Hong-Kong based William Lim of architecture firm CL3 shares how studying in the US made him not a ‘real’ architect, why project typologies should defy definition, and how COVID-19 has shifted his focus towards health and the environment.
WILLIAM LIM: ‘Hong Kong is home. It’s where I was born, and where I received my primary education before leaving to study abroad. The options were either the US, the UK, Australia or Canada. I went to the US for my last year of high school, hoping to improve my English. We’d supposedly been learning English for 11 years by that point but when I got to the States, I couldn’t speak a word of it.’
‘I decided to stay on to study architecture at Cornell University. The US then was quite different to the US now. It was a place of liberal education. We had open-book exams, the reasoning being that finding the answer is more important than memorizing the answer. In Hong Kong we had to memorize everything to the letter – that’s why a lot of people don’t like the education system here. The skill of learning to solve problems by finding solutions outside of what I’ve stored in my mind has been a useful tool to this day.’
‘I learned architecture in the late 1970s, a period strongly influenced by the International Style and modernism. Form follows function was heavily advocated. Everything had to be approached rationally, every move required a reason. This was a key lesson for me, not just for architecture but for other areas of my life. It’s important to be rational, and I still need to have a reason behind everything I design.’
In addition to his architectural work, Lim is an avid art collector and creator. Some of his own installations ‘turn into something more permanent’, he says, ‘becoming part of a hotel, for instance.’
‘When I returned to Hong Kong in 1987 after graduating, I saw that architecture meant something quite different than in the US. For a long time, design wasn’t treasured here. Architecture was a service, and our role was to help the client build a building that meets all codes and regulations. I, on the other hand, had been taught to think of the bigger picture, the overall strategy, and then come up with a concept and a rational design solution. Only then do you go and factor in the regulations to achieve your design.’
‘Those tasked with making sure that buildings pass all the required regulations were considered the “real” architects. Design-driven people like me who’d trained overseas were the “architectural designers”, charged with making the building look beautiful. People considered us more open-minded yet more difficult to control, and we weren’t as well-respected as licensed architects.’
‘Instead of following the traditional trajectory at an architecture firm, I took a job with a developer as an in-house architect. It was a great learning experience. I got to see both sides of a project: how clients think, and how to make my designs practical enough to meet all of the clients’ requirements.’
‘I knew that by the age of 35 I wanted to be doing something for myself. Serendipitously, in 1993 I was invited to become a partner in a new practice, which eventually became CL3. The Chinese construction industry was booming, and one of the founding partners had a connection to a family business in Mainland China. She was the C, and the rest of us, the three L’s.’
‘We were feeling our way around at the beginning – busy, but not really focused on anything in particular. We just thought we’d take on work and see how long we lasted. We juggled interiors and architecture – mainly offices and residential buildings, at least for the first ten years. Fortunately, we had Nike as a client early on. The design director was based in the US and found us through one of those architect directories, thinking our retail work was interesting. Nike was doing one of its very first retail stores in Hong Kong and was looking for a project manager to execute a design that had been done in the US. Because I was educated in the US, we had a good chemistry from the outset. We ended up helping them with that project, and they did the next store directly with us. They were expanding in Hong Kong and Asia, so we got to do a lot of their offices.’
I always considered art to be an important element in a design
‘Around the same time that we were working with Nike, we started doing art installations. I often feel that if we don’t offer a “total” design, the client will put a strange painting on the wall that doesn’t fit at all. We basically design everything so there’s no empty space, unless that’s part of the concept. In any case, I always considered art to be an important element in a design. By chance I started to create installations for festivals in Hong Kong. At first I approached them as temporary architecture, but people viewed them as public art. They became explorations of temporary structures and craftsmanship. I used a lot of bamboo, which I also use in permanent projects. Temporary and permanent go hand in hand and ideas bounce back and forth. Installations are a way to realize something more experimental within a short period of time. Some ideas turn into something more permanent, becoming part of a hotel, for instance.’
‘My feeling was that office designs are fine, but most of the time they’re experienced by only those who work there. Hotels, on the other hand, seemed like the most socially active typology – and working on one became my dream project.’
Projects that have the power to connect a community – those are the most interesting
‘CL3’s breakthrough into hospitality came via the Shangri-La Group. They were doing a restaurant renovation in Hong Kong – at first just a soft refurbishment. They’d seen some of our office interiors and liked what we’d done. I think it helped that we don’t feel the need to categorize projects – the reception of an office might look like a hotel lobby. After signing on to the project they realized it needed a lot more work and it turned into a full-fledged renovation, which won a lot of design awards. We were lucky to have the opportunity – it made hotel groups start to look at our work. The next big step, about 15 years ago, was East in Hong Kong for Swire Hotels. After that came a lot more hotel work.’
‘I like hotels but they’re not all I’m interested in. CL3 has both an interior arm and an architecture arm, and our architecture portfolio is actually larger. I always advocate doing the architecture and interior as one package – something I learned from studying the works of Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto.’
The pandemic has shown us how undesirable enclosed spaces are
‘What’s become most important to me is that our projects feel bigger than the building, spreading beyond their boundaries to influence their surroundings. H Queen’s, for example, is a commercial building-turned-art gallery in Hong Kong. It’s made the whole neighbourhood more artistically driven and drawn international awareness for its unusual vertical layout. A good hotel can similarly extend beyond its boundary, becoming a social gathering space for people in that area. When Hong Kong’s old Park Lane hotel rebranded as a Pullman Hotel, it needed a new lobby. We turned something so mundane that no one would go there except to check in, into a social space for the neighbourhood. Projects that have the power to connect a community – those are the most interesting.’
‘Hotel work can take a long time – an average of four years – which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing during the pandemic as it means we’ll stay busy for a while. The COVID-19 situation hasn’t made me shift my strategy in terms of getting new work, but it has renewed my focus on health and the environment. I always wondered why office buildings had no openable windows, for example – 99 per cent of office space in Hong Kong is like that. When we worked on H Queen’s, we suggested the opposite. It was completed three years ago, so it predates COVID-19, but the pandemic has shown us how undesirable enclosed spaces are. We’re also incorporating more and more greenery and natural materials into our projects. I try to convince clients to strive for LEED, BEAM or WELL certification, and many of our recent projects have made the mark. They’re added bonuses for users of bigger buildings and will be even more important in the future.’
‘CL3’s founding partners all went different ways after around 15 years together, so I’ve been managing the company since then. I decided to keep the name and practice, though. Why rebrand when people know our name and our work so well already?’
‘We’re now a staff of 60. CL3 has always had a horizontal structure; I don’t like the top-down approach. It’s not a corporate environment, more a studio. We don’t have divisions where the designers pass projects on to a production team and then on to site management. Everyone does everything. Our first priority when hiring is to find people with a real passion for design, and who are interested in working on a project across all stages. What has changed in recent years, of course, is the use of technology. Up until around ten years ago we still included some hand drawings in our packages, but now everything is computerized. We still do physical models and mock-ups though – they’re very important for communicating our ideas.’
Winning design awards is important, particularly for clients in Mainland China
‘With age comes wisdom, and now we’re very careful when choosing clients. We’re fortunate that 80 per cent of our clients are repeat clients. They know what we do, and we have a good understanding and chemistry. We’re cautious about working with new clients. I always ask why they want to work with us. Are they familiar with our portfolio, with what we do? If not, we would hesitate. And we don’t really do competitions, unless they’re paid. We don’t do active marketing, but it is crucial that our projects get recognition. Winning design awards is important, particularly for clients in Mainland China. A lot of the time they know us because we’ve won certain awards.’
‘I’m an active member of the American Institute of Architects in Hong Kong. Because we need to achieve learning units each year to renew our license, self-education is not a choice. But I believe ongoing education for architects is very important, particularly in our constantly changing reality. Technology is everywhere, people are living differently, the environment is suffering. I’m very concerned about sustainability and there are so many new products coming out all the time – we need to catch up with what’s going on. I used to travel, visiting new projects and important architectural monuments. Nowadays it’s even easier – we can follow online education programmes and join virtual building tours. My topics of focus are technology, sustainability and urbanism.’
Ongoing education for architects is very important in today’s constantly changing reality’
‘Sustainability has become a more urgent issue, and architects have a social responsibility. We need to choose materials with the environment in mind. A lot of clients hesitate about using sustainable materials, assuming they’re more expensive when that’s not necessarily so. It’s not just about materials either; we should consciously reduce waste during renovation projects and reuse what we can. We’ve been working on making sustainability the main concept of our projects for the past few years, so finally some of the results are starting to show. They’re proof that making an environment healthy – for both the climate and community – contributes to its overall success.’
This interview was originally featured in our Jan-Feb 2021 issue Frame 138. Get your copy here.
