Prada Frames delves into design and its environment
A multidisciplinary symposium about the relationship between the natural surrounding and design.
The mission of Prada Frames is simple: use innovative ways of thinking to bring attention to initiatives dedicated to our environment and its sustainability. Part One of the 2023 edition of the symposium, organised by Formafantasma — a Milan and Rotterdam-based design and research firm, focused on the intricate relationship between design and its surroundings at M+ in Hong Kong. The two-day event, curated by Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture, kicked off with a talk by architect Jacques Herzog followed by discussions on the topic of “Material in Flux”, presented by local and international scholars and professionals, including Ute Meta Bauer, LAAB Architects, Charles Lim, Marisa Yiu and Formafantasma.
Jacques Herzog discussed how a museum’s physical layout might help foster long-term social innovation and core creativity — like the award-winning proposal by him and co-founder and senior partner of Herzog & de Meuron Pierre de Meuron to transform the Markplatz in Basel — in his lecture. Herzog explained that there was a strong dislike of postmodernism and deconstructive approaches at the beginning of the 1970s. There was an urgent desire to find a different vision of what architecture’s potential could be to find a way in. One of their answers is the Ticola Herb Centre in Switzerland, whose facades are mostly made of the earth that was already there. The same method can also be seen in a variety of their designs, such as Tate Modern, the 2011 Serpentine Pavilion and M+. Herzog went on to share that the inspiration behind M+ derived from the geometric shapes and concrete walls for the MRT Airport Express railway tunnels directly underneath.
On the second day, titled “Sea States”, the first panel saw Lisa Reihana, a multidisciplinary artist; Christian J. Lange, a registered German architect and Associate Professor (Teaching) in the Department of Architecture at Hong Kong University; Singaporean contemporary artist Charles Lim Yi Yong; and CT Low who heads China Water Risk’s geospatial analysis work presenting their viewpoints of the oceans, whether it’s scientific, statistical or artistic.
They were followed by talks featuring Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Studio Formafantasma, and contemporary photographer Edward Burtynsky, who has been investigating the results of human industrialisation on the planet while highlighting the reusability of all sorts of materials. Otto Ng and Yip Chun Hang, founders of LAAB Architects, showcased their involvement in campaigning for the preservation of Hong Kong’s only working sawmill, Chi Kee. Marisa Yui, the Design Trust's co-founder and executive director, spoke about the organisation’s efforts to regenerate underserved regions of Hong Kong by constructing well-thought-out playgrounds and green areas. Yung Ho Chang, principal architect and founding partner of Atelier Feichang Jianzhu, wound up the event by sharing how he employs plastics, bricks, and timbers, coupled with efficient labour, to create stunning structures all over the world, including the Maison de la Chine and a string of renovated heritage landmarks with enhanced internal timber structures in China.
Part Two of Prada Frames 2023, with a panel consisting of Tim Ingold, Elizabeth Povinelli, Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley, Sophie Chao, Veena Sahajwalla and Hans Ulrich Obrist, is scheduled to take place in Milan on April 17-19.
