Public Parasols: Stories of Shade in Subtropical Hong Kong
Public Parasols presents how ethnographic research on Hong Kong fishing villages building cultures—the creation of shared and in-between areas for the movement of air, light, and water—can inspire design approaches to enhance environmental comfort and create spaces to be shared among the communities in high-density, subtropical Asian cities.
Public Parasols presents how ethnographic research on Hong Kong fishing villages building cultures—the creation of shared and in-between areas for the movement of air, light, and water—can inspire design approaches to enhance environmental comfort and create spaces to be shared among the communities in high-density, subtropical Asian cities.
The project is envisioned as a series of “floating exhibitions”, with an easy-to-deploy installation that can be transported to different locations, exemplifying an economy of means and demonstrating resource-efficient solutions that can create adaptable environments to engage diverse public audiences.
- 2025
- Grantee: Su Chang
Su Chang is Assistant Professor in Architectural Design at the University of Hong Kong and Principal of Su Chang Design Research Office. His current research explores a water-centric perspective for understanding architecture, development, and conservation in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and the subtropical Asia context. Navigating the shifting dynamics between inland and coastal areas, he has developed design experiments with a material-based approach to rejuvenate spaces and regenerate social fabrics for communities undergoing transformation.
- Organisation: Su Chang Design Research Office
Su Chang Design Research Office brings together design, research, and action to rebuild architecture’s relationship with the environment. Our work innovates familiar-seeming elements through contemporary cultures. The projects embrace multiple senses of materiality and cultures of living within the clear formal language of architecture. We take a hands-on, collaborative, and open design approach to work on projects across disciplines and scales. Our design collaboration with contemporary art and cultural institutions has built a reputation for its sensitivity to emerging cultures, new economies, and the expanded notion of sustainability.