Rocco Yim’s twin passions for his craft and home city shone through again as he humbly accepted the HKIA Gold Medal for 2024, among the highest accolades within Hong Kong’s architecture community. Pictured above (centre) with Housing Secretary Winnie Ho and HKIA President Benny Chan, he urged his peers to channel their creativity towards the well-being of society.

While technology is transforming architecture and design by automating many time-consuming processes, is it also threatening traditional skills, like hand sketching, that have long been part of the designer’s toolkit? RIBA HK is hosting a fascinating new exhibition and competition motivated by Chair Dennis Ho’s passion to preserve the art of sketching.

Architect Owen Lam is just 36 years old but he’s already forging an impressive reputation as a thought leader in intergenerational design. His proposal for a creative and sensitive refurbishment of old tenement buildings, in which many elderly residents live alone in Hong Kong, has helped him win one of two leading industry awards and a trip to Japan to study intergenerational housing projects.