Founder, Laboratory of Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd.

Kristof Crolla

A/Prof. Dr. Ir. Arch. Kristof Crolla is a Belgian architect who combines his architecture practice Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. (LEAD) with an Associate Professorship at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches in the Master of Architecture, directs the Bachelor of Arts & Science Design+ programme and founded the Building Simplexity Laboratory (BSL) research unit. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Ghent University in 2003, he practiced in Belgium and designed his first built project, House for an Artist. He moved to London in 2005 where he trained and taught at the Architectural Association (AA) and worked for many years as Lead Architect for the Pritzker prize winning for Zaha Hadid Architects. In 2010, he moved to Hong Kong where his work focusses on the strategic implementation of computation in architectural design practice. This work has been extensively exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and led him to receive over thirty international design, research, and teaching awards, including the G-Mark (Japan), Architizer A+ (USA) Awards and the 2016 World Architectural Festival Award – Small Project of the Year 2016. In 2018, he completed his PhD studies at RMIT, Melbourne, for which received the 2016 RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research. In 2019, he was appointed by the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) as a Task Force Expert Member – Bamboo Construction. He is best known for projects ‘Golden Moon (Hong Kong, 2012)’, ‘ZCB Bamboo Pavilion (Hong Kong, 2015)’, and ‘YEZO (Japan, 2020)’