China Resources Group (CR) first established as ‘Liow & Co.’ in Hong Kong in 1938. Ranked 86 since 2017 on Fortune Global 500, China Resources Group owns 1987 business entities with more than 420,000 employees. The Group’s core businesses include consumer products, power, real estate, cement, gas, pharmaceuticals and finance. China Resources’s diversified businesses are built on a solid industrial foundation and market competitiveness and have been taking the leading roles within their fields. Around 500 exhibits were carefully selected from over 10 million items at the archives to mark every milestone in the history.

The main exhibition presents a chronological collection that demonstrates the company’s development and achievement in 8 decades. The main exhibition traces back to the company’s humble yet patriotic beginning at wartime to the complete transformation into a modern conglomerate. Instead of only concentrating on its achievements in the business world, the exhibition also demonstrates the social responsibilities, including the charities and projects initiated by China Resources group to solve poverty
in the country.

COO was involved in this project from the very beginning to its completion. The team has developed extensive contents with the client, carried out the concept and detailed design as well as supervised the construction. The overall exhibition design goes hand in hand with the architecture designed by an award-winning New-York-based architecture practice Link‑Arc. The modern design language of the architecture complements the elegance of the informative and sophisticated exhibition, resulting in a highly cultural space. Diverse display methods, including multimedia and interactive installations, are applied to present the impressive collection of historical documents, which accounts for the majority of the exhibits. The transition of materials from layers of rough-surfaced concrete to warm tone wood with delicate metal details represents the company’s transformation in history. The gradual shift of lighting from dark to bright brings out distinctive atmospheres in different spaces to match the narrative. The exhibition design makes sure that each detail in the space is designed to communicate the messages of the exhibition.

COO investigated and designed different ways to display documents and translating the enormous archive of information into tangible exhibits. China Resources Archives is not only a place to remember the past, but also to inspire a greater future together.