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We are proud and very honoured to announce that the Golden Moon Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern has been awarded the 2013-2014 Asia Pacific Property Award - 5 Star Award for Best Leisure Architecture in Hong Kong. The award, part of the International Property Awards, was handed over by the honourable Lord Bates at a ceremony that was part of the 2013 Asia Pacific Property & Hospitality Show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A big step, so special thanks to the judges for this accolade!  

As part of the selection process for the WAN 21 for 21 Award 2013, the WAN jury commended 7 entries which they believed deserved a mention and recognition for their work. We are proud and honoured to hear that amongst those seven the panel, consisting of Andrew Best, Tristam Crfrae, Dennis Ho, Vo Trong Nghia, Malcolm Reading, Martha Thorne and Ma Yansong, commended L.E.A.D for our experimental projects and their creative and interesting form with little materials. Thanks!

It is with great pleasure we announce that LEAD received the prestigious 2012-13 A’ Design Award – “Platinum A' Design Award” – Category: Architecture, Building and Structure Design, for our “Golden Moon Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern” which was built in Victoria Park, Hong Kong last fall. The award was handed over at a ceremony which took place at the beautiful Lake Como in Italy, where the project will also be featured at a design exhibition held at the Ex-Chiesa di San Francesco until 27th of April. A big thank you to the judges and to of all our fantastic team members who made this project possible!

Click here to see the photographs of our latest completed Hong Kong project: Pak Loh Chiu Chow Restaurant - VIP Room!

Tonight the Dragon Skin Pavilion was awarded with the Design For Asia (DFA) Bronze Award by the Hong Kong Design Centre in the category "Environmental Design - Culture, Public and Exhibition Spaces"!

Please join us tonight at 8pm for the Public Opening of the Mid Autumn Festival Lantern - the hottest event in HK!

Although tonight's never-ending "Red Rainstorm" might save us some time filling up the pool tomorrow, this paralysing downpour did come a bit too early to fit our tight construction schedule. With the majority of flames in place it will still be a race against the clock to get the Lantern and it's thousands of LED lights fully ready and wired up for the opening ceremony in 3 days.

Fearless, fast and nimble. Today the secondary structure was finished by a handful of specialists hanging from a temporary scaffolding that itself was suspended from overhanging beams. In the meantime the undulating pathways  have been completed, the fabric flames and all lanterns have arrived onsite and the installation of LED's has started. One week on site and only a few more days to go.

Today Hong Kong's unique craftsmanship is put on display as a dozen of Master Scaffolding Builders start covering the steel geodesic with bamboo. Carefully following the hundreds of markings on both steel members and bamboo sticks, slowly the diamond shaped grid appears.  

With one big swing the cap of the seel dome structure is hoisted into place, 6 stories above ground. Meanwhile gravity-defying spidermen are testing their final mock-ups as more than 2km of bamboo now needs to be turned into an accurate spherical diagrid.

Until late in the evening elegantly curved, black painted steel members are being hoisted into position, all numbered, tagged and crafted with dazzling precision. Slowly the actual size of the lantern starts to reveal itself and it's absolutely stellar! ... Or lunar... It's BIG!

Last view of Victoria Park before the Golden Moon will hit the ground!  Directly crashing the moon onto the site would be too dangerous --> the first construction pieces will be delivered gently on site tomorrow morning 9am.

Finally finally finally we can officially make it public! After a phone call at the end of June announcing our competition win, this summer has been one insane roller-coaster ride: we're thrilled to let you know that this weekend we go on site in Hong Kong's Victoria Park for 11 days of construction of the "Golden Moon, 萬燈喜月", the 2012 Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern! An 18m giant lantern made from steel, bamboo and fabric. Updates on the full story will follow soon. Until then: above a photo of the mock-up of the steel base structure, built in a gigantic shipyard in Guangzhou, China. On the right our scale model presented today at the press conference. Keep track of the news section! We'll provide as many updates on the construction as possible. See you on the 27th of September in Hong Kong!!

LEAD wins Perspective "40 under 40" 2012 - Architecture Award! Check out Perspective's website or this month's issue for more info.

ArchDaily published the Dragon Skin Pavilion on their site! Check it out here and leave a comment!

Shine Fashion Store by LEAD & NCDA has been awarded the HKDA Global Design Awards 2011 "Excellence Award" in the category Spatial - Retail!

The Biennale officially opened today in Kowloon Park with as guests of honour Mr. Stephen Lam Sui Lung (Chief Secretary of Administration, HKSAR) and Mr. LV Ruifeng (Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen Municipal Government)! A parade brought the hundreds of visitors through the Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei Exhibit pavilions joined by representatives from respective governments as the officiating guests – the Dragon Skin shivered with pleasure from all the attention! In the evening a first symposium on the concept of biennales was moderated by Tris Kee, starring Terence Riley, Huang Weiwen, Aaron Betsky and chief-curators Gene K.King & Anderson Lee. For more information on the events, check out the official biennale blog!  

The Dragon Skin Pavilion left its underground lair to become one of the defining centre pieces of the MatFab Exhibition, a part of Tampere Architecture Week 2011, Finland!  

Shine is on Dezeen! Check it out + leave your comments on this link!

Please click here to see the latest pictures of our first completed HK project: The Shine Fashion Store in Causeway Bay!

In its dark, hidden underground lair the feisty dragon slowly emerges from a series of uniquely shaped, CNC routed, intersecting plywood shells, all bent onto one single mold. Isn’t she beautiful – isn’t she grand?! Thanks so much to the spectacular team of students, collaborators, supporting institutes and sponsors for making this week possible! You area amazing! :-)

Please join us tonight for our closing presentation from 5.30pm onward in the lobby of the John Moffat Building at the University of the Witwatersrand!

Shifting continents to Europe this time you are all cordially invited to join us on Friday Night 24 June for the opening of Sint Lucas Gent's School of Architecture End of Year Exhibition. The annual event showcases the school's top student work, this year combined with recent professional work by selected allumni. As part of this Sebastien Delagrange will show some of LEAD's recent projects. The exhibition will be held on 24-26th June, 2011 in Sint Lucas Gent, Holstraat 8, B-9000 Gent with various events taking place throughout the day. For more information: www.architectuur.sintlucas.wenk.be    

AND WE'RE LIVE!! It is with great pleasure and even greater excitement that we welcome you, dear visitor, to the all brand new and approved, fresh off the press LEAD website, the communication portal for all projects, workshops and activities by the Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design!! Have a look around, take a peek and let us know your thoughts! K