Written by Paul McGillick
Edited: HB Design Pte Ltd
Published by Tuttle Publishing Pte Ltd
now available on Amazon

www.hbdesign.biz
www.tuttlepublishing.com

In HB Design’s newly launched monograph, accompanying the usual project descriptions and drawn, photographed, or rendered imagery are quotes – floating, unattributed quotes, such as the ones above – coming, presumably, from HB Design’s founder Hans Brouwer.

That the architect’s voice is ever present through the pages is interesting. What is the point of the monograph, if not for a practice to express its ideas directly, and in its own terms?

A monographic volume can voice many things. It can present ideas, projects, the preoccupations of a practice; it can be a manifesto that sets down philosophies and ethos; it can market and promote a practice’s best achievements. In effect, it is a useful tool for communication – and communication, as the reader of this monograph will learn, is an important and fundamental underpinning of HB Design.

After eight years of working at Foster & Partners, Hans Brouwer started HB Design in Hong Kong in 1995 with Anthony Wang, a friend and fellow graduate from the architecture school of University of Southern California. In the first chapter, Stepping Stones: Hong Kong 1995 – 1998, Paul McGillick writes: ‘While the background at Fosters clearly lent credibility, the real value of the time at Foster & Partners proved to be lessons learned from Sir Norman’s ability to communicate an approach, which distils a design concept into clearly formulated strategies the can be easily adhered to. Hans adopted three key principles: approach, process, buildability…

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