Design Trust Gala 2019
Bean Buro x Archigram
Bean Buro collaborated with the British architecture collective Archigram, as the local creative team in Hong Kong for Design Trust Gala 2019 at Kerry Hotel, a subsidiary of The Shangri-La Group in Hong Kong. Design Trust is a charity organisation that supports creative projects in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay region.
Bean Buro team: Lorène Faure, Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, Lorraine Li, Anthony Tai
Sponsors/supporters: Shangri-La Group, Phillips, Helu-Trans, The Ad Region, Midas, Signature, The Artling, Dezeen, Hong Kong Tatler, Vogue Hong Kong, Camron, Altaya Wines, Perrier-Jouët, KaChick, Lasvit, Tom Lee
Bean Buro was in charge of designing the overall event venue, which consisted of an art auction exhibition hall, a dinner gala space and performance stage, to bring Archigram's concepts to life. The idea was to recreate Archigram's signature portable metropolis as an installation and auction event, themed 'The Archigram City'.
Gala guests were photographed against a green screen and superimposed onto an Archigram drawing via a live video feed, which formed the backdrop of the art exhibition space. Rather than having typical circular dinner tables, Bean Buro designed a series of irregular curvy tables in shades of red, yellow and green. Giant glowing balloons were attached to each table — a reminiscence of Archigram's Instant City project.
Sir Peter Cook has been an influential figure for Bean Buro founders Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui and Lorène Faure since they were students of architecture in London & Paris. Kenny studied at the Bartlett when Sir Peter Cook was a chairman at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, while Lorène was mentored by Sir Peter Cook at École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris. Lorène subsequently worked with Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham in their studio CRAB in London. Over the years Sir Peter Cook has included many of Kenny and Lorène's drawings in his books and lectures.
