Hong Kong’s Business of Design Week (BODW) is an annual five-day program of city events, satellite programs, award ceremonies and a summit, which this year featured 70 speakers from more than 15 countries. Taking place from December 3 to 8, the event, which is organized by Hong Kong Design Centre, co-organized by the Hong Kong Trade Centre and sponsored by Create HK, has been billed as Asia’s most important design conference.
This year’s BODW was presented in collaboration with partner city, Melbourne, and a purpose-built pavilion housed the largest-ever international presentation of Victorian design outside Australia – more than 100 projects. The pavilion was inside DesignInspire, a concurrent trade show to BODW, and more than 200 Melbourne delegates travelled to Hong Kong to visit the pavilion and BODW.
The Melbourne Pavilion featured 90 Victorian designers and the work of Victorian universities and was curated by Ewan McEoin and Phip Murray from the NGV, and designed by local architectural and interior design practice, DesignOffice. Opened by the Governor of Victoria, the honourable Linda Dessau AC, the Melbourne Pavilion highlighted the extraordinary work of the city’s designers and how design is shaping every day life, including in the fields of technology, architecture, ceramics, identity, wellbeing, learning, play and apparel. Highlights included Facett, the world’s first modular hearing aid by Blamey Saunders Hears and Leah Heiss; Tait’s Seam outdoor furniture by Adam Cornish; The Nightingale Housing model by Breathe Architecture; the Nuraphone by Nura, the world’s only headphones that automatically learn and adapt to your hearing; Schiavello’s Gallery chair; Helen Kontouris’s Lehenga Table; Coco Flip’s Mayu Floor Lamp; lighting by Christopher Boots and Rakumba; and many more outstanding Melbourne design examples. Delegates learnt about the designs from the creators themselves and were able to hold and test many of the products.
