….The 16th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition
+ Hong Kong Response Exhibition
+ Tai Kwun Preview
+ 33rd Anniversary Cocktail Party
[Hong Kong, 18 February 2019] LWK & Partners (HK) Ltd. LWK + PARTNERS Company ), working
alongside the Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation ( HKIABF ) as Event Partner of the 16th
Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition Hong Kong Response Exhibition (the Response
Exhibition ), has launched the opening of the exhibition s Tai Kwun Preview (the Preview ) at the Company s
33rd Anniversary Cocktail Party on 15 February. Over 300 guests gathered and rejoiced for a night of art and
design at Tai Kwun, Hong Kong.
The Preview will be opened to the public during 14-23 February, 2019.Ivan Fu, Director of LWK + PARTNERS, said, As a well-established international integrated design studio
rooted in and inseparable from its home city of Hong Kong, we take it upon ourselves to bolster innovative
architectural ideas on the development of the city to the general public. As a witness to Hong Kong s urban
development, we are honoured to take a major role in this year s Venice Biennale Hong Kong Response
Exhibition, and give back to the design society.
The Tai Kwun PreviewThe Preview displays exhibits from Vertical Fabric: Density in Landscape, a collateral event of the Hong Kong
Exhibition of the 16th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition (the Venice Biennale ). It allows
visitors to get a taste of the original exhibition before the opening of the official Hong Kong Response
Exhibition.
The original exhibition held in Venice, Italy last summer demonstrated the urban conditions of Hong Kong
and explored freespace through towers. It displayed over 100 towers designed by close to 100 architects
from Hong Kong and abroad. The towers, each standing at 2m tall, redefined the typological, spatial and
façade potentials of buildings while maintaining the constraint of their envelopes as a collective urban form.
The exhibition manifested innovation within constraints while generating extraordinary spaces from ordinary
form, providing an opportunity for architects to rethink the design of towers and incubate visions in the face
of global challenges in technology, environment and society. It made a statement on tower typology in the
vertical city of Hong Kong.
Preserving the essence of the intention of the Venice Biennale, the tower placement of the Preview is tightly
packed to interpret the scheme of urban density and shape a discourse between Hong Kong s urbanism and
vertical architecture. In the midst of urbanisation and rapid economic development, particularly in the context of Hong Kong on behalf of its role in the development of the Greater Bay Area according to the Chinese s development plan, holding the Preview at Tai Kwun was also an effort to remind people of the
importance of heritage conservation.
LWK + PARTNERS design and project teams across global locations, disciplines and sectors also added six
never-before-seen towers to the exhibition collection in addition to the original two that were already part of
the exhibition in Venice. These new towers, titled Porous Cities, HIGHer RISE, IN-PROGRESS Tower of
Freespace, Density Tetris, THE MATRIX, and Space-Obliteration (The Droste Tower) respectively, are created in-house, and reflects the teams interpretation of the Vertical Fabric and a Erik Amir, Associate Director of LWK + PARTNERS and mastermind behind the Preview, said, Over the years, Hong Kong has become a symbol of urban density and a model compact city. It is our mission and responsibility to make sure that the idea is reflected on every aspect of the Preview.
The LWK + PARTNERS 33rd Anniversary Cocktail Party
The Preview overlaps with LWK + PARTNERS 33rd anniversary celebrations, and it has taken the occasion of
its opening to invite friends, longstanding partners and other guests to a cocktail party to commemorate 33
years of architectural excellence and ingenious collaborations.
Over 300 guests gathered in the Prison Yard and F Hall Studio of Tai Kwun for the occasion. It is also the
Company s first post-rebrand public event, and guests were able to get the all new LWK + PARTNERS
experience first-hand.
Founded in Hong Kong 33 years ago, the Company has witnessed and participated in the city s swift urban
development into an internationally renowned metropolitan. The knowledge that it has accumulated during
the period forms a solid foundation and bedrock for it to establish a presence on the international scene. Its
expansion into the Greater China market in 2000 was a bold decision to introduce Hong Kong expertise and
urban development experience into the regional market. The Company s ideals and business has prospered
since with the support of its local teams, partners and other professional consultants through the design,
construction and completion of outstanding projects year after year.