Touring the design hot spots of Hong Kong with HTC
At the end of May, members of the HTC Global team were joined by a dozen influencers from across APAC and EMEA to celebrate Hong Kong’s unique design credentials as a gateway between the East and the West. It was the first Asian city in HTC’s Global Design Tours app (a free android app optimised for HTC One that cherry-picks the ‘next and best’ design hotspots around the world) as well as hosting the inaugural Art Basel Hong Kong, the world’s top contemporary art fair.
China’s VICE magazine, Indonesia’s Men’s Folio, Australia’s The Sydney Magazine and UK’s Fiasco had exclusive access to people and places from HTC’s Global Design Tours app, recommended by the app’s curators: architect Andre Fu, Aric Chen, the creative director of M+, and Jonah Becker, principal of One&Co., HTC’s San Francisco based design studio. The influencers were encouraged to capture and share their experiences with their HTC One handset.
Day 1 took us to the Wun Dun installation/bar from controversial Hong Kong artist Adrian Wong in the basement of The Fringe Club – once a morgue in war time. Willie Chan, renowned Hong Kong movie producer best known for launching Jackie Chan’s career, was at design store Konzepp33 to explain its vision and expansion across Asia. And ‘black rain’ – when more than 70mm of rain falls in less than an hour (we’re experts now!) – didn’t deter M+ creative director Aric Chen from braving the floods to discuss the ambitious plans to create a museum to silence art critics who have been calling Hong Kong a “cultural desert”.
On a sunnier second day, we headed to the industrial Chai Wan district that is seeing a transformation into a creative hub. The gallery ilivetomorrow shuns the typical white space gallery in favour of being housed on the 26th floor of an office building next to a duck abattoir. Similarly, Latitude22 is accessed by a lift tucked in the corner of a car garage. The galleries held pop-up exhibitions to promote the district to some of the 60,000 visitors and art buyers that descended on Hong Kong for Art Basel.
The media experience also included dim sum at newly opened Duddell’s and savouring Asian fusion cuisine from the Café Gray Deluxe at The Upper House hotel – both recommended in the Global Design Tours app. And no trip to Hong Kong would be complete without sipping cocktails from rooftop bars like Honi Honi! Check out more pictures here!.
The Wallpaper* HTC Global Design Tours is available to download for free from the Google Play store.
