[HK 5] : An architectural kind of day

Yesterday I met up with a slew of MIT people - Jordan, Mavis, Otto, Kian (and later bumped into 4 more) - to go to the Hong Kong University final thesis reviews.  10 MArch students had been chosen to re-present their work in a public review, with over 10 critics on the jury (including some from our side of the world like Preston Scott Cohen).  I would be intimidated, but they (for the most part) kept their cool.

One thing I noticed and discussed with M+O was the difference in representation style between HKU and what's typical at MIT (and maybe other American universities).  Back at home, we steer towards formatted boards with huge renderings, stacks of diagrams, and everything plotted.  Here, the presentation is quite densely packed, with smaller drawings, an assortment of paper sizes, and quite a bit of mixed media.  Although some of it was a bit too hodgepodge for my taste, in general I really appreciated the variety in representational expression.  Each person really seemed to have their own style (if you will) that was quite distinct and didn't necessarily shout "Illustrator!" or "Photoshop filters!"  Our students (including myself) could probably learn a thing or two about developing distinct ways of representing our work, so that we don't all look the same and thus generic.

An interesting additional fact: HKU might have the cheapest Starbucks in Hong Kong!

A new summer special only found here: black sesame green tea frap, yum!

To complete the architecture sort of day, Jordan and I went to Foster's HSBC tower on Queen's Road, which has a cool central atrium and escalator connecting to it from underneath.  I later found this cool facade while walking towards Central:

Also on my list is Pacific Place, which is supposed to have awesomely designed bathrooms.