Young and emerging architects and designers now have an outstanding opportunity to show how their ideas and passion for the craft can make a meaningful difference to the broader community, thanks to a ground-breaking new competition just launched by the Hong Kong Housing Authority.

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.