A front-row seat to innovation

The Pathways Project: In 2023 we are looking at the career pathways members of the Inhabit team have taken within our industry and their advice to those starting out on their careers. This week we interviewed a colleague in Canada.

CK Dickson Wong,

Senior Associate, Toronto, Canada

While the Master of Architecture program at MIT’s School of Architecture + Planning was tough, CK Dickson Wong found it gave him a front row seat to witness the technological leaps that became indispensable in the AEC field in the years to come.

Originally from Hong Kong, Dickson studied high school in British Columbia and then architecture at Canada’s McGill University. “I was interested in visual art and maths when I was young. Architecture seemed like a good combination/ compromise at the time. But as I got further into it, I became fascinated by how our built environment influences the well-being of those who dwell within it,” he said.

Dickson then transferred to MIT’s School of Architecture + Planning (to which the MIT Media Lab also belonged). “Small though the school was at the time, it was and still is at the forefront of a number of exciting research topics such as digital fabrication, automation, mass-customization, self-assembly and origami, many of which ended up having lasting impacts on the profession,” he said.

He then landed a six-month internship at one of the world’s most famous architecture practices, Foster + Partners. “I was based in London at the time and the project I worked on was in Abu Dhabi. It was a great experience – I was working as my team’s contact point with their in-house computational designers (the Smart Geometry Group), who developed computational tools and protocols for buildings like 30 St. Mary Axe (nicknamed The Gherkin), the Smithsonian Institution Courtyard etc. What they were doing was pioneering in the field and I was very fortunate to have witnessed that in person, albeit only briefly.”

In 2008 Dickson returned to work as an architect in Hong Kong: “The registration process was rather smooth for me, all things considered. The only difficulty was that the exams were held once a year and we had to take all 9 papers (one of them was 8 hours long) in one go!”

In 2012 Dickson joined Inhabit in 2012 to specialised in fa?ades. “Perhaps because of my skillset at the time I was often asked to work on fa?ade design at the architectural offices I worked for. I started to see fa?ade consultancy as an alternative way to practice architecture – one that I feel comfortable with.”

?Dickson has overseen numerous high-end, large-scale and complex projects from concept through to construction. He developed extensive knowledge and experience in multiple disciplines related to fa?ade design and construction of a vast range of building types, collaborating with world-renowned architects and internationally established developers.

Leveraging his knowledge of computational tools, Dickson led computational design initiatives within Inhabit’s Hong Kong practice while developing unconventional, tailor-made fa?ade solutions to a number of significant projects. He has been invited to publish these solutions in major international conference proceedings in the field. Dickson also served as a regular architectural design critic at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2021 he was promoted to Senior Associate.

?After 10 years at Inhabit, Dickson was given the opportunity to set up Inhabit’s practice in Canada whilst still continuing to support the Hong Kong team, projects and clients remotely. ?“I am grateful and honoured to be given the opportunity. My day-to-day routine here has been very different from when I was in Hong Kong. I spend a lot of time charting the landscape of the AEC market in Ontario, which means getting acquainted with and listening to architects, building scientists, developers, and contractors; telling the Inhabit story and identifying areas of expertise where we can contribute.

“Through this experience – challenging though it has been at times -?I have been learning, gaining new perspectives and meeting some extraordinary architectural and engineering minds,” he said.?