Exhibitor’s Stories

Scalability, flexibility, and sustainability: how bamboo won over Hong Kong architect William Lim

Fondly remembered for his bamboo creations for Hong Kong and overseas, such as Ladders (built in Venice, Italy, and later Hong Kong on a college campus), Lantern Wonderland, Bamboo Wind Pavilion, West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre, and his personal favorite, the Fish Lantern in the 2011 Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern Festival held at the Victoria Park, no other architects in Hong Kong is more associated with bamboo than William Lim. He first started working with bamboo in 2003, and since then, his passion for bamboo has grown even stronger. Besides the scalability, flexibility, and sustainability bamboo is famous for, what has always captivated the fame architect is bamboo’s Eastern appearance and the philosophy behind the material and its use. In Hong Kong, bamboo is often vital to any construction project as it is used as scaffolding, but when the building is complete, the bamboo that has helped build the structure vanishes entirely! Therefore, our relationship with bamboo can somehow be characterized as Zen, and it is why the material is so fascinating and representative of Hong Kong. Of all the works, he is most proud of the Fish Lantern, which was composed of over 1,000 lanterns lit up by colour-changing LEDs hung on a giant bamboo structure that resembled a goldfish.