Faculty of Architecture, HKU

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐋𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐗𝐮 𝐁𝐢𝐧𝐠 徐冰
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐃𝐨 𝐖𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲? 今天我們用什麼做藝術？

Across more than four decades of artistic exploration, Xu Bing has gained international recognition for his persistent inquiry into the boundaries between language and perception, art and everyday life, nature and technology. His creative practice spans a wide range of media and conceptual approaches, consistently probing the evolving relationship between art and its social context.

In this lecture, Xu Bing presents his recent work where art meets new technologies, including "Xu Bing Space Art Residency Program" (2024–), among other space art projects, and his first feature film "Dragonfly Eyes" (2017–18). Through these diverse projects, Xu Bing offers a unique perspective on how contemporary artists respond to an ever-changing social landscape. Ultimately, the lecture returns to a fundamental question: how do we make art today?

[Public Lecture, 18.03.2026] Xu Bing – How Do We Make Art Today? 今天我們用什麼做藝術？ Public lecture by Xu Bing, introduced and moderated by Yung Ho Chan...

This semester, BAAS Year 3 students took Central, Hong Kong, as a testing ground for an alternative urban vision.

Recognising the General Post Office and Star Ferry Carpark as powerful anchors of collective memory—despite not being formally listed as heritage—they proposed preserving and re-purposing them into a Joint-User Complex, a typology currently developed by the Architectural Services Department.

Collectively, the studio asks a crucial question: how can we safeguard free, accessible spaces for the public?

Through collaborative work in teams, and rigorous analysis through drawings and models, students explored how adaptive reuse and mixed public–private programs can reclaim a sense of publicness and civicness for the harbourfront, while enriching the surrounding urban fabric and intense flows of office workers, tourists and domestic helpers throughout the week.

Studio Leads: Fai Au, Anderson Lee, David Magennis, Human Wu, Heng Xia, Ying Zhou

Photos by: Law Tsz Hin and

Time is more than what the clock measures. It is felt as movement, memory, and anticipation—an unfolding of activities in space. Architecture, too, exists between permanence and change, constantly reshaping how we experience our surroundings.

This semester, BAAS Year 1 students explored transient spaces that transcend cultural boundaries. Taking intangible cultural heritage as a starting point, they examined how rituals, practices, stories, and collective memories shape our perception of past, present, and future—and how these can become a basis for conceiving and experiencing architecture.

Studio Leads: Anneli Giencke, Miho Hirabayashi, Tianying Li, Aron Tsang, You Wu, Haotian Zhang

Photos by: Law Tsz Hin

𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺
The Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning is pleased to invite you to the CUSUP Research Seminar that will be held on 27 May 2026 (Wednesday) from 16:30 to 17:30 at KB829, 8/F., Knowles Building, HKU.
*Pre-registration required. [Deadline: 26 May 2026 (Tuesday) 12:00 noon (HKT)]
Registration: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=106803
𝗧𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰:
Surface Processes and Their Climate Feedbacks in the Earth System
𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿:
Zhenzhong Zeng
Professor,
School of Environmental Science and Engineering,
School of Artificial Intelligence,
Southern University of Science and Technology
𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲:
Date: 27 May 2026 (Wednesday)
Time: 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Venue: KB829, 8/F, Knowles Building, HKU
𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁:
This talk focuses on key scientific questions concerning surface processes and climate feedbacks within the Earth system, centered around the fundamental question: how hot can the greenhouse Earth become? It systematically examines the response mechanisms and predictability of the climate system.
By integrating multi-source observations with Earth system model simulations, the talk reveals the large-scale responses of global vegetation change and its multi-scale feedbacks to the climate system. Particular emphasis is placed on the critical role of land–atmosphere interactions in regulating the water cycle and surface energy balance. The presentation further evaluates systematic biases in current climate models in representing these feedback processes and discusses pathways for improvement based on observational constraints and process understanding. Finally, it addresses the long-term sustainability of negative vegetation feedbacks and the potential for tipping points, providing scientific insights for understanding future climate change and informing mitigation strategies.
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿:
Zhenzhong Zeng is a Professor at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering and the School of Artificial Intelligence, Southern University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on Earth system science, with an emphasis on multi-sphere interactions and their climate feedback mechanisms.
He has conducted systematic studies on the impacts of vegetation change on the water cycle, surface energy balance, and the climate system. His research further extends to key geoscientific issues in energy transition and emerging topics in AI for Climate, including climate prediction and process understanding.
~~ ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME ~~
Enquiries: email at [email protected] or by phone at 3917 2721
CENTRE OF URBAN STUDIES AND URBAN PLANNING
THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG See less