Benny Ding Leong, IDSA | School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Benny Ding Leong practiced industrial and strategic design in Japan, the Netherlands, Italy and Hong Kong after graduating from the Hong Kong Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art, London in the late 80’s and early 90’s respectively.
His design works or projects such as Things East-West, E-light, Vision of the Future and Philips-Alessi kitchen range have won various design awards and notable recognitions. These designs had been exhibited and publicized worldwide in Europe, the USA and Asia. In particular the Philips-Alessi coffee maker is now a permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design in the USA, and the Groningen Museum in the Netherlands. Leong joined the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University in mid 90s, and has recently been conducting research related to Chinese culture, design for sustainability (relation to traditional Chinese thinking), material lifestyles studies, user-centred design, and people-centric design.
Leong is the founder of Lifestyle Design Research Network of China (LSDER-China), co-founder (with Prof. Ezio Manzini) of the first Chinese Network on Design for Sustainability(DfS) in China. He is a founding member of the China Network on Design for Social Innovation & Sustainability (DESIS-China); Technical Advisor of Sustainable Consumption Research Exchange (SCORE) program and the Chief Evaluator of the LeNs (Learning Network on Sustainability) international program. He was invited as the regional expert reviewer, and writer of two former UNEP publications on product-services system and sustainable design. Leong is also the key author of the first DfS book in China entitled Design Vision: The Sustainable Way of Living in China and a new publication entitled China Green to be released mid 2012. Leong has also been promoting cultural sustainable design via contributing articles to various publications such as Design Issues (USA), Asian Design Journal (Korea), Zhuangshi (China), System Innovation for Sustainability (UK), Better by Design (Hong Kong).
