Trained in architecture, Justin reconstructs spaces and events from memory, archives, and imagination. These works explore how form shapes our understanding of history, experience, and identity.
Currently, he’s working on Searching for Poon, a project that reconstructs the fading memories of his grandmother. Other projects include documenting histories surrounding a disappeared hill in Hong Kong during the late Song Dynasty, and a self-fiction centered around sightings of unidentified flying objects in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1997.
Past projects include New Territories, which challenges colonial narratives and notions of boundary through the changing landscapes of Northern Hong Kong; Urban Africa, Made in China documents Chinese development across Africa and explores its influence on the continent's urban future; Black Mountain, Red Earth chronicles the collapse of mining towns and the emergence of the multinational mining industry in the Zambian Copperbelt.
Justin is a registered architect in the State of Massachusetts. He works and lives in New York and Hong Kong.
Licensure
Registered Architect, State of Massachusetts
Education
University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Architecture
Masters of Science in Real Estate Investment and Finance, 2019
Cornell University, Department of Architecture
Bachelor of Architecture with Concentration in Theory of Architecture, 2011
Best Thesis Award
Select Experience
Herzog & de Meuron, Basel, 2011
Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, 2010
Select Exhibitions
Mega Family: Imagining Home, Hong Kong International Photo Festival, 2024
Hello Thank You Come In: 50th Anniversary Members Exhibition, Center for Book Arts, New York, 2024
Traces, Field Projects Gallery, New York, 2024
Africa and China: Actors, Methods, and Geopolitics in the Everyday, University of Padova, 2024
Space on Paper - Jimei x Arles Photography Chinese Contemporary Photobook Exhibition, Three Shadows Xiamen Art Photography Centre, Xiamen, 2023
Independent / Underground publications by Chinese-speaking Creators, Rehearsal Art Book Fair, New York, 2023
44:33 A Photographic Exhibition of 15 Global Photographers, Fujifilm House of Photography, London, 2023
18th Venice Architecture Biennale - Hong Kong Pavilion, Venice, 2022
Fujifilm GFX Challenge Grant Exhibition, Fujifilm Square, Tokyo, 2022
Hong Kong International Photo Festival Satellite Exhibitions, 2022
International Symposium of Visual Culture, CICA Museum, Seoul 2022
Art of Revealing Nature, Ocean Table x Perrier-Jouet, Hong Kong, 2022
To be Continued, Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong, 2021
At Last Light: Justin Hui x Jaakko Sorsa, Miss No Order, Hong Kong, 2021
Africa-China Journalists Forum & Photo Exhibition, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2018
UABB Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture Exhibition, Hong Kong, 2014
Select Grants and Awards
Working Assumptions Project Grantee, 2024
Hong Kong Art Development Council Publication Grant, 2023
Fujifilm GFX Challenge Grant Award, 2021
Prix de la Photographie Paris PX3, Silver in Other/Feature Story, 2021
Royal Geographic Society John McDermott Photography Competition, First Place, 2017
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Research Grant, 2015
Eidlitz Travel Fellowship, Cornell University, 2014
Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Medal for Best Thesis, Cornell University, 2012
Piranesi: An Interpretation of the Prison Series Design Competition, First Place, 2010
Cornell University Edwin E. Seipp Memorial Design Competition, First Place, 2008
NOMA National Student Design Team Competition, First Place, 2008
Select Publications
Searching for Poon, 2024
New Territories, 2022, published by Asia One
Select Lectures
“Black Mountain, Red Earth”, Doctalks x MoMA Fall Program, The Ambasz Institute, Museum of Modern Art, 2023, New York
Artist Talk, Brooklyn Photography Talk, 2023, New York
“Visualizing China Africa”, Africa-China Journalists Forum, University of Witwatersrand, 2023, Johannesburg
“Fluid Ground - Stories of Transformation”, 18th International Architecture Exhibition-La Biennale di Venezia, 2023, Venice
“Temporal and Spatial Dynamics in the Urban History of Hong Kong”, Department of History and Chinese, City University of Hong Kong, 2023
“Rethinking Territory along the Northern Border”, Society for Hong Kong Studies and WMA, 2023, Hong Kong
“Between Landscapes”, Division of Landscape Architecture, University of Hong Kong, 2023,
“Beyond Drawings: Fieldwork from Urban Africa”, ARCH 5110/6110 Advanced Architectural Design Studio, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2023
“Searching for Poon Book Launch”, HART Haus, 2022, Hong Kong
“New Territories,” Asia One Photography Book Talk and Fair, 2022, Hong Kong
“Framing Territories: Beyond Memories and Ruins 定格焦點以外的界限”, KUBRICK, 2022, Hong Kong
“Image Making and Re-Enactment: Beyond Territories and Boundaries 徜徉畛域：斷章的流動與再現”, Kino Cinema, 2022, Hong Kong
“New Territories”, Re-injecting Purpose into Real Estate - Northern Metropolis, Urban Land Institute, 2022, Hong Kong
“Exploring different ways of using photography: a talk with HKIPF 2022 Satellite Exhibitors”, November 12, 2022, Hong Kong
“Meet the Mind,” invited speaker as part of Global Shapers Program, World Economic Forum, April 24, 2022, Hong Kong
“From Africa to Hong Kong: Thinking through Images”, University of Hong Kong Division of Landscape Architecture, 2022, Hong Kong
“Decoding Visual Structures in Photography”, The International Symposium for Visual Culture (ISVC), 2022, Seoul
“Urban Africa and its Culture of Re-appropriation”, Vulnerabilities and Power Relations in China’s Engagement in the Global South, Finnish Society for Development Research, 2022, Helsinki
“Architecture Cook Along”, Asia-Pacific Leadership Conference, Cornell University, 2021, Hong Kong
“Black Mountain, Red Earth”, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Landscape Architecture, 2021, Hong Kong
“China’s World Cities”, Transfer: Diffusions and Mobilities in the Built Landscapes of Asia and Beyond, University of Hong Kong Department of Architecture, 2019
“Visualizing China-Africa: Directions in Photography and Perspective”, Africa-China Journalists Forum, University of Witwatersrand, 2018, Johannesburg
“Urban Africa, Made in China”, China-Africa in Global Comparative Perspective, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 2018, Brussels
“Africa-China: Mapping an Emergent Axis”, Architecture, Urban, and Humanities Initiative (AUHI), The University of Hong Kong, 2017