Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Thomas Tsang
2026-2027
Home institution
The University of Hong Kong, HK
Country of origin (home institution)
Hong Kong SAR China
Discipline(s)
Arts and arts studies; Urban and architectural studies
Theme(s)
Identity; Visual Arts
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Thomas Tsang is Associate Dean (Impact and Communications) for the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong (HK). Thomas founded dehowprojects, a practice that investigates architecture and performance environments, informed by codified conventional practices and resolved by scaffolding experiments drawing on broader histories, narratives, and spatial-material traditions. His currently ongoing research projects include Sounding Architecture (2016–), Soundtecture (2019–), Archaeological Performance (2019–), and Prophecy of Furnitures (2020–).
Thomas' distinguished contributions to education and the arts have been celebrated through numerous accolades, including the Marion O. & Maximilian E. Hoffman Rome Prize, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, and both the HKU Outstanding Teaching Award and the Faculty Teaching Award in Architecture, both received in 2024. His leadership is further recognized through a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (IT) and a Universitas 21 Fellowship at the National University of Singapore (SG), 2025–2026, and at the University of Zurich (CH), 2026–27.
Research Project
Schools within School
What if we could use vibrating walls and floors to listen to our own bodily reactions in the absence of sound? Thomas Tsang's project explores material hearing—the ability to comprehend the world not just by ear, but through the body's contact with its surroundings.
Tables and chairs, for instance, serve as reminders of the body's dimensions and of a standardizing culture. Thomas refers to these interactions as "sounding": a process of learning about the world before taking any action, engaging with it through writing, drawing, and listening.
This inquiry informs School within the Schools, a direct and constructive response to the ongoing streamlining of humanities-based knowledge within larger, efficiency-driven university structures. When this core is diminished, architectural education risks becoming purely technical training, losing its capacity to critically engage with society's complex narratives and to imagine meaningful, responsive spaces. The project asks how artistic practice can preserve ambiguity, "add mystery," and ethically frame the "unknown" in an era of data-driven certainty.
Research Interests:
material hearing; knowledge; sound