In 2010, the World Expo will open in Shanghai. One of the major attractions of the Shanghai Expo will be the abundance of new forms of architecture as seen on the pavilions of participating countries and regions.

The Expo provides Hong Kong an opportunity to showcase our city's charms, quality of life, and to promote our creative industries. Such aspirations are embodied in the concept design of "Pavilion of Infinity".

I have always thought of architecture, quite simply, as art applied to the science of living. I believe that architecture defines our social environment and provides the very core of our civic pride.

When I look at any city, what do I see first as its most distinctive feature if not its architecture? How can I think of New York without seeing its Empire State Building, London without its Houses of Parliament, Paris without its Eiffel Tower, Sydney without its Opera House, Shanghai without its Bund or the Forbidden City without its Imperial Palace?

Throughout history, architecture, as the mother of all arts, has given us the apparatus of our existence, the framework within which we have developed our distinctive cultures that have included our religious beliefs and spiritual traditions. We built our architectural monuments to last, and many were used to glorify our gods. Their ruins enshrine our collective memories. These great milestones of architecture have marked our successive civilizations from the Dunhuang Cave of China to the Pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, from the Acropolis of Athens to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. And the very age of those antiquities testifies to the fact that architecture is man's most enduring achievement, living on long after the epochs that gave birth to its creations.

Architects, as spatial artists who turn spaces into forms, bear a huge responsibility to our individual societies - a responsibility not to be taken lightly, for its consequences may well outlive their authors.

The architect has to think in many dimensions. At one level he works within the restraints of a given space, taking into account the logistical requirements and the purpose for which that space is intended. Here he must tackle the purely measurable expanse in terms of height, floor area, plot ratio and widths.

Beyond that is a fourth dimension, or what I might term the virtual space that will impart the character of the whole. Virtual space is a spiritual space, a cultural space. This type of space creates an environment of expression, reflection, enlightenment, glorification, appreciation and celebration of life. Here the architect ventures across physical boundaries into the metaphysical realm of the extra-sensory that will shape the very soul of his construct.

In this he is not alone. Every great architect throughout history has pondered the question "If these stones can speak, what will they say? What do I wish them to say?" That timeless question remains with us no matter how far we pursue our new trends in architecture.

Is there such a thing as international architecture? Certainly there are international architects, whose works are spread all over the world. Perhaps this great extra-territorial globe we all inhabit is becoming so homogenized that what might suit Berlin or Buenos Aires would not look out of place in Singapore or Tokyo.

But I would hope that architects continue to take account of the cultures of those cities that commission their works, so that what is there already has a bearing on what they seek to impose, which in turn will re-invigorate the ethos of its citizens and influence their future civic development.

The author is former secretary for home affairs of the Hong Kong SAR government

(HK Edition 12/23/2009 page1)