Dear Members and Friends,
Greetings from AIA Hong Kong!
AIA Leadership Series
As you know, June was a busy month for all of us with the AIA Leadership Series, and the Hong Kong visit by AIA President Elizabeth Chu Richter and AIA CEO Robert Ivy. We were pleased to welcome Elizabeth and Robert on June 4 with a luncheon at Ista, and I am glad some of you were able to join as well. It was a great opportunity to have a conversation over Indian food and learn more about AIA’s repositioning efforts and some new initiatives. Elizabeth and Robert visited the Chinese University with Prof. Nelson Chen the next morning, followed by the Young Architect’s Forum at Ronald Lu’s office – thanks to Ronald for sponsoring the venue as well as the event. This gave participants an opportunity to learn about new initiatives at AIA National and to raise issues and concerns specific to emerging architects.
Thanks to William Lim for a tour on the morning of June 6 of Kadoorie Estate in Kowloon, a high-end residential development with apartment and house typologies that are unique to Hong Kong. We ended the day with an evening boat tour to Stanley and dinner at Rainbow Seafood on Lamma Island.
Our Q2 event, the Presidential Forum on Architecture and Cities, brought together the presidents and key people of the various professional institutes (HKIA, RIBA Hong Kong, HKIUD, HKGBC along with the Director of Planning) in a panel discussion that resulted in an interesting dialogue on the role of architects in shaping the city. The event was sponsored by JEB and the brand new venue was sponsored by EF, designed by William Lim/CL3.
Rex Wong took Elizabeth to our Chapter offices at PMQ, and to Hong Kong University. Although it was hectic, Elizabeth and Robert enjoyed their visit to Hong Kong, where they got a flavour of events organized by the chapter and met and interacted with members on several occasions.
On June 16, Ed Mazria of Architecture 2030 presented the “Road to Zero” and the Honourable Secretary for the Environment, K.S. Wong, shared the Energy Savings Plan for Hong Kong. Thanks to Christine Bruckner for organising the event, JLL for the venue, and Peroni Beer, for refreshments. It was good to end our June activities with this interesting evening on sustainability.
Upcoming Events
July 11 – F11 Heritage Building tour.
July 17 – H&A Awards submissions due
July 23 – ZCB Building Tour and event on Low Carbon Buildings and Cities
August 1 – Macau Tour of heritage buildings and Galaxy Casino, ending with a light show
August 21 – Q3 event likely, stay tuned.
Nepal
We are currently exploring how we can contribute to Nepal earthquake relief. I just attended the Saturday, June 27, HKIA workshop on Nepal and, as we are keen to work together with HKIA, please let us know if you are interested to help in organizing an event towards rebuilding efforts for the hard-hit country and communities.
Your AIA Team
I thank EXCO members and Committee members who have worked hard, especially this month, together with Catherine Wong and Vivian Chan from the Chapter Office at PMQ, to make these events happen. I look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming AIA Hong Kong events in July/August. Come join and show your support, and to meet and interact with other members and our Corporate Affiliates.
I am pleased to see emerging professionals keen to join the AIA Hong Kong Young Architects Group. I welcome you to join a committee and get more involved this year to make a difference. Let’s continue to work together to make the rest of this year great and lay the foundation for a fantastic 2016.
Sujata S. Govada, PhD
2015 President, AIA Hong Kong