Inter-School Trash Picking Competition
Everywhere, Hong Kong
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The initiative was undertaken to raise awareness of the vital work of street cleaners in maintaining urban cleanliness. High school students across Hong Kong were engaged in a series of design workshops, fostering an understanding of the challenges faced by these essential workers. Students explored innovative solutions to alleviate the physical and environmental burdens of street cleaning, culminating in the "Inter-School Trash Picking Competition" where they showcased their prototype designs.
Context:
The project emerged amidst a public outcry against proposed policies that would have significantly increased the difficulty in waste collection and hence workload of frontline street cleaners. Recognising the potential strain on these essential workers, the project shifted its focus to alleviating their physical and emotional burdens. This initiative evolved into a broader advocacy effort, supporting the rights of working-class individuals by advocating for improved working conditions and access to appropriate equipment.
Concept:
A series of four design workshops guided students in creating innovative and functional street cleaning tools. Utilizing discarded materials, objects, and equipment found within their own schools, students transformed these items into unique cleaning prototypes. Each school developed its own distinct approach, informed by student observations and the creative repurposing of salvaged materials. The culminating "Inter-School Trash Picking Competition" provided a dynamic platform for students to demonstrate the functionality and ingenuity of their designs.
Process:
Culminating in a series of playful demonstrations, each school showcased their innovative street cleaning tool designs. This "carnival" of activities not only served to test the functionality, agility, and usability of the prototypes but also fostered a deeper understanding of and empathy for the challenges faced by street cleaners.
Stimulation:
Hundreds of potential upcycle design outcomes made from objects and materials salvaged from the schools are generated through the help of visual artificial intelligence Midjourney, enabling students to imagine and foresee potential future of their ideas into actual products for the street cleaners in the city.
Production:
At the end of each workshop series, each school will accumulate a few new street cleaning tool designs and of course empathy and knowledge towards street cleaners. These prototypes will be tested through a carnival of demonstrative games, to prove the functionality, agility and usability of the tools designed.
Students from 12 secondary schools took part in a six-session learning journey, spanning design thinking workshops and conversations with ESG practitioners. Nearly 200 students will step beyond the classroom and into the streets of Sham Shui Po, becoming one day street cleaners as part of the Inter-School Trash Picking Competition. For students, this is a shift in position, from observers to participants, from learning about the city to engaging with it directly. Through physical action and close contact with the neighbourhood, empathy is formed through experience, and new connections with the community quietly emerge.
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Client:
Nan Fung Development, Good Date Institute 約好學院
Occasion:
In Time Of 世界之約
Typology:
Industrial Design, Community Workshop
Status:
Complete
Location:
Across Hong Kong (Workshops), Maple Street Playground (Competition)
Participating Schools:
Kit Sam Lam Bing Yim Secondary School 潔心林炳炎中學
Society of Boys' Centres Hui Chung Sing Memorial School 香港扶幼會許仲繩紀念學校
Ng Wah Catholic Secondary School 天主教伍華中學
HKSKH Bishop Hall Secondary School 香港聖公會何明華會督中學
Kowloon True Light School 九龍真光中學
Yan Chai Hospital Chang Yuen Hom Secondary School 仁濟醫院靚次伯紀念中學
China Holiness Church Living Spirit College 中華聖潔會靈風中學
Lingnan Dr. Chung Wing Kwong Memorial Secondary School 嶺南鍾榮光博士紀念中學
Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School 樂善堂余近卿中學
SKH All Saints’ Middle School 聖公會諸聖中學
SKH St. Mary’s Church Mok Hing Yiu College 聖公會聖馬利亞堂莫慶堯中學
United Christian College 滙基書院
Duration:
2024-2025
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Project Team:
Anthony Ko, Hayger Chan, Ivan Kwong, Philip Li, Ryan Sze
Production:
Studio Anthony Ko
Photo Courtesy:
Studio Anthony Ko
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