From landmark architecture to everyday space

Our understanding of “cultural infrastructure” is usually the landmark architecture like the museum or the opera house, such as this case of the Lincoln Centre in New York City. Built in the 1960s, it is a grand structure sitting on the high plinth as a “cultural palace”, which is isolated from the urban context and…

Space+ Community Festival

Jan 7-15 2023 | Public space tactical urbanism | for VeryHK Space+ Festival Design according to user and activity needs, the Tin Shui Plaza is transformed into a playground for leisure and action. Adopting the pallet+box modules built by the CUHK architecture team, the Urban Collaboratives Place-makers created information booths, a stage, way-finding graphics and…

Curiosity Cabinet of Gendered Object

Nov-Dec 2022 | Participatory Installation in collaboration with Veera Fung as Atelier In. | as part of deTour HK 2022 "Design As One" The setting of our home speaks about who we are, full of curious objects with embedded meanings that are often taken for granted. Household items like an ironing board or a cooking…

design(ing) for change

Fall 2022/23 | cuhk SoA public lecture series design(ing) for change: Global Framework. Local Implementation. Global frameworks such as the UNSDG and the New Urban Agenda bring awareness to pressing urban issues and align actors across different sectors and geography. However, how to ground these concepts with implementation in practice remains to be a challenge…

Her Place Her Say: empowering women through design

summer 2022 | A design workshop for women to develop gender-inclusive design thinking skills | Community Partner: Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centre | as part of Atelier In with Ms. Veera Fung Her Place Her Say is a (public space) design workshop series that aims to develop creative problem-solving skills for underprivileged women. Through…

TechBox: Space

Jan 2022 | Creative workshop with theatre students on Space Design | co-curated by School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts of HKAPA and WKCD Freespace | Collaborator: Artist Pak Sheung-Cheun About TechBox: a four four-year collaborative platform established between Freespace and the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing…

Culture as Shared Experience (Performance in Public Space)

Lecture for cuhk SoA elective 5731A - Architecture and Cultural Practice Before we begin this week's discussion on performance in urban space, it would be helpful to revisit the two types of cultural participation based on the distinctive role of cultural producer (performer) and cultural consumer (audience). Typical participatory art invite the audience "to join"…

Cultural Participation and its Agency

Lecture for cuhk SoA elective 5731A - Architecture and Cultural Practice Cultural architecture is a container of public and cultural activities. The previous discussion on the idea of place in urban planning demonstrated a return of cultural institutions to focus on public engagement in recent decades. As civil awareness arise and state cultural budget decline,…

The Idea of Place in Urban Planning

Lecture for cuhk SoA elective 5731A - Architecture and Cultural Practice The previous session laid out an overview of our investigation that positions Cultural Architecture as not just an object. An important concept embedded in it is the idea of Place - besides the physical environment, it is the intangible memory for individuals or collective…

Cultural architecture is not a building

Lecture 1+2 for cuhk SoA elective 5731A - Architecture and Cultural Practice This image reminds us of period drama set in 19th century Europe, where many scenes of courting and socialization were happening in the theatre while the performance was a mere backdrop. At that time cultural activities were the few public occasion for people…