Design Trust, Design Criticism: “The Strange Intimacy of High Density”
25. 9. 2019
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- “The Strange Intimacy of High Density” an essay by Diego Caro Serrano
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- “The Strange Intimacy of High Density” an essay by Diego Caro Serrano
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- “The Strange Intimacy of High Density” an essay by Diego Caro Serrano
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- The roundtable editorial panel of the design writing workshop series by Mimi Zeiger in May 2019. Image Courtesy of Mimi Zeiger.
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- The roundtable editorial panel of the design writing workshop series by Mimi Zeiger in May 2019. Image Courtesy of Mimi Zeiger.
Design Trust, Design Criticism: "The Strange Intimacy of High Density" an essay by Spanish architect Diego Caro Serrano, who lives in Mei Foo and a participant in the recent summer writing workshop "Criticism Now: Developing Architecture and Design Criticism in the Pearl River Delta", led by Los Angeles-based Mimi Zeiger, architecture critic and Design Trust Seed Grant recipient is now published online.
The first in a new series of critical design essays looks at the surprising encounters that come from living in Hong Kong's high density – more essays will be launched soon by Melody Yiu and Viola Gaskell.
The essays produced in the two-week workshop suggest that criticism is an embodied practice, going beyond simply passing judgement. As they wrote about new architecture, ageing ceramic tiles, and dense residential blocks, participants were asked to critically observe Hong Kong’s built environment, to draw on research, fieldwork, and personal experience. By following the advice of French novelist George Perec to write about the ordinary over the flashy, the specific over the generic, they captured critically precise moments of design within the city fabric.
“Criticism Now: Developing Architecture and Design Criticism in the Pearl River Delta” design writing workshop is one in a series of critical writing workshops led by Mimi Zeiger, a renowned architecture critic, supported by a Design Trust Seed Grant. The series of workshops involved Hong Kong based curators, designers, academics and writers with a round-table sharing and dialogue took place in May 2019.
The selection of essays were reviewed by Zeiger and were selected by editors Nicole A. de Surville, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, and Christopher Dewolf, managing editor at Zolima CityMag. The first essay is published here.