HSBC Singapore’s newest integrated Wealth Centre at The Star Vista, has opened its doors to serve the banks’ customers in western Singapore. Tailored to provide bespoke advisory services in the convenience of a retail hub, the new wealth centre will enhance access to personalised wealth management services for affluent customers while supporting local communities, reinforcing the bank’s commitment to Singapore’s long-term growth.

A very nice article in Tatler this month features our work for HSBC at Hong Kong’s first Premier Elite Wealth Centre in the iconic 1 Queen’s Road Centre HQ building in Hong Kong. It highlights our heritage wall and features the pop art-inspired display in the bar area.

Here we see David Liao, HSBC’s co-CEO for Asia and the Middle East, standing in front of just some of our heritage inspired graphics at HSBC’s new building HyQ Tower in Qianhai, Shenzhen.

The HyQ Tower, in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, is the bank’s first wholly owned building in southern China and involved an investment of more than 4 billion yuan (US$550 million).

The flat destined to become the Diversity Hub by Christian Action in Chungking Mansions was featured in a big article in the South China Morning Post (SCMP):

“Today, the once-neglected, 550 sq ft, three-bedroom flat on the 17th floor of Chungking Mansions has been transformed into a multifunctional space run by Christian Action, a charity that has served the vulnerable in Hong Kong for nearly 40 years. Known as the Diversity Hub, it serves ethnic minorities and is adjacent to Christian Action Centre for Refugees, which offers humanitarian assistance, social services and a welcoming space for Hong Kong’s estimated 15,000 asylum seekers, mostly from South and Southeast Asia and Africa.

“The wrangling over the Parthenon (or Elgin) marbles displayed in the British Museum has been going on since 1817. This example of British appropriation of another nation’s material culture for (so the argument went) the sake of preservation was the removal of the sculptures and friezes from the Parthenon in Greece by Lord Elgin between 1801 and 1812. There was not universal agreement even amongst contemporary Britons about the validity of this supposed act of heritage conservation.

A major in-depth article in the Financial Times (FT) features the life and times of the Chungking Mansions, future site of the Diversity Hub. Some extracts:

“Chungking Mansions, a dense and decrepit warren of flophouses and eateries, has the air of a busy bus station. On the street outside, restaurant touts jostle for attention. Through the entrance, beneath the name printed in dull gold English and Chinese script, the ground floor resembles a bazaar. The aisles are narrow, the ceilings low, the cables and pipes visible. Where it isn’t dark, the light is too bright, and fans the size of giant satellite dishes blow a gale in corners where young men listlessly gather. Trays of samosas languish under spotlights; tins of evaporated milk teeter; pots of curry and stew bubble. There are cardboard boxes in various states of being unwrapped.