Mr Barrie HO Chow-lai is a keen supporter of the promotion of design and innovation in Hong Kong. He is the immediate past Chairman of Interior Design Association (Hong Kong). Prior to this, he was the Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Design Centre and Advisor to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s professional services promotion committee.

As a successful practitioner, Mr Ho has won nearly 40 awards in international and local design competitions in different categories since 2003, including the Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards, the Hong Kong Designers’ Association Awards, and the Perspective Design Recognition Awards, to name a few. For 3 consecutive years from 2006, he won the “Outstanding Greater China Design Award”. In 2007 and 2008, he was twice a winner of Fortune China’s Most Successful Design Awards, and in 2008 he received a number of awards from Dubai, the USA and Taiwan.

Recently, Mr Ho helped to build the City Art Square in his role as the Chief Curator and Architectural Designer. Under his leadership, the Square has won the Outstanding Art Promotion award and Outstanding Greater China Design award in the Hong Kong Art and Design Festival, Dubai Cityscape Architectural Award 2008 (Leisure Built Category) and Fortune China’s Most Successful Design Award 2008.

He won the “Ten Outstanding Young Persons” and “Ten Outstanding Designers Award” in 2005. He was one of the awardees of the Outstanding PolyU Alumni 2007, and of Perspective Magazine’s inaugural “40 Under 40” selection, which honours 40 of the most influential designers under the age of 40 in the same year.

Mr Ho is committed to promoting design education in Hong Kong. He frequently supports community, institution and student activities. Mr Ho has provided his valuable insights for the curriculum development of VTC’s Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI), and supported many of its student recruitment and learning activities. He tirelessly served as guest speaker and design critic on numerous design reviews with students, sharing with them his perspectives and experience in the development of the profession.

A Member of VTC’s Design Institute Advisory Board and the Convener of its Sub-committee on Learning Environment, Mr Ho provides expert advice to the establishment of the HKDI and the improvement of its learning environment. Under his chairmanship, the HKDI Organising Committee of the International Architectural Design Competition has successfully selected the winning architectural design for the new campus.