Culture with Permanence
Culture preserves how a community understands itself and shapes the ways in which memory, knowledge and values pass between generations. As a public asset, it connects identity, education, creativity and social resilience; every generation inherits it and, in time, passes it on. SIG Group Holding therefore measures cultural practice by the depth of its scholarship, the completeness of its outcomes and their value for future use. This is the principle behind Culture with Permanence: every cultural undertaking should withstand professional scrutiny, leave behind a clear and complete body of work that others can use, and continue to evolve across projects and settings until it forms an enduring cultural model.
Cultural Work Begins Out of Sight
An exhibition or cultural space is often the first outcome the public sees. The work that gives it substance begins long before the opening. Historical records and images must be organised; the provenance, date and context of each work must be verified; objects and oral accounts must be gathered; and institutions must repeatedly reconcile their terminology, narratives and approaches to display. Much of this takes place away from the spotlight, yet it determines whether cultural content is accurate, credible and fit for future reference.
SIG treats research as the starting point of cultural practice, giving each project firm foundations from the outset. Every source must first be understood in the conditions that produced it before it can be explained to a new audience. Across languages, the task is to preserve concepts, emotions and historical position as well as literal meaning. Interpretation therefore reaches beyond translation: it finds a form of expression that remains faithful to the original while allowing the culture to enter another society.
Once the research is complete, a project must still pass through curatorial definition, academic review, copyright and compliance checks, the organisation of collections and content, educational design and final archiving. Completing this entire path matters more than the attention a project attracts in the short term. SIG's cultural capability rests first on this insistence upon detail and completeness.
Preservation and renewal are two sides of the same practice. Preservation respects the original context; renewal finds a contemporary use for knowledge. Clear interpretative boundaries must remain between them, ensuring that every new form of presentation stays true to the material itself. This sense of measure is central to earning lasting trust in cultural work.
Gaudí as a Living Body of Knowledge
Antoni Gaudí offers the fullest introduction to SIG's cultural method. Its attention rests on the way knowledge takes shape behind the work. At Colònia Güell, the inverted catenary model allowed gravity to participate directly in the design process; nature, structure, aesthetics, craft and faith unfolded together through experiment, each testing the others. Heritage emerges here as both a preserved work and a method that can still be read, studied and put to use.
The Gaudí Research Centre (GRC), advanced by SIG founder Shelley Tsang, was established to sustain this living body of knowledge. Building on an existing academic network and a substantial legacy of Gaudí scholarship, the Centre is registered in the Civil Society Organizations System of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Its work brings together documents, models, architectural thought and educational material, allowing specialist research to enter new academic, technological and public settings.
The Gaudí World Congress in Shanghai created a dialogue between Chinese and Western architecture. The Gaudí Digital Museum turns architectural history and structural principles into material that can be viewed and questioned, while AI opens further paths to understanding. Each medium serves a distinct purpose: research protects the accuracy of knowledge; technology broadens access; education enables public understanding; and publishing and archives preserve the outcomes long after an event has ended. Gaudí has therefore become a model through which SIG's wider cultural method can be tested over time.
Civilisational Dialogue Requires Precise Interpretation
Gaudí provides the method; other cultural projects test how well it travels between civilisations. The International Castles and Palaces Society (ICAPS) brings the conservation traditions of Eastern and Western palaces, including the Forbidden City and Versailles, into a shared discussion. The Southeast Asia Cultural Hub (SEACH) examines the diverse ethnic traditions, religions and intangible cultural heritage of Nanyang. An exhibition of Chinese intangible cultural heritage at Casa Batlló, a World Heritage Site in Barcelona, placed Eastern craftsmanship within a Western architectural setting.
The challenge lies in creating a relationship through which two cultures can understand one another. Bringing Chinese intangible cultural heritage into Casa Batlló requires careful attention to the provenance of each work, its craft traditions, the spatial narrative, expression in other languages and the ways local audiences encounter it. International discussions of palace conservation must likewise find common language across different historical systems, approaches to restoration and contemporary patterns of use. Once these differences are expressed clearly, civilisational dialogue can take practical form and move beyond gestures of goodwill.
The process also calls for constant judgement: which material requires its full scholarly depth, which background needs to be explained afresh, and which ideas must retain their original precision and complexity. SIG works with scholars, creators and institutions to establish the right register, allowing culture to be understood as it travels while retaining its own position in a new setting.
From academic discussions on Chinese culture at Sciences Po and exchanges with the Musée Cernuschi, to helping the National Museum of China bring in an exhibition from France, SIG has developed a practical capacity for collaboration across institutions. This involves understanding the standards of each party, organising appropriate content, coordinating scholars, artists and public institutions, and turning the material left by a public presentation into knowledge that remains useful afterwards. Cultural exchange thus creates an encounter while steadily laying the foundations for long-term collaboration.
Knowledge Must Become an Experience People Can Use
Cultural research fulfils its purpose as a public asset when it travels beyond specialist circles. SIG therefore considers how different people can use knowledge: architectural research can become digital content and educational tools; cultural heritage can enter urban public space; and collections, film and publishing can form an enduring and accessible system of memory.
The Gaudí-themed public leisure park along Chengdu's urban greenway is one example. It translates architectural thought from research into a place where residents can walk, pause and experience it every day. The project demonstrates how cultural interpretation can change the way knowledge is used. When specialist knowledge shapes scale, circulation and everyday experience, heritage becomes an approachable part of public life.
Digital museums, AI art projects, publishing houses and research archives address another form of access. Technology opens specialist knowledge to more people, while publishing and archiving preserve a traceable record of a temporary encounter. Together, different media complete the same path: research turns material into knowledge; interpretation turns knowledge into experience; and experience becomes an educational resource and part of institutional memory.
Permanence Begins with Continuity
Culture with Permanence ultimately establishes a responsible way of working. Every project should follow the full course of research, interpretation, practice, delivery and archiving, leaving a clear record of its sources, methods and outcomes. Those who follow can then understand where the knowledge came from and continue its development under new conditions.
The cultural influence sought by SIG is measured by a small number of enduring questions: whether research has changed the way the public understands culture; whether its outcomes can enter educational, urban and institutional practice; and whether a single project has strengthened the network of collaboration around it. When cultural material is accurately organised, understood afresh and passed responsibly to the next generation, it moves beyond any one exhibition or individual and becomes a public capacity that can continue to grow and respond to the future.