Design-China - hugheswho

Tiger New Year Card Workshop

Every year we try to hold a workshop with a New Year card theme. This year was a challenge because many areas of Beijing were facing restrictions, but we still managed a couple of workshops with a fun animated tiger card. Images from two workshops — at BIT auxiliary research school in LiangXiang and the Courtyard Institute in Beijing.
启发下一代工程师和设计师：透过动手做新年贺卡，启蒙孩子们对工艺制作和机械结构的认知。北理工附属实验学校和北京四合书院工作坊。

6th International Conference for Design Education Researchers

Design Research Society LEARNxDESIGN Conference 2021, 24–26 September 2021 Jinan|China
My colleague and I presented two papers at this conference; One about the card education resource I had developed and another about teaching Design History in China.

2022 冬奥 Beijing Olympic Mascot Design

The new mascots for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics were unveiled today. This piece concerns the process, outcome and belated promotion for the mascots that never were — The NuFuWa 新福娃!

Patek Philippe Feature: Wu Lu Heng Compass Factory, Anhui

In March 2016, I travelled to WanAn in Anhui Province to research a feature about the shrouded and esoteric history of FengShui compass making going back to the Tang Dynasty and particularly to interview Mr ZhaoGuang Wu 吴兆光 for a feature article in the Patek Philippe International Vol.IV No.2 p.10–15 “Divining the Path to Harmony”

ZhaoGuang’s family has been involved in the manufacture of precision instruments for Feng Shui practice for nearly 300 years. Although it is associated with interior design in the West, ZhaoGuang’s clients are far more likely to be concerned with the fundamental issues of space and architectural design than where to put a vase or screen. The practice of FengShui was refined in this area during the prosperous Song Dynasty when it would have been used to inform the siting of buildings, positions of doors and windows, location of tombs, even town planning.

Future(s) by Design 未来场

I was asked to curate a 1000m² space within this giant aircraft-hangar space on the West Bund. The centrepiece was a 40 metre bamboo composite wind turbine blade from a 1.5MW turbine developed by a Beijing company, Khanwind. It was an amazing experience. This essay describes some of the contents and thematic links between some of my favourite designs of recent years.

CAFA X Makedo

This interactive workshop/exhibition was part of a larger series of workshops I organised during Beijing Design Week 2015. The unusual venue (a high-end shopping mall not far from the 798 Art District in Beijing) was an attempt to bring making activity to a wider audience.

Li Hu 李虎 OPEN Architects — Interview, FT Rui

A profile of Beijing architect Li Hu, his practice OPEN, and their bold proposal for the 2nd Ring Road in Beijing. Published in FT Rui, August 2011

Shanghai EXPO 2010

A review of Shanghai Expo 2010, published in Blueprint August 2010