It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of our beloved Past President, Mr Edwin Wong, peacefully in Ruttonjee Hospital on 6 March 2025.
Edwin was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to Chinese immigrant parents. While still an 11-month old baby, he was brought back to China, where he spent the next 11 years in a small village near Guangzhou. According to his own narrative, a relative once showed him the picture in a magazine, of a chubby guy leisurely smoking a cigar with his feet propped on a table, which gave the little village boy a glimpse of the outside world and aroused in him the determination to break out from his isolation, to really get to know the world and to fathom the dynamics of events happening around it.
Returning to New Zealand, he grew up during the difficult post-war years, which imbued in him the obsession of inquiring into the causes, and the rights and wrongs of things happening around him. Such inclination in his interaction with human society became his personal strength. He went on to study architecture at the University of New Zealand, Wellington, where he earned his bachelor of architecture. Later, as a young architect, he devoted himself to injecting the spirit of professionalism into his work, which led him to avoid trusting anything, until he really had the opportunity to assess the actual situation. His advice was, “To understand the options we are going to take, we should thoroughly pursue their causes: this we should remember firmly in our hearts.”
Relocated to Hong Kong in the nineteen fifties, after working in the United Kingdom, he was offered a position in the Architectural Office, Public Works Department of the Hong Kong Government, now the ArchSD, where he worked until his retirement as Chief Architect in 1981. During his long career in civil service, he became known as the “Father of Hong Kong Hospitals”. Among his many healthcare projects, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which he designed and supervised to completion in 1963, stands out as the bright shining star for which he was awarded the bronze medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1963. It was then the largest and best hospital in the post-war British Commonwealth.
Over the years, Queen Elizabeth Hospital became the source of inspiration for the younger generation of architects and students. Its scale and complexity, the simplicity with which Edwin handled its massing and exterior façades, and the highly efficient external and internal circulation were admirable and reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s masterpiece, the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, France. In later life, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Academy of Design in 2015, in recognition of his lifelong contribution to architecture.
In 1964, he was awarded the silver medal, the highest accolade, by The Hong Kong Institute of Architects for Kowloon Hospital, which is of a lesser scale but displays the same meticulous planning and innovative treatment of architectural elements as its forerunner.
His other hospital projects include Princess Margaret Hospital, Kwai Chung Psychiatric Hospital, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Tuen Mun Hospital and Ruttonjee Hospital. The indoor sports stadium next to Hunghom Railway Station, the Hong Kong Coliseum, completed in 1981, is his other masterpiece that has served as Hong Kong’s prime site for mega events for decades. Based on simple geometry, it was the culmination of building technology available at the time and is a highly visible landmark on the eastern shore of Kowloon peninsula from Victoria Harbour.
Edwin served as HKIA President from 1985 to 1986, after his retirement from civil service, and devoted time and energy to the transition of HKIA in its emerging role as the regional pioneer in the advancement of the architectural profession, and in connecting the profession in mainland China with the world. The nineteen-eighties saw a boom in the local property market and infrastructure projects, boosted by China’s economic reforms and opening up. HKIA under Edwin’s leadership maintained its unique role as regulator of professional practice and in dealing with the public authorities on behalf of its members. His other legacy is his contribution in designing the HKIA logo, inspired by the traditional Chinese seal.
Friends and followers will remember Edwin as a humble person, mild in manners, straight-talking and earnest in conversation. His artistic talent and skill in integrating technologies with his design concepts inspired a generation of architects and still draw admiration whenever we look around for iconic symbols from the period in our urban landscape.
Edwin’s maxim:
"Across time, it is both natural and just that one's buildings last beyond our lifetimes.
So, let's please raise our glasses to the architects of yesterday, whose shelter and shade we enjoy today, and to our art of enclosing space forevermore."
With this, we will always remember him in our hearts and minds. Edwin is survived by two children, four grandchildren and wife Elizabeth Libby Wong CBE, ISO, JP. To them we offer our heartfelt condolences. May he rest in peace!
Funeral service will be held on Sunday 23 March, at 11:15 am, at Cape Collinson Crematorium, 9 Cape Collinson Road, Chai Wan, Hong Kong. Please complete this online form here no later than 23:59 on Thursday, 20 March.
President and Council
The Hong Kong Institute of Architects
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