Re-imagine our community
The open plaza in front a community hall, the dark tunnel under an old housing estate, the park next to a promenade with standardized canopies, the covered walking connecting residential blocks…these are familiar public spaces in Hong Kong, yet with our city keeps redeveloping and gets denser, some public spaces disappear while others lose their communal roles. There is an urge for new definitions of communal spaces, and ways to reactivate abandoned urban spaces, and the research project seeks to explore new forms of communal spaces in our city.
The open plaza in front a community hall, the dark tunnel under an old housing estate, the park next to a promenade with standardized canopies, the covered walking connecting residential blocks…these are familiar public spaces in Hong Kong, yet with our city keeps redeveloping and gets denser, some public spaces disappear while others lose their communal roles. There is an urge for new definitions of communal spaces, and ways to reactivate abandoned urban spaces, and the research project seeks to explore new forms of communal spaces in our city.
Eureka has been researching and designing educational spaces for nearly a decade. Within the confined community of a school campus, we create shared spaces, connect different students and activities. Could we extend the idea and apply similar logic to re-connect the neighborhood and re-compose communal spaces in our city?
- 2021
- Grantee: Annette Pui Man Chu and Gabriel Chun Ting Lee
Annette studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Architectural Association, London. After obtaining her Diploma, she worked at MDMA in Brussels where she took part in various projects, including theatre, private houses and housing complexes. Annette returned to Hong Kong in 2007 and later founded Eureka. She is a wanderer, likes to walk around in the city and scribble down her thoughts. She continues her interest in exploring spatial narration and its effects on design language.
Gabriel Lee gained his first degree in Architecture from London Metropolitan University and completed his Master degree at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Upon graduation, he took part in a variety of projects, including exhibition, private house, primary school campus development, façade design, various interior renovation projects and development of an elderly complex. He likes to seek for interesting ingredients from the city, and challenge preconditioned perception of spaces.
- Organisation: Eureka Limited
Eureka is a Hong Kong based architectural design studio established in 2011 aiming to create a multi-layered experience. Believe in script-writing and the idea of “polytropic”, the studio explores the existed typology and spaces through collecting, changing, redefining and creating situations, and hence the design.
Projects include interior, architecture and master planning. They vary from small installations to commercial interiors, cycling parks, private houses, future planning of a school campus and renovation to a Buddhist park. Eureka is currently building St. Paul’s Kindergarten in Tai Po and designing a residential development for young people and elderly in Kowloon City.
We explore the physical and latent qualities of sites, and re-narrate, and respond with the sensitive and often playful ideas to add new dimensions to the context and experience for the users. We work closely with the client and end users to fully explore beyond the design brief perimeters. We dream, and at the same time we care about the process of materializing our dreams.