Shiu-Kay Kan

Shiu-Kay Kan (born 1951) is a British architect, industrial designer, lighting designer and designer of lights. After making a successful start as an architect in the 1980s he turned his attention to designing lights. He has sold his design to some clients (e.g. House of Fraser, Habitat or Ikea).

Biography

Shiu-Kay was born in Hong-Kong, before moving to Edinburgh and studied at Telford College of Arts and Technology. In 1969 he went to the Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster) to study architecture. In 1974 he wrote his thesis paper on building architecture out of waste, and in 1976 he received his RIBA qualification.

In the 1970s, Kan spent his early career as an architect working for Sir Norman Foster on Hong Kong HQ of HSBC and SAPA. He also worked for Nicholas Grimshaw and Terry Farrell on public housing. He then went to Milan to pursue a career as a designer and had a brief stint as a 3D designer for the fashion house Fiorucci. He was denied a job for Flos Lighting, so he went back to London to start his own company SKK Lighting in 1979 in Belsize Village NW London. He has been Managing Director since then. In the 1990s SKK moved to Islington and settled in Soho, London.