Ms Milly Lam was awarded DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award 2024
Ms Milly Lam (Architectural Studies 2013) had little exposure to architecture before entering university and only knew it was a discipline about design. Just because of her lack of understanding and curiosity, she chose to study architecture. Ms Lam believed that she could make more friends and participate in activities together with friends in a small college, so she chose Shaw College in which there were only two student hostels. In her Year 1 study, Ms Lam participated in the organisation of College Founder’s Day celebration with friends whom she knew at the College orientation camp. Ten students gathered on the podium of Kuo Mou Hall under the cold weather, sawing wood and painting, to complete the Alice in Wonderland-themed city gate, it was a memory which she still cherishes. Her experience in Shaw College gave her a sense of belonging to the college and CUHK, and that she chose to pursue her PhD in CUHK after graduation. The people and things she encountered in CUHK made her believe in and persist in what she had been doing. Her proudest achievement was co-founding Condition_Lab, a non-profit architectural studio, with her PhD supervisor and classmates. Condition_Lab builds community spaces for children and women in need around the world.
This year marks the final year of Ms Lam's PhD study. Starting from August, she will travel to Kenya in Africa with partners from Condition_Lab to build a community library for women and children in a slum, providing them with the opportunity to read. After completing her PhD study, she hopes to continue running Condition_Lab, using a different architectural studio model and local approaches to make architecture a tool that helps people.
Ms Lam's belief is "Persist and believe": As long as you don’t give up, there is a chance to succeed. Others may think that you are stubborn for not giving up, but if you are willing to believe, you can do it no matter how difficult things are.
This article was originally published in the Newsletter of the College, Shaw Link in Jun 2025.