CL3 architect William Lim accepts his prize at International Interior Design magazine's Best of the Year awards
	The award-winning project at Beijing Shangri-la is an innovative feature wall crafted from 1,000 plywood layers

Hong Kong design firm CL3 Architects Ltd has achieved international kudos by winning two prestigious awards for hospitality design.

The awards further propel Hong Kong onto the global design stage, and affirm that the world is taking notice of its talented young designers.

CL3 beat over 150 entries from 17 countries to take out the Gold Key Award for Excellence in Hospitality Design, presented by the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show and sponsored by Interior Design and Hotel magazines. One of six design firms selected as grand prize winners, CL3 won the Restaurant category for Nishinura Restaurant at the Shangri-la hotel in Beijing.

For the same project the firm received the International Interior Design magazine's Best of the Year award, which drew 930 entries from around the world. It won a Merit Award for another project, the Bamboo Ladder Installation for the Venice Biennale's International Architectural Exhibition.

Growing international recognition

Managing director William Lim said these two important awards highlight yet again how Hong Kong design skills are being recognised internationally.

Mr Lim was a co-founder of CL3, and has helped drive its growth from a small Hong Kong studio in 1993 to a regional design firm with liaison offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok. The company provides professional services in architecture and interior design to the hospitality, corporate and retail markets throughout the Asia Pacific region.

"When we started the company, China was having its first building boom and my partners had identified emerging opportunities," he said. "It was pre '97 (before the handover*), and as foreigners we could not set up the business in China, so Hong Kong seemed the natural base.

"Even now, I still feel that Hong Kong is an essential base for us. A lot of our Chinese clients regard Hong Kong designers as being more creative and service-driven than some of our colleagues in the mainland, with more international exposure. This has definitely been a plus for us doing work in China.

"Hong Kong's design reputation has also been a great advantage for us internationally. There's a lot of interest in Hong Kong design firms, particularly from the US, and we have been gaining increasing exposure especially in the last year or so."

Reputation for creativity

Prestigious international awards such as the ones CL3 have just won, and KplusK Associates' winning an international competition to build a low-energy show home in Kuala Lumpur, underscore Hong Kong's growing reputation for innovative design.

People "are really starting to take notice", says Mr Lim, whose award-winning renovation of Nishinura Restaurant at the Beijing Shangri-la highlights the inspired designs that are coming out of Hong Kong.

The restaurant project was based on "a very simple design" where the main feature is a 3m by 8m wall made from 1,000 layers of laminated plywood. Teams of craftsmen worked for weeks around the clock, glueing, sanding and sculpting the layers, pre-fabricating parts in the factory before assembling the pieces on site.

The ability to produce such innovative and challenging work is testament not only to the expertise of Hong Kong designers and the skill of the local craftsmen, but also to their speed and efficiency. "We are used to doing work in China, where everything is (needed) quickly," Mr Lim said. "So we are able to turn around design concepts very quickly, which is a great advantage compared to other places."

Building a design hub

As Hong Kong designers become more widely recognised, Mr Lim can foresee the day when CL3 no longer needs to have liaison offices in different locations, but can manage all of its regional projects out of its Hong Kong studio.

He said awards such as those just received are an important recognition for Hong Kong, encouraging other designers to excel in their work. "It is important that we join together to establish Hong Kong as a new design hub, as Japan did 20 years ago."

* The handover refers to Hong Kong's return from British to Chinese rule, in 1997

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