Elaine Yan Ling Ng

Elaine Yan Ling Ng, nicknamed the ‘techno fairy’ by Elle Deco, is the founder of The Fabrick Lab, which brings together textiles, electronics, biomimicry, interiors, and installations. A British Chinese materialologist, Ng graduated from Central Saint Martins in London, where she earned her MA Design in Textile Futures with distinction. An alumna of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Management in Leadership, she is also a TED Fellow.

Ng has been recognised globally by multiple design awards, including AD100 The Game Changer by AD Italia, The Influencer by INDE. Awards, as well as the Design Anthology Emerging Talent Award, GGEF Eco Innovator Award, Swarovski’s Designers of the Future Award, and Tatler’s Gen. T Award. She has worked with Nissan Design Europe and Nokia Design Beijing, and is one of the top 50 brightest connectors, creative visionaries, influential innovators, and disruptive talents in Hong Kong. In 2023, Elaine received a Harper’s BAZAAR Visionary Women Award, and in 2024 she was appointed as a Design Council Expert by the Design Council, the national strategic advisor for design in the United Kingdom.

In 2020, Ng was appointed Nature Squared’s Chief Material Innovator, with a mission to turn waste from shells and materials such as abandoned termite nests, grass, seeds, and even stones, into sustainable construction material, using the example of biowaste in the medical industry. In 2021, her collection of wall tiles made from recycled eggshells, CArrelé for Nature Squared, was shortlisted in the homeware design category of Dezeen Awards 2021 and won the public vote with 31 percent.

In 2024, Elaine created Phantasmagoria for The Macallan House in Hong Kong. The interactive installation that features LED panels, print recyclable transparent polycarbonate modules, and 3,000 unique handmade petals draws upon movement surrounding the sculpture to create an undulating flow, echoing the changing colours of whisky as it is distilled. 

Curiosity

My curiosity begins with heritage and echoes of the past—how things were made, preserved, or moved. Conservation and movement ignite new questions. Seeing and dreaming intertwine, guiding my hands and mind. Through each thread, I chase futures of making shaped by memory, emotion, and a desire to reimagine.