SOCIAL CONTENT

Architectural Series is a love letter to Hong Kong’s bygone cotton era.

A brand story told through the architecture and folklore of the Hong Kong textile boom.

The Mills was once a textile factory.

The Mills was once a cluster of cotton spinning factories owned by Nan Fung Group.

At the height of the textile business in the 1970s, the industry employed over 40% of the working population. By the late 1990s, the industry had migrated to mainland China; these mills stopped production and sat idle as warehouses.

In 2015, Nan Fung Group began work on the revitalisation project.

Branding through architecture.

A brand can express itself through many touchpoints.

For The Mills, its factory windows, green walls, and oversized steel columns serve more purpose than structure. They are symbolic of the brand values and narrate Hong Kong’s rich textile legacy

Meet The New Breed.

With an avant garde art museum, eclectic cafes, and funky local mercantile, The Mills is where the Post-90’s generation do their thing:

They aren’t regular restaurant goers…. They are foodie Instagrammers.

They aren’t regular clothes shoppers…. They are fashion bloggers.

They aren’t regular sight-seers…. They are Airbnb experience hosts.

They aren’t regular museum-goers…. They are art podcasters.

Deep dive into a bygone era.

It’s next to impossible to tell an interesting story with just an empty building, no matter how visually striking. The key was research, research, research. We interviewed octogenarian textile workers to uncover anecdotes and legends of the glorious industrial past of Hong Kong.

Did you know?

Hong Kong was once the cotton spinning capital of the world. Women formed the backbone of the industry, and were the primary economic engine of the city.

The Nan Fung cotton mills were more than factories. They also housed dormitories and canteens, providing respite from the hard work.

Building as metaphor.

Glass wall and skylight open the path to new ideas

Breaking down walls and bridging gaps to inculcate a new movement

Reinforcing original columns and exposing worn walls to reinvent what will push us into the future

Excavating the past.

We combed through antique markets to source the exact model of transistor radio popular amongst textile workers. We tracked down a vintage toy specialist for 1960s handmade lanterns that lit up the factories during harvest festivals.

The story of The Mills lives in these details.