Plus Furniture
005Taikoo, Hong Kong
Public and media investigations in recent years revealed that public funds are spent in overpriced or extraneous public furniture. How can architects or individuals react to it?
+Furniture is a speculative exercise by this potential to establish or just a fictional group City Absurdities Work (CAW) on actualising the possibilities for Hong Kong dwellers to alter their neighbourhood, that is the void of the city or simply saying, public spaces.
Our process initiated from the anatomy of Hong Kong’s mundane environment where urban voids are only treated as vessels for direction, it deviates from imagining inventive ways to live with the situation. Urban spaces are composed of undesigned infrastructures with limited utilities provision, they act purely as a safety agent for citizens.
Context:
Starting by analysing precedent cases of skyrocket priced public art or public furniture proposed by the different district councils across Hong Kong, the story and interconnections behind the scene of public space design are slowly revealed. This also accompanied with in depth surveying of existing urban furniture in the city by understanding their dimensions, design features to the actual usage in the neighbourhood.
Concept:
Designs are proposed to alter the overprotective, neutral and programless existing urban furniture into places for the community to adapt to their own activities and needs. Balustrades turned into a spot for picnic in the city, road signs pole structures transformed into a swing for one, and the carpark's barrier gate became a see-saw for kids to interact.
Process:
Due to the project being self-initiated, illustrative drawings and actual mock ups are fabricated after analysis and creating proposals. The mock ups are photographed and submitted to exhibitions along with the illustrations to advocate the notion of furniture that adds on new functions to the mundane neighbourhood and urban space design.
Production:
The first set of prototypes of Plus Furnitures are fabricated in house, designed as flat pack kits of parts. Made of plywood for the costs and durability, painted in yellow to highlight the area for improvisation. The set of hack-on furniture are brought to the site near Artistree to demonstrate the actual feasibility of the design.
-
Client:
Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA)
Occasion:
REVEAL 2: +-x÷ For the City. For the Community
Typology:
Self-Initiate
Status:
Completion
Location:
Artistree, Taikoo, Hong Kong
Duration:
2016
-
Project Team:
Anthony Ko
Collaborators:
Aron Tsang (Napp Studio)
Rosalia Leung
Fabrication:
Anthony Ko
Aron Tsang (Napp Studio)
Rosalia Leung
Photo Courtesy:
Anthony Ko
Aron Tsang (Napp Studio)