Founded by Betty Ng in 2015, and co-directed by Chi Yan Chan, Juan Minguez, and Katja Lam, COLLECTIVE is a multidisciplinary firm headquartered in Hong Kong with teams in London, Madrid, Los Angeles, and Perth. This year marks a significant one for the firm, having completed the 50,000-square-foot Christie's Asia Pacific headquarters at The Henderson, and the 83 King Lam Street in Lai Chi Kok with an abstract pixelated concept.

Founded by Betty Ng in 2015, and co-directed by Chi Yan Chan, Juan Minguez, and Katja Lam, COLLECTIVE is a multidisciplinary firm headquartered in Hong Kong with teams in London, Madrid, Los Angeles, and Perth. This year marks a significant one for the firm, having completed the 50,000-square-foot Christie's Asia Pacific headquarters at The Henderson, and the 83 King Lam Street in Lai Chi Kok with an abstract pixelated concept. 

Could you tell our readers about your firm? 

COLLECTIVE is an international architecture office working across architecture, interiors, urban, and exhibition design. Our approach is driven by research and concepts, striving for clarity, beauty, and function – treating design as a constantly evolving methodology rather than a fixed style. At the core of COLLECTIVE is the idea of a “collective of critics”, rather than any single authorial voice. Our directors and team members bring intercontinental backgrounds and extensive experience from leading positions at Pritzker Prize – winning practices such as OMA and Herzog & de Meuron. This convergence of diverse expertise, along with a close collaboration with our clients and partners, forms a dynamic framework that challenges assumptions, encourages productive tension, and leads to powerful narratives within each project. We are eager to work with new typologies while avoiding repetitive aesthetic approaches, and we tend to “subtract” rather than “add”.

Which project(s) are you most proud of this year?

We completed two of our most significant projects this year – Christie’s APAC headquarters and 83 King Lam Street. We are proud of all projects we work on no matter the results. All projects reflect a genuine process of experimenting with ideas, allowing us to grow from our “triumph” or “flop”. Each project is shaped by debate, critique, and the understanding that imperfections lead to better ideas. In that sense, our projects feel more like evolving stories than finished statements.

Could you tell us about how the Christie's project began, and what was the biggest challenge?

The Christie’s project began as a series of honest conversations – how could we assist Christie’s to reflect their storied past while providing a contemporary framework that’s nimble enough to accommodate their ever-evolving needs? The biggest challenge lay in preserving a sense of legacy while ensuring the space could adapt to a new business model. Balancing these elements involved continuous questioning and recalibration. Ultimately, that friction was essential. It enabled us to craft a place that’s both anchored in history and well-prepared for Christie’s future growth.

What's next in the pipeline?

We’re focused on strengthening our team, forging new partnerships, and expanding our international portfolio. The projects we’ve completed this year have shown that a mid-sized, concept-driven studio, when working with the right partners, is fully capable of delivering large-scale, complex developments. Building on this momentum, we aim to pursue more architectural and design projects worldwide, contributing our Asian-rooted team’s international perspective to a broader range of cultural contexts worldwide.