News

Music Therapy Tea House

This issue, we bring you the latest award-winning designs from students and alumni of Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI), and an introduction to the unique E5 design thinking actions developed by HKDI's very own Design Thinking team.

HKDI alumni Ka-wing Chu impressed the Global Awards Programme (GAP) jury panel with his creative design project Music Therapy Tea House. The Interior Design graduate gained a Silver Award in this prestigious global architecture award presented by the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI). Already bearing a Gold Award from the student category of the 2017 Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards, Music Therapy Tea House is an interior design
project incorporating conventional interior design and innovative acoustic elements. Chu studies and utilises the natural landscape of Shing Mun River
in Sha Tin, and adopts characteristics of sunlight, breezes, flowing water and rustling leaves in his design to form a harmonious experience inside the tea
house. Chu admits that he was inspired by the concept behind Japanese Chado when creating this relaxing getaway. He hopes people could maintain a peaceful state of mind while enjoying the making and tasting of tea in the relaxing getaway.

Chu’s award-winning tea house design employs concrete as its sole construction material. Cool-toned simple colours are visible throughout the entire space with inclined walls to amplify natural sounds. The tea house invites people to rediscover their primitive senses through engaging with the multi-sensory experiential space. With the help and guidance of HKDI’s Department of Architecture, Interior and Product Design lecturer Penny Chan was able to formulate a comprehensive spatial experience through architectural textures, materials, spatial and acoustic designs.