This month's Architecture is Art Festival, being held to mark the 20th birthday of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, encompasses a diverse programme of theatre performances, music, talks, opera, photography and exhibitions – all centred on architecture as an artistic expression. The event's artistic director Here Mathias Woo shares his view of the world's purest architectural structures.|

Credit: James Farmer

Regardless of the wishes of her parents for her to study medicine, Margaret Leung embraced business studies and told herself she could overcome the unknown.

In May, Margaret Leung Ko May-yee  moved from HSBC to Hang Seng Bank as vice chairman and chief executive and she has quickly adapted to the culture of the bank.

“With around 9,000 staff at Hang Seng, I enjoy the closer bonding with my team here," says Leung who  plans to meet all of them over time. She has a great vision for the bank. Many see her as the ideal successor to Raymond Or Ching-fai, as she is capable of  maintaining corporate protocol while motivating  management to perform better.

She says Sir William Purves [former Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp group chairman] was the leader who most inspired her. "He was always available, motivating and friendly, to achieve what he wanted from the government, authorities and colleagues."

Her announcement of the bank's earnings last month, shows her understanding of  Hang Seng's current standing. "It has clearly reflected our strong roots in Hong Kong.  The stress on interest rates has affected our deposit levels, which is being shared acrosss the sector.  We are fortunate enough  to have a substantial deposit base which enables us to quickly pull ourselves back together."

“I never had a plan,’’ says Mathias Woo Yan-wai. The celebrated cultural critic is discussing art, architecture and about making the system work.

One might expect Woo to march into a room briskly, with a clipboard in one hand and a megaphone in the other ready to sound off. The artistic director of experimental theatre company Zuni Icosahedron has never been shy to give his views -- on Hong Kong and various other disenchantments – and has been delivering his thoughts to audiences for the past two decades. Now he is set on waking Hong Kong up to the fact that architecture, his first love and the field he studied, should not be the staggeringly high-dollar business it has become. Through the new Architecture is Art festival being held this month in conjunction with the Hong Kong Government to highlight 20  years of Tsim Sha Tsui's cultural centre, Woo aims, with the help of some A-list celebrities, a clutch of Zuni performances and talks and exhibitions, to highlight an oft-forgotten era of architecture that he measures in purity rather than the cash it cost or made.