Tabla de contenidos para Issue 8 en Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

Welcome to issue number eight — our second anniversary issue! Throughout the last two years, the support we’ve received from you all — our readers, subscribers, followers, supporters, advertisers, contributors, distributors and event partners — has been overwhelming, and still so appreciated. Without you Design Anthology has no reason to exist. So again, we say a heartfelt thank you. To celebrate this major milestone, we’ve created a special edition on all things travel, with a design perspective. And with good, if unintentional, timing: Hong Kong’s Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam, speaking at the recent seventh annual Ambassadors of Design Ball, revealed that the country’s design industry has grown to a size now equivalent to that of its tourism industry. In this issue, as well as giving our regular updates…

Eight Hong Kong Poets edited by David McKirdy and Peter Gordon (Chameleon Press) An anthology of contemporary Hong Kong poetry, Eight Hong Kong Poets represents a fabulous example of urban poetry, capturing as poetry so eloquently and lucidly can with its broken couplets and halted tempos the nuances and contradictions of life in this gritty city. The volume is headed by the late Leung Ping Kwan, who so marvellously evoked a picture of Hong Kong caught in a transition towards modernity, and also features selections from Sarah Howe’s debut collection Loop of Jade, awarded the TS Eliot Prize — the first debut ever to win the esteemed literary award. Along with the other six poets, both long-time foreign residents of Hong Kong and locals now living abroad, these pieces complete…

Bill Bensley Bensley Studio, Bangkok What are your essential travel accessories? Two MacBook Pros, three external hard drives as I'm visually oriented and travel best with all of my photo references, and one paperback — usually adventure fiction or travel stories. What are your favourite travel resources for planning a trip? Andrew Harper, A+K or Jason Friedman. Are you a light packer or do you have to check your luggage? On business I try to not check in anything unless I’m delivering our artworks to a project hotel site and then it can be as many as twenty check-in packages. On vacation, I always check in two big bags — one empty, for shopping! On a flight do you read, watch movies, listen to music or work? I am always…

Niseko may be best known for its bucolic ski slopes and legendary powdery Siberian snow, but thanks to a new avant-garde ryokan, the picturesque mountain town in Hokkaido is now also starting to feature on design aficionados’ must-visit travel lists. Of course, contemporary takes on the traditional Japanese inn are not new in Japan, although this is the first of its kind in Hokkaido. Over the past two decades, several have tried their hands at modernising the classic experience that traditionally combines a tranquil minimalist refuge with hot-spring baths and an indulgent multi-course kaiseki-style meal showcasing local, seasonal ingredients. Some of this modernisation,such as adding modern comforts and amenities like under-floor heating, private dining and spas may no longer be considered revolutionary, but it is still surprisingly difficult to introduce…

The entrance to William Lim’s private art gallery in Wong Chuk Hang, features a neon work by the local art duo Map Office that spells out ‘Hong Kong is our Museum’. It’s a fitting welcome to the converted warehouse space Lim originally envisioned as a new studio for CL3, the award-winning architecture and interior design firm that he founded in 1992. Instead, he has transformed the loft into what could be described as a personal museum of contemporary art. The gallery isn’t open to the public; Lim uses it mainly for entertaining. Even on an overcast day, the space is filled with natural light coming in through large windows that look over green hills. His son Kevin helped to design a central alcove enclosed by a wraparound bookcase, in which…

In Vietnam, Lê Hong Thai might be called a ‘Cu Si’ — a gentleman-scholar who abandons worldly affairs to live in seclusion and attend to spiritual needs.Thai spends much of his time reading, practising Japanese sword skills or tai chi, and tending to his bonsai plants. Born in 1966 in the port town of Haiphong, Thai later moved to the capital, graduating from the then-Hanoi College of Fine Arts in 1991. While he found success early on, Thai soon became estranged from the art world. His lacquer, oil and watercolour paintings are interpreted as criticism of the political leadership and the social conditions in Vietnam, though he hasn’t held an exhibition in Vietnam for more than 15 years. Eschewing life in the bustling capital, Thai chose instead to build a…

It’s a glistening late spring morning with the sun already heavy on our backs as we arrive for second breakfast in Kampar. ‘This is the best hawker centre in the whole country,’ I’m told — but that’s what every Malaysian says about their home town in a land renowned for its street food culture. Suddenly, I find myself submerged in a cacophony of food preparation — pots and tin dishes clang, patrons jostle for plastic stools, metal spatulas scrape and bang against the sides of well-worn woks while hawkers yell orders for char koay teow, curry mee and thosai. After a quick snack of ban chang kueh, a steamed peanut pancake, I wander through the streets of the surrounding old town and am drawn to the sharp contrast. With the…

Here’s a challenge. You’re standing in Tamar Park in the heart of Hong Kong when a tourist walks up to you and asks how to get to St John’s Cathedral. What directions do you give? In theory, it’s not a long walk — about 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. But it’s not the most intuitive journey. So you explain that they should make their way across Harcourt Road by footbridge, walk down an escalator, through the Admiralty bus terminus, up another footbridge across Queensway, through the Pacific Place shopping centre, up a series of escalators to Hong Kong Park, past the park’s pond, then across another footbridge to Citibank Plaza. Pass through the lobby, walk across yet another bridge, then meander through the thick greenery of Cheung Kong Park,…

It may be argued that print is dead. The internet has stolen much of the bound volume’s raison d’etre in recent years. But for those who love learning and flipping through pages full of imagination, the bookshop is alive and well — it has simply morphed with the times. One such case is Fangsuo, a lifestyle bookstore concept first established in 2011 at Guangzhou’s Taikoo Hui. With its now third store set within Taikoo Li, Chengdu’s newest contemporary urban shopping complex incorporating five traditional courtyard structures that date back to the Qing Dynasty, Chu Chih Kang Space Design pays homage to the spirit of literature. Originally from Taiwan, Chu looked to one of the four Chinese literary pillars for inspiration when developing the concept for the 5,500-square-metre shop — Asia’s…

The American furniture industry can, in modern times, be a touchy subject. With a tradition dating back to the origins of the country when emigrant journeymen arrived by boat to set up cottage industries in Boston, the industry’s manufacturing hubs migrated westward as the country expanded, following a trail of manpower and natural resources first to Michigan around the turn of the century before settling into the southern Appalachian Piedmont region of North Carolina. Teeming with textile mills, coal mines and lumber camps, North Carolina was also rich in Appalachian craft traditions and timber resources — ideal elements for the furniture business — and by mid-century, High Point, North Carolina had emerged as the uncontested epicentre of global furniture manufacturing. However, as world economies became increasingly integrated after the Second…

Vast, wild, pristine and remote, Africa is as unforgiving as it is awe-inspiring. But today, travellers can find themselves in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet without having to compromise on comfort, style and a sense of place. It’s a credit to a select band of African operators, architects and designers who, with limited access to infrastructure and services, are pushing the boundaries of sustainable design, allowing visitors to admire the continent’s staggering wildlife and landscapes in all their glory. Necessity, after all, is the mother of invention. Deep inland in northern Botswana lies the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed natural wonder of floodplains dotted with islands, where elephants, buffalo, wild dogs, lions and leopards roam. Visitor numbers are tightly controlled, meaning that those lucky few…

CITY Set within a late 19th-century mansion, Barcelona’s newest boutique hotel Casa Bonay has retained many of its original features and charms. Brooklyn-based design firm Studio Tack carefully preserved the original mosaic tile floors and in-room solariums that overlook an inner courtyard, while also infusing the space with a contemporary edge through wallpaper and custom textile designs by Batabasta. The 67-room hotel is located within the architecturally rich Dreta de l’Eixample district and near the up-and-coming neighbourhoods of El Born and El Poblenou. To step inside the newly restored Chicago Athletic Association building is to journey back in time to the Chicago World’s fair of 1893 — the same year the building was originally completed by revered architect Henry Ives Cobb. Roman and Williams have preserved the original character of…

A seemingly homogenous mass of detached structures streaming past your suburban train window as it snakes its way into the city, Tokyo only truly reveals itself once you set foot on the ground and begin to explore its dynamic neighbourhood environments. It’s then, as you meander your way through its finely meshed pattern of narrow, winding streets and quaint two-storey buildings that modern Tokyo will suddenly, unexpectedly sneak up on you. As if passing through a time warp, a single step leads you away from the traditional streets and onto a modern avenue lined with middle- and high-rise buildings that brutally cuts through this human-scale urban pattern. The advent of modernisation at the end of the 19th century, postwar reconstruction and rapid economic growth in the 1960s have sent the…

Stepping into the Rosewood Beijing is like stumbling into the estate of a seasoned art collector. Past an entrance flanked by bronze dragons and through a lush courtyard lies the property, full to the brim with Chinese artefacts and contemporary artworks. From Li Yongfei’s soaring 25-metre-high scrolls painted with mythic creatures in the ballroom atrium to charming cloisonné in the guest rooms, the hotel’s collection is far from your stock standard corporate art. ‘All these pieces draw the viewer in, rather than just act as beautiful backdrops,’ says Marc Brugger, the hotel’s managing director. ‘It’s not only a representation of the modern Beijing art scene, it’s also an opportunity to appreciate different art forms.’ With cultural tourism on the rise, the worlds of art and hospitality are fast becoming cosy…

Serenity may be the most elusive quality in today’s world; certainly, it often appears to have been discarded in favour of the pursuit of efficiency and greater technological integration. But what are we missing? According to Pritzker-Prize winning architect Luis Barragán, ‘Serenity is the great and true antidote against anguish and fear, and today, more than ever, it is the architect’s duty to make of it a permanent guest in the home, no matter how sumptuous or how humble.’ To find serenity in our travels, in spaces, let alone in our busy lives is a rarity, yet there are exceptions — most notably in the work of Thai architect Ong-Ard Satrabhandhu. A Tradition of Serenity, published in 2015 by Rizzoli, is the first monograph of Satrabhandhu’s work, and offers insights…