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Hong Kong is a city shaped by making, adapting, and moving forward.

We build, test, adjust, and evolve—often all at once. In Hong Kong, design is rarely about starting from a blank page. It is about working with what we have, responding to what changes, and finding a better way forward.

“BETTER, NOT PERFECT” embraces this spirit.

It is an invitation to see design as an ongoing process—where progress is not measured by perfection, but by our willingness to rethink, refine, and try again.

In a city defined by density, speed, and constant change, ideas are shaped through negotiation with everyday reality. An object can work a little better. A system can become more thoughtful. A space can feel more welcoming, inclusive, or simply easier to live with.

Small changes can make a meaningful difference.

These are not grand visions of a perfect future.
They are acts of practical optimism.

deTour 2026 explores how ideas move from possibility into everyday life—becoming the tools, systems, experiences, and solutions that may shape how we live next.

From speculative tools and adaptive materials to social design, digital rituals, urban interventions, and immersive experiences, the festival brings together different ways of thinking and making—physical and virtual, analogue and AI-assisted.

Some ideas may be experimental. Some may still be evolving. Others may simply ask us to look again at something familiar.

What connects them is the belief that design does not need to offer a perfect answer. It can begin with a question, a prototype, an adjustment—and the willingness to make something better than it was before.

In an increasingly complex world, perhaps progress does not always need to mean more.

Sometimes, better is enough to begin.

deTour 2026 celebrates design as an ongoing conversation between people, place, and possibility.

Not perfect. In progress. Together.

—Shin Wong, Curator-at-Large

Curated by Aron Tsang & Wesley Ho

From an everyday object +1 idea, we begin by observing and studying an ordinary object or scenario which triggers a spark of a new idea or a question. That question invites an addition of a new element to disrupt or even re-invent the object’s original nature, usage, or purpose.

At first, many concepts may seem insignificant, even humorous or nonsensical. Yet tiny, early thoughts can become the seed of something transformative, shaping how people learn to imagine, test, and build.

It starts as a concept which is then tested through tactile and physical means to bring it to life, from research and early prototyping to iterations that translate thinking into tangible outcomes. The process is not limited by form or scale, spanning jewellery, tableware, furniture, and even urban infrastructure. Each project is steered by a concept or question that demands a response which potentially becomes a solution to a problem or an innovation.

Rather than creating entirely new “subjects” to act on, THE CONCEPT LAB grows ideas in the mind through research and thinking for experimentation and exploration. Prototypes here are treated as methods, with each version refining the concept, reshaping the interface with users, and distilling the answers through questions.

THE CONCEPT LAB is positioned as a development engine—an exhibition where early thinking is given form, where testing is made visible, and where design demonstrates its capacity to influence rather than simply decorate.

Curated by Dennis Cheung

These works are not prototypes of form. They are prototypes of a new standard—evidence of +1 iteration: finished proof that “better” can be held, used, and trusted. Gathered here are furniture, lighting, ceramics, and surface objects born from sustained revision: long cycles where every joint, proportion, surface, and performance metric records a decision refined through repeated testing. Remove one element, and the argument collapses. This is load-bearing thought made tangible. Look for the seam where a decision met its test.

Each piece is a conclusion in a longer investigation. Where THE CONCEPT LAB poses questions, these objects respond. These makers do not chase trends; they chase resolution through extended research, advancing technique incrementally until the object can bear its own logic. Working against the velocity of the fast commercial world, many begin with what the city has already discarded—foam, paper, soil, found objects—and, through long research, translate material into new standards of use. They treat sustainability not as a veneer, but as the inevitable outcome of respecting matter over time. Their process is slow not by indulgence, but by necessity: genuine quality demands deliberation, and every technical advancement is earned only through repetition.

THE IRL FIELD is a collection of objects and processes that carry the weight of their own becoming. In a city built on speed, this evidence insists that the most radical act is not to start anew, but to stay with the problem until the material finally speaks back.

Curated by Chilai Howard

The future is often imagined as a place of efficiency—faster systems, smarter devices, better solutions. Yet in our pursuit of problem‑solving, something essential is frequently overlooked: emotion. THE FUTURE TRACK proposes a different direction for future design. Rather than focusing solely on fixing what is broken, this exhibition asks: How can design help us feel differently about life? How can it expand our imagination?

The featured works move beyond functional improvement, transforming familiar, everyday objects into unexpected forms and purposes. A standard product becomes something poetically unfamiliar, a practical tool becomes playful, a routine interaction becomes a moment of curiosity. These gestures may not directly solve urgent daily problems, but they open new possibilities of perception—and that shift in perception is where real change begins.

We live in an era where innovation is often measured by productivity and optimisation. Yet the true future of design is not only technological—it is emotional. It resides in works that invite us to pause, question, smile, and rethink our assumptions about utility and value.

The designers and inventors in THE FUTURE TRACK reimagine the ordinary, challenging fixed functions and blurring boundaries between art, design, and invention. Their projects demonstrate that creativity is not confined to efficiency; it thrives in ambiguity, play, and reinterpretation. By reshaping everyday objects into new narratives, they reveal that the future is not a distant destination—it is an attitude towards possibility.

THE FUTURE TRACK does not aim to predict what life will look like; it seeks to expand how life might resonate. The true future is not built solely through solutions—it is shaped by imagination.