join AIA Hong Kong for a unique hard hat tour of the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed, fifth hotel tower at Macau’s City of Dreams.

With 40 floors and a gross floor area of 150,000 square meters, the latest hotel at City of Dreams houses approximately 780 guestrooms, suites and sky villas. The design was conceived as a single “sculptural element” with two towers united by an exposed exoskeleton mesh structure. The effect is that the rectangular outline of the site is extruded as a monolithic block with a series of voids that carve through the centre, merging traditional architectural elements of roof, wall and ceiling to create a sculptural form that defines many of the hotel’s internal public spaces. The exposed structure is not only sensuous and intriguing, but also contributes to the building’s lateral stability, thereby reducing the need for internal structure and optimising the interior layout.

James Marshall of Dragages will provide participants with an overview of the project. He will then lead the group on a preview of the building, which will explain the exoskeleton structure at various stages of construction.

Dress: Participants must bring their own site shoes. Hard hats and reflective vests will be provided on site; there is no supply of safety shoes on site.

Program:
08:30 –  Meet at Shun Tak Ferry Pier
09:00 – 10:00  Ferry from Hong Kong to Cotai Macau Ferry Pier
10:30 – 11:00  Briefing on Site Visit / Project Background
11:00 – 12:00  Site Visit
12:00 – 13:30  Lunch in Macau (Optional)
14:00 – 15:00  Ferry from Cotai Macau back to Hong Kong

Special thanks to:

Criswell Davis is a two-time cancer survivor and currently serves on the Patient Advisory Council for a new cancer treatment hospital in Dayton, Ohio.  As a member of this council he brings his vast American hardwood industry experience to the process of creating healing spaces for cancer patients who follow in his footsteps.

In this talk to the AIA Hong Kong Chapter, Criswell will present the historical context of using sustainable American hardwoods in interior design with a focus on the relationship between humans and natural timber finishes in Health Care environments. He will cite the many benefits to patients treated in those spaces and will also discuss “biophilic design” and how sustainable American hardwoods can play a key role in these design applications.

Criswell Davis
President of Mighty Oaks Consulting

Criswell Davis is an internationally recognized American hardwood expert, speaker and hardwood consultant.  Among many other events, he has lectured to the HDII Jakarta, INDEX Dubai, The AIA Shanghai and Hong Kong, SOM, Hyatt Hotels, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Moshe Safdie Architects, Kieran Timberlake Woods Bagot and The Construction Specifications Institute in Washington DC.  He advises some of the largest architecture and design firms in specifying American hardwoods for projects worldwide and has been in the American hardwood industry for more than 28 years, including 20 years representing a large specialty American sawmill.

Criswell has served on the Board of Directors of the Wood Products Manufacturers Association, the Western Hardwood Association and the Hardwood Federation PAC in Washington D.C.  An approved AIA Continuing Education provider and university lecturer, he is often called upon to speak on behalf of the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) in the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Special Thanks to:

Honors & Awards Jurors’ Bio:

Nasrine Seraji AA dipl, RIBA
Head of Architecture Department | The University of Hong Kong

After studying at the AA and practising in London, Nasrine moved to Paris in 1989 to establish her studio, where architecture is treated as both a cultural debate and a practice. Since then, she has pursued a path constantly enriched by her simultaneous engagement in architectural practice, teaching, and research. She has lectured and exhibited her work widely in Europe and North America, as well as in China and South East Asia.

Nasrine has completed apartment buildings in Vienna, Brittany and a prize winning housing complex in Clermont Ferrand, as well as student housing in Paris and an extension to the School of Architecture in Lille.

She has served as the Dean of ENSA Paris Malaquais for the past ten years and is currently finishing a complex mixed use project for the transport authorities of Paris.

She continues to participate in competitions of varying types and complexities, ranging from urban design master plans and institutional buildings to small houses and installations, and in May 2016 she was honoured with the title “Officer” in the National order of Merit in France.

Takashi Yanai AIA
Managing Partner | Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects

Takashi Yanai is the Managing Partner of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, where he sets a high bar for design standards and company culture. He has headed the Residential Studio since 2004 leading the firm’s efforts in the design and execution of award-winning residential design with many projects published extensively in the national and international press.

Takashi brings a keen sensitivity and interest in site and context coupled with a strong appreciation for the craft of building and materiality born of his dual Californian and Japanese heritage. Prior to practicing architecture, Takashi was an editor at GA Houses, Tokyo, where he had the privilege of engaging with the world’s finest residential architects. He is very active in the AIA Committee on Design, and is currently on the Board of Directors for the A+D Museum, Los Angeles and a visiting lecturer at the USC School of Architecture.

Yu-Ngok Lo AIA, NOMA, CDT, LEED AP, NCARB
Principal | YNL Architects

Yu-Ngok is the founding principal of YNL Architects, Inc. He is currently serving on the AIA National Construction Contract Administration Knowledge Community advisory group, the AIA Diversity Council and the AIACC Committee On The Environment. Yu-Ngok is also a senior editor for the AIA YAF CONNECTION and the Editor-in-Chief of NOMA magazine and AIBD magazine. He is the recipient of the 2015 AIA California Council Young Architect Award, an honoree of the 2015 ENR California 20 Under 40 and one of the winners of the 2016 BD+C 40 Under 40. Yu-Ngok has also recently been recognized as one of the 2016 AIA National Young Architects Award recipients.

Steven Miller FAIA, RIBA
International Director | The American Institute of Architects

Steven is Past Chairman and member of the AIA Honorary Fellows jury, past International Fellows Representative to the College of Fellows, past President of the European Chapter of the AIA, Founder and Board member of the Middle East Chapter of the AIA, Past President of the International Advisory Committee to the AIA and present member, and a Founder and present Board member, of the International Regional organization of the AIA.

He has lectured at University of Miami, University of Rome, Charles University, Prague, Cornell University, Colorado University and Wisconsin University and been published multiple times with articles on Middle East developments, hotel architecture and design for new and sustainable regeneration of buildings.

Vincent Ng HKIA, RIBA, RAIA, HKIUD, APEC Architect, RA, AP, JP
President | Hong Kong Institute of Architects

Vincent is an award winning architect and urban designer. He graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1985 with a Bachelor of Architecture with Distinction and obtained his Master of Urban Design in 1994. A Young Architect Awardee in the same year, he founded the architectural and urban design practice AGC Design Limited in 1999.

Vincent is currently the President of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects. He has served on numerous government advisory committees including the Harbourfront Enhancement Committee and the Steering Committee of Urban Renewal Strategy Review. He was appointed a member of Harbourfront Commission in 2010, and was appointed Chairman of the Core Group on Public Engagement of the Harbour Commission in 2013, responsible for conducting the Public Engagement Exercise for the Proposed Establishment of a Harbourfront Authority. He is a founding member and was Vice-President (Local Policies) of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design from 2010-2014.

The documentary celebrates the life and work of one of the 20th Century’s most influential architects, Frei Otto.

As an architect and engineer, he was widely recognized for his original, creative thinking and highly sought after, to collaborate on projects with complex architectural and structural challenges. Frei Otto, along with Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller, Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Richard Neutra, was a visionary whose approach to form finding is the foundation for modern architecture.

His influence, however, is far greater than the imaginative spaces and constructions he produced. In awarding Frei Otto the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 2015, the Jury noted not only his pioneering work in the field of lightweight structures and advanced ideas of sustainability, but also his contribution to the collective knowledge of architecture.

“Mr. Otto practiced a holistic and collaborative approach to architecture, working with environmentalists, biologists, engineers, philosophers, historians, naturalists, artists, and other architects … Frei Otto was a utopian who never stopped believing that architecture can make a better world for all.”

BuroHappold Engineering’s Nick Greenwood, Partner and Asia Regional Director will provide a short introduction, as Frei Otto was instrumental in helping BuroHappold with its first “proper job” in 1976. Now celebrating their 40th Year, BuroHappold’s Chairman, Mike Cook, describes Frei as, “…one of the most outstanding, creative minds working in our field in the past hundred years. Bridging the world of architect and engineer he defined a new way of creating space underpinned by the belief that natural forms give us the best answers.”

Simon Chiu the film’s Executive Producer will be present for questions.

www.FreiOttoFilm.com

We look forward to welcoming you to the event, to learn and be inspired by the story of a key figure in Architecture and Engineering of the last century.

 Event Sponsor

Venue Sponsor

Special Thanks