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Wendy W Fok

Wendy W Fok

New York, NY, US

 

About 

Design × Technology × Creative solutions.

Wendy W Fok, trained as an architect, is the creative director of WE-DESIGNS (Architecture/Creative Strategy) and New Territory (mission-driven real estate venture). Fellow at the Urban Design Forum (since 2018), she was featured as Autodesk Remake’s Women in Reality Computing (2017), winner of the Autodesk AiR (2016), Digital Kluge Fellowship, Library of Congress (2014/15), ADC Young Guns 11 Award (2013), AIA Dallas Women in Architecture (2013), Perspective 40 under 40 (2011), and Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award (2009). Fok completed her Doctor of Design at Harvard GSD, is an Assistant Professor at Parsons and Teaching Fellow at the Harvard Law School. She has a MArch & Certification of Urban Policy/Planning at Princeton, and BA in Architecture (Concentration in Economics - Statistics), at Barnard College, Columbia University. 

Along with her practice, Fok is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design Strategies (SDS). Fok is the Creatives and Entrepreneurship course coordinator, and co-faculty member with Prof Jessica Corr and Prof Ketty Maisonrouge on a course supported by the Luxury Education Foundation partnered with the Columbia Business School (Fall 2016).

WE-DESIGNS has been selected by Twenty+Change (co-curated by Heather Dubbeldam and Lola Sheppard) as 1 of 20 Emerging Canadian Design Practices (2011); Meanwhile, Fok has independently been selected as a Western Living Designer of the Year – Ones to Watch – Maker Category (2016) and 1 of 13 DX (Design Exchange) Emerging Talent Awards (2013/14) across Canada.

Fok has an international background from New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Canada. Her award-winning projects have been exhibited internationally, and have been included as part of the SXSW, 12th/13th/16th La Biennale di Venezia, Beijing Design Biennale, Shanghai Expo 2010, to name a few.

Fok was a co-editor of AD Journal on "Digital Property - Open Source Architecture", published by John Wiley and Sons. Her upcoming book chapter "Bio-Data Matter of New York City", published by Routledge in "Data, Matter, Design - Strategies in Computational Design", edited by Frank Melendez, Nancy Diniz, Marcella Del Signore, will be available late-2020/early-2021. 

In parallel with her doctoral research, Fok has been involved as a Teaching Fellow for CopyrightX for over five-semesters, under the guidance of Prof William “Terry” Fisher of the Harvard Law School. She was a pioneer in the Digital Problem Solving Initiative (DPSI)with Peter Suber at the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.  Her doctoral research was an investigative approach between intellectual property issues of ownership / authorship of digital / real property in computational innovation, and ethical / equitable application of technical methods within open innovation, digital fabrication, and commodisation for the built environment. 

Fok has lectured and been invited to final reviews at Harvard GSD, Princeton SoA, Columbia GSAPP, Pratt, USC, UCLA, Tongji CAUP, among other institutions, and have been an instructor at several Architectural Association (AA) Visiting Schools, SXSW Interactive, among other prestigious design workshops internationally.

Practice:
WE-DESIGNS

For more information, please contact:
Email: w(at)we-designs.com 
Twitter: @W_W_F
Instagram: @WendyWFok

Research interests: Future of Work, Future of Urban Living, Future of Consumption, Digital & Real Property, Technology-driven and Open Innovation Business Models, Creative Entrepreneurship

Specialties: Creative Strategy, Architecture, Design, Digital Media, Spatial Installations, Fabrication (digital/analog), Materials research, New Business Development, Product Development 

Employment 

The New School, New York, NY, US, Assistant Professor of Integrated Design

Jul 2016 - current
 

(C)ODE-(C)OLLECTIVE, Founder / Administrator

(C)ODE-(C)OLLECTIVE: GH + Digital Script + Code Collective is a collection forum for Grasshopper, Rhino, Parametric Modeling, and other digital design tools, which pose as an educational and developing archive site to formulate the critical utility of digital tools.

Official Partners:
Rhino 3D, McNeel & Associates, Rhino Fab Lab

Website: http://code-collective.cc

Jan 2011 - current
 

WE-DESIGNS, International, Creative Director / Founder

WE PROVIDE CREATIVE STRATEGY FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT.

WE ARE A GROUP OF INTELLECTUAL CREATIVES.
WE ARE HUSTLERS, DESIGNERS, ARCHITECTS, ART DIRECTORS, ACADEMICS, PROFESSIONALS, AND MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, CREATIVES.

Grounded in New York as our Headquarters, we have an international background from New York, London, Vienna, Paris, Hong Kong, and Canada. We are a creative agency with architecture and art installations displayed in Paris, London, Dubai, Vancouver, Toronto, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, New York, Athens, Venice, and Prague, to name a few. As a design collaborative we have worked on several international architectural projects, exhibitions, workshops, and competitions — including the Harvard Sackler Art Museum (2014), Museum of Arts and Design (2014), Beijing Design Biennale (2013), Asia Society Hong Kong Center “Imminent Domain” Exhibition Chief Curated by Dir. Fumio Nanjo, Director of the Mori Art Museum (2013), an Exhibition and Residency at Cité internationale des arts Paris funded by the Académie D’Architecture in Paris (2013), the London Design Festival TENT (2012), Toronto International Design Festival (2012), HKSZ Bi-City Biennale (2011/12), 12th & 13th La Biennale di Venezia (2010/12), the Shanghai Expo (2010), Athens Fringe Festival (2009), and Lower East Side Tenement Museum (2004/05).

We believe the international virtual and Internet platform is a means of local to global collaboration, and our trans-disciplinary approach to designing surpasses the traditional physical space. Online video conferencing has become a norm within our practice, to engage with collaborators beyond the metric space and within various international cities. We believe in the many portals of open-source forms of exchange.

As a design practice, we believe that the future of collaborative work includes engaging the design agency beyond the architecture, and probing into various forms of fields and practices, including digital media, advertising, software, design-fabrication, and beyond. Our collaborations range from production work for large cultural events, designs for high-end fashion companies, installations for cultural institutions, to object-based product researched designs. We believe in working towards answering the larger definition of what architecture encompasses within new global practices.

WE DESIGN TOGETHER.

Website: http://we-designs.com

May 2010 - current
 

Architectural Society of China, Contributing / Overseas Editor

Founded in October 1953, the Architectural Society of China (ASC) is an academic society and an independent corporate body registered by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. The objectives and aims of the ASC are: by uniting and organizing the professionals of architectural science and technology, facing the modernization, facing the world, facing the future, to promote the blossom and development of the science and technology, to promote the popularization and generalization of the science and technology, to promote the growth and progress of the scientific and technological talents, making its active contribution to accelerate the pace in realizing the modernization of China.

a+a Magazine
Publication: http://aa.chinaasc.org/

Nov 2009 - Sep 2014
 

Eichinger Offices, Materials / Architectural Design Consultant

Gregor Eichinger Offices
Praterstraße 33
1020 Wien, Austria

Project List: European Central Bank (ECB)

Website: www.eovienna.at/

May 2010 - Sep 2010
 

Coop Himmelb(l)au, Junior Design Architect

Wolf D. Prix / W. Dreibholz & Partner ZT GmbH
Spengergasse 37
A - 1050 Wien, Austria

Projects List: Pavilion 21 MINI Opera Space, Munich (Aquisition), Dalian Convention Centre (Aquisition), House of Music Denmark (Aquisition), Zagreb Luxury Hotel (Competition)

Website: www.coop-himmelblau.at

Sep 2008 - Mar 2010
 

Education 

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, US, PhD, Doctor of Design

+ Graduate School of Design Fellowship - Doctor of Design, Expected 2016
+ Harvard Law School Digital Problem Solving Initiative (DPSI) Pioneer - Berkman Center for Internet & Society
+ Teaching Fellow with Prof Pierre Belanger at the GSD Fall 2015
+ Teaching Fellow under Prof William Terry Fisher at the Harvard Law School, Copyright X Spring 2014
+ Teaching Fellow with Prof Andrew Witt for Digital Design Courses at the GSD Fall 2014

Sep 2013 - current
 

Princeton University, MArch, Architecture | Urban Policy & Planning

Princeton University Graduate Fellowship Recipient 2005-2008
Diversity Fellowship 2007
Stanley J Seeger Fellowship 2006
PIIRS Graduate Scholarship 2006
PLAS Graduate Scholarship 2005
Certification: Urban Policy / Planning (Woodrow Wilson School)

Sep 2005 - May 2008
 

Columbia University, Bachelors, Architecture | Economics

One Year Early Graduation

Activities and Societies:
+ ONSite Publication
+ Architecture Society
+ NCAA Division I Field Hockey Goal Tender 2000-2001

Sep 2000 - May 2003
 

Awards 

HKDA Global Design Award, 1st Place

HKDA Global Design Awards 2011 is the first international competition/exhibition in Hong Kong for all practising designers from around the world. The Awards will facilitate exchange between local and international designers and bring Hong Kong designs and designers to different continents by partnering with overseas professional design bodies.

Awarded: Gold - Spatial Design

Jury - Spatial
•Masayuki Kurokawa (Japan)
•Hani Rashid (United States)
•Adam Brinkworth (United kingdom)

2012
 

Perspective 40 under 40, Award

Perspective Monthly May 2011

Our annual 40 Under 40 programme is always an exciting time of year for us. Seeing the level of young talent out there inspires and fills us with hope for a better future in a time when it is all too easy to grow cynical and disenchanted with the world.

Greedy developers, clients with no vision other than the bottom-line, cookie-cutter designs — all these things conspire to make us believe that there is no passion left for beauty and excellence. But just take a look at our 40 honorees this year, and the kind of work and ideas they are producing, and your spirits will be lifted.

2011
 

Twenty+Change 03 - Emerging Canadian Design Practice, Award

Twenty + Change is a biennial exhibition and publication series dedicated to promoting emerging Canadian designers working in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design who are pushing the boundaries of their discipline.

Twenty+Change is a non-profit volunteer-run organization, established to encourage the exchange of ideas, and to expose and disseminate the work of a new generation of designers addressing contemporary issues in their work. Juried by a group of noted practitioners, authors and academics from across the country, Twenty + Change features projects and practices that push the limits of their discipline, be it to engage the public realm in meaningful ways, investigate new ideas regarding typology, program or site, innovate in sustainability and material affect, or engage in new models of practice. In their built or speculative work, these designers are leveraging their professional ideologies to create rich opportunities that enhance their effectiveness in improving the built environment.

2011
 

Mackenzie Academic Award (Canadian), Award

Awarding Academic Excellence after Graduation of a Canadian High School.
(Through nomination of Collingwood School, West Vancouver, BC)

2010
 

Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award, Award

The Hong Kong Young Design Talent Awards (HKYDTA) is introduced in 2005 with a view to identify and encourage up-and-coming young practising designers and design graduates to undergo training and/or work attachment at reputable organisations abroad so as to broaden their horizon.

The awards are sponsored by, Create Hong Kong, of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and VTC Design Education Fund.

2009
 

Areas of Specialization 

Skills