Unlocking unfathomable ancient treasures

Having made it his life’s mission to unlock the hidden secrets of Beijing’s Forbidden City, Chiu Kwong-chiu has won considerable acclaim for both his scholarship and design skills.

hat we can now more fully appreciate the full majesty and mystery of Beijing’s Forbidden City is due to the painstaking efforts of the Hong Kong Design and Cultural Workshop’s Chiu and fellow designer, Beijing-based Luk Chi Cheong. Leveraging the pair’s unique ‘information design technique’, publications such as ‘The Grand Forbidden City: The Imperial Axis’ have achieve massive critical and commercial success. In inspiring fascinating cultural projects such as ‘The Grand Forbidden City Exhibition’, plus an accompanying multimedia drama at Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Chiu and Luk are also a huge influence on Asia’s next generation of designers. Perhaps the greatest accolade of all came with last year’s adoption of their Grand Map as an official Forbidden City Museum souvenir.