Prof. Thomas Chung wins HKIA Awards 2025 | CUHK School of Architecture

HKIA Special Award Heritage Adaptive Re use

Date 31.10.2025

Location Hong Kong

Congratulations to Prof. Thomas Chung for winning the Finalist in HKIA Award for Small Projects - President's Prize, HKIA Special Award - Heritage & Adaptive Re-use, HKIA Award of Hong Kong – House and THE Award , with his project "Project Plum Grove II: Restoring Old House for Village Community". Also congratulations to project architect Chan Wai Sum Sam for winning the Create Smart Young Design Talent Award 2025 .

Project Plum Grove II (2023-2024) continues to revitalize Mui Tsz Lam village by transforming Old House from ruins to combining private habitation with community hub “MTL Commons”, enabling a university–village partnership. Extending achievements from Phase I (2020-2022) – experimental restorations (Old House; Mural House) guided by place-inspired design principles (in-situ, light-touch, and co-create), Phase II further restored the 300-year-old site of Old House, the region’s oldest heritage, fusing traditional methods with modern construction and sustainable design technologies.

We restored its 3-bay configuration, regrouping subdivided ownerships: 1) re-creating courtyard “Gathering Four Waters” with communal cooking and reinterpreted main hall with open loft; 2) private-funded residence; 3) patio landscaping and entrance corridor paving co-built with volunteers. We combined old and new rammed earth walls, embedded steel structure, introduced openings and modern facilities. Co-created with villagers, volunteers and students throughout, we adapted Old House’s heritage into an education-research base for long-term village revitalization.

Jury Report

This project is commended for its careful and sensitive restoration of the 300 year-old site of Old House. The renovation has utilized an innovative fusion of traditional methods together with modern construction and sustainable design technologies. The resulting renovation harmonizes heritage structures with modern additions to revitalize the village community.

A key element throughout the process of restoring the Old House is to reconnect people through a collaborative process. The project will operate as education-research base to host diverse activities for the coming 5 years as a live demonstration of sustainable rural living, empowering the village community towards self-sustaining renewal.

The project is commended for an award for highlighting the innovative fusion of traditional methods together with modern construction and sustainable design technologies and its collaborative process of co-creation empowering the village community.