Design Trust 2021 October Cycle Grant Recipients | January Cycle Call for Grants

Design Trust 2022 January Grant Application is now open. Share with us your ideas and proposals by 20th January 2022. Design Trust offers grants to designers, curators, collectives and non-profit organisations for project proposals that are relevant to the context and content of Hong Kong and the region. In 2022, we are pleased to partner with Partnerships for Community Development (PCD), a special grant focusing on community engagement and place-making in Hong Kong.  More details to be announced soon.

2021 October Cycle Grant Recipients

“Impossible Bricks” by Lidia Ratoi, an academic and designer based in Hong Kong, aims to deviate the interaction with nature and technology from a human-centric, individualistic one to an empathetic, conscious one. Taking inspiration from Impossible Food, created to provide an alternative to eating meat, and therefore cease the disregard of the human impact on other species or nature itself, “Impossible Bricks” uses food and natural waste as a material for building. Using digital fabrication such as robotic arms or 3D printers, “Impossible Bricks” proposes a workflow in which nature and technology interact seamlessly. By transforming waste into 3D printing material, and hack state-of-the-art technology, the way we design and build can be shifted. In order to further tailor the project for site-specific requirements, scanning will be involved in order to use site conditions for geometry development. “Impossible Bricks” is a new way of thinking about building ‒ one that turns individual human needs into collective solutions.

“The Nail Salon” by Chiara Oggioni and Yi Sun explores the spatial implications of the women’s labour in Hong Kong to reflect on the future of feminist space in the post-industrial Chinese society. Starting from their work as the most intimate and the closest connection these women have with their space, the project opens up possibilities to think about it through the connections those women have to here and there, through the economies of their working conditions, the network of communities that support them, the families they take care of elsewhere, ultimately expressing the bondage of human beings across different scales. Nail Salon uses film-making to convey and re-elaborate the space, its use, its objects and its stories to put the near and far, the past and present narratives in conversation with their future.

“WhirlyGigs: Design, Eco-Aesthetics, and Inverted Dance” by non-profit organisation Folded Paper Dance And Theatre Limited, revolves around an interdisciplinary engagement with and a collection Hong Kong’s Earth Stories, will focus on the development of new and accessible design dance live and virtual methodologies that can expand the design of the WhirlyGig into accessible instruments responsive to the Earth’s winds, sounds, and vibrations. Innovative WhirlyGig-dance compositions at site-specific Hong Kong spaces can offer new ways of hearing, seeing, and moving differently. Such engagements that are not just about the Earth but of and with the Earth, will enable the emergence of a different orientation for design and a greater capacity to tune into the Earth and its stories. The project phases research and development; participatory events; and an online platform will expand local, regional, and international exchange on design, eco-aesthetics, and inverted dance.

“Belongs to Tin Yeah” by Joshua Wolper responds to the fact that severe food waste are generated daily in Hong Kong ‒ an alarming figure surpassing by far that of other dense cities, amounting to 44% of the city's municipal solid waste since 2011, which cannot be addressed with policy and technology interventions alone. The active participation of individual households is essential. The team has previous applied research showing the efforts in utilising existing resources, cleanliness of waste collection, and a regenerative purpose for the fertiliser produced are key to communal nutrients cycling. In response, this research explores creative approaches in communal capacity building that make collectivised soil stewardship a rewarding commitment over time for all involved. The goal is to rebuild relationships between food producers and consumers by reintegrating kitchen scraps into local soils and reconnecting people with their biophysical foundation.

“Viscose 3 ‒ Asias” by Jeppe Ugelvig is a special publishing collaboration between Viscose Journal (Denmark) and X Museum (Beijing) that looks at the Pearl River Delta through the lens of fashion production. Fusing historical and contemporary approaches, the project considers fashion and garment production in the Delta as a central force of the globalised world, a network that has produced networks of kinship and systems of relation around the world ‒ from the South China Sea to New York, London, and Portugal. The project engages artists, designers, and thinkers around the world in a radical print magazine format, which will be released in 2022 and launched worldwide, including at Tai Kwun in Hong Kong. The project seeks to advance Hong Kong knowledge and practises into the world, and form new professional and social relationships that can prosper in the future.

“Building Narrative X Kris Provoost Photography” by collective Jeffrey Cheng, Don Hong and Kris Provoost focuses on Hong Kong estate commercial centres, a building typology unique to the city. Such centres typically integrate shops, community services and public space to support day to day necessities. There are at least 248 commercial centres today with a continuous evolution in design thinking beginning with the first instance at Wah Fu Estate in 1965 to the mass privatisation of estate centres in 2005. As Hong Kong’s ageing commercial centres face threats from wholesale demolition to increasing commercial demands, their research explores ways to futureproof the sites and aspects of commercial centres most pertinent to maintaining public function. The team’s research finds will be presented in the mobile exhibition among selected public estates in Hong Kong, accompanying enriched tours and digital experience to engage audience.