During their time in Hong Kong, Ian Lambot and Greg Girard spent five years exploring the Kowloon Walled City – once one of the most densely populated places on earth. They photographed not only the nooks and crannies of public spaces, but also went into private homes to document how life was lived. Their work led to the launch of their second book on the Kowloon Walled City, with new tales and interviews with past residents that helped to provide greater context to the already visually stunning photos.

On 4 September, Steelcase helped launch the City of Darkness exhibition at The Space gallery where clients and partners were invited to relive the rich history of this extraordinary development.

The event was built on by a discussion panel involving Ian Lambot, Greg Pearce (Managing Director of One Space), Michael Held (Design Director of Steelcase Asia Pacific) and Jason Heredia (Vice President of Marketing of Steelcase Asia Pacific). The conversation took participants on a journey through Lambot’s accounts of the walled city along with demystifying common misconceptions about the development. Adding an interesting layer to the discussion was Pearce, Held and Heredia’s input on the ways that certain aspects and learnings can be applied to the modern day workplace. Interesting point of note was how, much like the privacy focus in Steelcase’s latest 360 workplace research, privacy in the walled city was a huge issue that residents had to face on a daily basis.

During the event, guests also got to view limited edition prints, which were created just for the exhibition, and two lucky winners walked away with autographed hardcopies of the book in a lucky draw at the close of the evening.