The Stage

This was a project that I designed for the HK/Shenzhen Bienale or Architecture and Urbanism. Here is the brief:
Hong Kong is a city in constant flux and change, it is a canvas that gets painted over and over again, constantly being reinvented as the city grows, expands and develops. Although this constant change adds to the energy of the city, history and tradition is often bulldozed in the name of growth with the old replaced by the new in a blink of the eye. Because of this, the citizens of Hong Kong are left only with collective memories of what Hong Kong once was. In this city where nothing seems to last however, bamboo scaffolding remains our only existing form of traditional architecture left in Hong Kong. With a history of thousands of years, we see this elegant form of architecture all around us everyday forming the temporary delicate skin of high-rises to be. These amazing structures mirror the ephemeral nature of the city itself disappearing and reappearing as buildings start and finish. The Stage intends to celebrate bamboo construction by re-contextualizing and re-exploring the material with the goal of creating newfound appreciation, understanding and respect for a tradition that is unique to Hong Kong. DE-sign will also be collaborating with visual artist Teddy Lo, founder of LED artists. The incorporation of LED lighting, blends the old with the new showing that the two can coexist creating a structure that is entirely new yet with it’s ties to tradition still intact.