A&D Awards 2020 is now closed for entries after a remarkably strong response from architecture and design practices and product suppliers across the Greater China region. Despite the challenges created by the pandemic, more than 300 high-calibre entries were submitted for both local and international projects, including the new categories of Future Developments and Innovation and Technology. Judging will soon be underway.

If you’ve ever been to Yakinikumafia in the colourful Tokyo district of Kabukicho, you’ll recall it’s sleek interiors and outstanding Japanese Wagyu. Now there’s a Yakinikumafia in Hong Kong and, thanks to local design studio Bean Buro, it’s lost none of its funky character.

Imagine the challenge of turning two decaying, rammed earth-wood village houses, in a remote mountainous village in China, accessible only by narrow pathways, into a luxurious hotel. That’s exactly what Hangzhou-based Line+ Studio did to create the stunning Stray Bird Art Hotel in Chenjiapu village, Songyang county.

Digital technologies have flourished during the Covid outbreak, keeping businesses going, information flowing and people connected.

How those technologies can be interwoven with human-centred design to create a better world will be one of the key questions facing society as it emerges from the pandemic. It will also be the focus of Hong Kong Design Centre’s Knowledge of Design Week from 26 to 29 August.

Innovative Hong Kong designer Stefano Tordiglione is deservedly proud of his studio’s work on Treehouse, a cool vegetarian eatery which opened in Soho last September. The design fully embraced the restaurant owner’s vision of a “plant-based, made from scratch, fast-casual” restaurant.

Lighting is a sensory experience, says LWK + PARTNERS’s Rebecca Wong. She compares it to “applying makeup on architecture” by highlighting important features of a design and using shadows to create contrast. Discover more about how this creative interior designer worked her magic on recent hotel and restaurant projects in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

Steve Leung is one of the most respected figures in Hong Kong’s A&D community. He was a deserving winner of the Pinnacle Award for lifetime achievement at the A&D Awards in 2016, having collected the prestigious Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the Year Award in 2015. We put some questions to the founder of Steve Leung Designers and here’s what he had to say…

Following a late surge in entries, and the challenging environment caused by renewed outbreaks of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, the entry deadline for A&D Awards 2020 has been extended by two weeks.

The new final deadline for entries is Friday, August 14.

The extension does not have any impact on A&D award 2020 entries already submitted. It does however ensure that all companies who wish to enter Asia’s most prestigious awards for the A&D community can still do so.

Curious to know how you transform a Tong Lau – an old tenement style building in Hong Kong – into a contemporary space for people wanting to work from home? Discover how Hong Kong design studio Bean Buro rose to the challenge.

When Lead8’s Claude Touikan first took on the award-winning MixC Shenzhen Bay retail project, construction had been underway for six months. But client China Resources wanted a new approach, so the original plans were discarded and the Hong Kong studio was called in to design a “super high-end” mega mall.