AIA Hong Kong Honors & Awards Program recognizes our members for design excellence. Uncovering featured AIA award winning projects over the last half a decade, the Chapter’s 20++ celebration this year recognizes the design excellence of AIA members practicing in Hong Kong.

As a winner of Interior Architecture AIA Hong Kong awarded projects, including GTB Shanghai, the first WELL recognized project in APAC, M Moser Associates welcomes you to a knowledge-sharing exhibition and tour of their recently revamped Hong Kong office space on September 14th 2017. Providing an integrated approach to delivering workplace strategy, design and construction, M Moser’s after work session will explore the execution of their new, agile environment, highlighting key staff health and wellness features. What does the future of workplace design look like? Join the event to find out more.

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In order to expand on this year’s theme: AIAHK20++, the Chapter’s third Quarterly Meeting will attempt to reinforce our role in promoting the benefits of working with American practitioners who also have an international perspective. The gathering will feature talks by our visiting Honors and Awards jurors, each of whom will share their experience as an AIA member practicing globally, as well as within the continental US.

The three distinguished Honors and Awards jurors will share their stories as AIA architects collaborating with the public sector in the US and overseas. Influenced by the global economy and the flood of digital information, the speakers will discuss their experiences, methods and challenges in working with different stakeholders. They will demonstrate how their work contributes to the people, cities and countries in which they practice.

Guest Speakers:

George Kunihiro, FAIA
Principal Architect, T-Life Architecture Environmental Lab, Tokyo

T-Life Architecture Environmental Lab is a global consulting firm based in Tokyo, with affiliate offices in the U.S. As the name suggests, T-Life, or “Total Life”, is a team practice that provides consulting services in the areas of “food, shelter and clothing” with its own architecture, urban design and interior design group – with a focus on modern Asian heritage in contemporary society.  George is Professor of Architecture at the Kokushikan University in Tokyo, Japan.  He has received Presidential Medals from the American Institute of Architects and from the Federacion de Colegios de Arquitectos de Mexico in recognition of significant contributions in the field of architecture.

Claire Weisz, FAIA
Principal-in-Charge, WXY Architecture + Urban Design, New York

WXY is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary practice specializing in the realization of urban design, planning and architectural solutions in challenging contexts.  Focused on innovative approaches to public space, structures and urban issues, the firm’s commissions are normally carried out in collaboration with community-based, public authority, and private clients.  Claire is the founding principal of WXY, which has received the League Prize from the Architectural League of New York and has been selected as one of the League’s Emerging Voices practices.  The firm has also received numerous other awards from both the AIA and the American Planning Association.

James Wright, FAIA
Senior Principal, Page Southerland Page (Page), Washington, DC

Page is a 400-plus person multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering firm with offices in the U.S. and abroad. The firm’s work consists largely of complex projects that benefit from its integrated disciplines and that make a significant impact on the communities they serve.  In 40 years of practice James has led the design of nearly $4 billion of building construction in the U.S. and more than 40 other countries. Joining Page as its Washington, DC, Principal in 1997, James developed a U.S. embassy design studio that transformed the five-person office he inherited to a team of 60 architects and interior designers which has since developed a vast portfolio of State Department work performed overseas.

Moderator:

Anderson Lee, AIA HKIA RIBA
Principal, Index Architecture Ltd.

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Since 2014, ARE candidates residing and working are able to take the Architect Registration Exam (ARE) in Hong Kong.  AIA Hong Kong have worked together with NCARB, Prometrics and various Hong Kong government boards and officials to achieve this long time Chapter goal.  Having the exam available in Hong Kong had made it easier for our members here, as well as in Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore and throughout the Asia Pacific Region to take the exam without having to fly to the U.S. With the 2016 emerging professionals grant from AIA College of Fellows, the Young Architects Group of AIA Hong Kong had been organising ARE study sessions to encourage candidates to achieve licensure and to provide mentoring opportunities in the Region.

NCARB CEO Michael Armstrong will return to Hong Kong to meet with AIA members to discuss ARE 4.0 and 5.0 transition, young professionals’ path to registration, (study, sign up, IDP), how AIA firm owners can assist them in this process (with help from the Chapter, Region and NCARB), and share with all full AIA members the path toward NCARB certification.

Limited spots are available for AIA members outside of Hong Kong to participate in this event via webcast. Please email info@aiahk.org to inquire.

Michael J. Armstrong became the seventh executive officer of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) in 2011. Under his leadership, NCARB has launched new outreach initiatives with state licensing boards and the AIA, including its state and local components, broadened NCARB communications activities, improved business planning for organizational efficiency, and implemented the NCARB Strategic Plan and Long-Range Strategic Initiatives.

Thank you for the continuous support on licensure and young architects!

In celebration of its 20th Anniversary, the Hong Kong Chapter of The American Institute of Architects is proud to present the Symposium on Architectural Education and Practice: Educating Practice | Practicing Education at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center on June 24, 2017.

The education of an architect and the practice of architecture have always enjoyed a symbiotic, if not polemical, relationship since the introduction of the Beaux-Arts system of teaching, learning, and practicing more than two and a half centuries ago. Most architecture students acquire the skill of out-of-the-box thinking at school but only encounter the realities of building science, construction technologies, market demands, building codes and regulations upon entering the professional arena. More than ever, architects are facing a rapidly changing society and a built environment that demands a redefinition of professional practice as well as pedagogy.

The symposium will address the following concerns:

• How is architectural education shaping future generations of architects?
• How do educators keep up with teaching both the methods and protocols that demonstrate architecture graduates’ abilities, as well as the values that reflect the current state of the society?
• How does the profession maintain or even increase its relevance and influence at the intersection of design and construction, education and practice?
• How have the curriculums been adjusted to address the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the practice today?
• How do these changes in pedagogy influence and inform the practice?
• How do architects contribute to the making of contemporary buildings? And would/could this contribution redefine the current practice of architecture?

With these questions and many more, the symposium brings together an ensemble of international architects, who are both award-winning practitioners and educators at leading institutions, to share their professional works and their views on teaching and research. It guarantees to be a thought-provoking afternoon with presentations and panel discussions.

Symposium speakers include:

Laura Briggs
Head and Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design
Partner, BriggsKnowles Studio

Nelson Chen
Director and Professor of Practice, School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Principal Architect, Nelson Chen Architects Ltd

Preston Scott Cohen
Former Chair and Professor of Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Founder, Preston Scott Cohen, Inc.

Brian McGrath
Former Dean and Professor of Urban Design, Parsons School of Constructed Environments
Founder, Urban-Interface, LLC

Nasrine Seraji
Head of Department and Professor, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
Founding Partner, Atelier Seraji Architectes & Associes

Richard Sommer
Dean and Professor, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto
Founder, borfax/B.L.U.

Nader Tehrani
Dean and Professor, Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture
Founder, NADAAA

Li Zhang
Associate Dean and Professor, Tsinghua University School of Architecture
Partner, TeamMinus, Beijing

We thank Asia Society and Rhode Island School of Design Alumni Association as partnering organisations of this symposium. AIA members receive 5.0 LUs/HSW for full attendance.

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