We are pleased to share that Design Trust Futures Studio Micro-parks Initiative and four Design Trust grant projects including By Us For Us: Future Proof Narratives of a Third Housing for Hong Kong by Guillaume Othenin-Girard & Kent Mundle, Estate Centres, Postwar Public Amenities in Hong Kong Public Housing by Jeffrey Cheng and Kris Provoost, Social Condenser Extraordinaire: Hong Kong’s Municipal Services Buildings by Ying Zhou and Fai Au, and Photovoltaic Hybrids: Hong Kong’s Experiment on Climate-Responsive Architecture by Emily Po & Quentin Yiu are featured at “Projecting Future Heritage: A Hong Kong Archive” at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Hong Kong Exhibition from May 10th to November 23rd 2025, curated by Design Trust grant recipients Ying Zhou and Fai Au, with Sunnie SY Lau.
Design Trust Futures Studio Micro-parks and Design Trust Research Community Featured at 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale
3. 7. 2025
The exhibition marks the first time that Design Trust Futures Studio Micro-parks initiative has been presented at major international exhibition. Photography of the four micro-parks Yi Pei Square Playground, Portland Street Rest Garden, Sitting-out Area under Flyover in Hill Road and Hamilton Street Rest Garden, celebrates more than five years’ creative collaboration through the flagship programme Design Trust Futures Studio conceptualised and lead curated by Marisa Yiu, with four design teams: Yi Pei Square Playground team of Stephen Ip, Kay Chan, Christopher Choi and Jonathan Mak mentored by Mimi Hoang; Portland Street Rest Garden team of Ricky Lai, Xavier Tsang, Wendy Wu and Kam Fai Hung mentored by Sam Jacob; Sitting-out Area under Flyover in Hill Road team of Aron Tsang, Andy Cheng, Zoey Chan and Jose Fu mentored by Gary Chang; and Hamilton Street Rest Garden team of Sylvia Chan, Vivian Ng, Samuel Wong, Elaine Tsui, and Owen Chim mentored by Stanley Wong in 2018, and the construction and implementation process of the four micro-parks and Design Trust team’s continuous efforts. The exhibition also features the publication“ Design Trust Futures Studio: from Smallness, Playfulness to Community Impact” edited by Marisa Yiu with Zheng Zhou, providing an extensive review of Design Trust Futures Studio 2017 “Small is Meaningful” and Design Trust Futures Studio 2018 “Play is for the People” programmes and the subsequent construction process to share this creative journey with the global audiences.
Design Trust Feature Grant research “By Us for Us: Future Proof Narratives of a Third Housing for Hong Kong” by Guillaume Othenin-Girard and Kent Mundle showcases their research into the postwar co-op housing developed in To Kwa Wan and the type’s projective potentials for the city. The project unfolded within the Hong Kong Exhibition in three parts. First, the project team conducted a forum on ‘third models of housing’, with four international participants: James Binning (Assemble / Ecological Land Cooperative, UK), Carles Baiges Camprubi (Lacol, Barcelona), Flavien Menu (Wald, Paris), and Sebastian Oswald (Kalkbreite Cooperative, Zurich). The aim of the forum was to solicit modes of a ‘third housing’ from around the world to then seed a constructive workshop on potential models for Hong Kong. Second, in support of the forum and within the exhibition archive were the two key outputs of the By Us For Us project: the Atlas, a document of the history and potential future of ‘third housing’ models in Hong Kong, as well as three transcalar drawings printed on tile, which offered a platform for the spatialising of the forum outputs. Third, in support of the forum, and other similar events at the Hong Kong exhibition, the By Us For Us team collaborated with DesignTrust grantees Beau Architects to initiate “Staging the Archive”, a bamboo stage-infrastructure in the main courtyard of the Hong Kong pavilion.
Design Trust Feature Grant “Estate Centres, Postwar Public Amenities in Hong Kong Public Housing” by Jeffrey Cheng and Kris Provoost presents their study of public amenities in Pok Hong Estate, a neighbourhood in the Shatin area of Hong Kong. Through photographs, model making, and drawings, the reveal how the quality of everyday spaces are elevated under Pok Hong’s barrel-vaulted roof. The exhibition is part of an ongoing, multi-year research project on public facilities in Hong Kong public housing that will culminate in a forthcoming book publication.
Design Trust Feature Grant research “Social Condenser Extraordinaire: Hong Kong’s Municipal Services Buildings” by Ying Zhou and Fai Au analyses, and showcases to the broader public the extraordinary yet underrecognized body of indigenous public buildings in Hong Kong for the everyday, known as Municipal Services Buildings today, constructed largely in the 1980s and 1990s. Conceived of as urban nodes for public amenities including the market, food stalls, the library, and sports facilities, they have come to physically and conceptually manifest the civic ideals and climate adaptivity in one of the densest and most neoliberal cities in the world. Under threat by development today because of their central locations, this project is one of the first, to formally re-examine and showcase a selection of indigenous everyday public buildings of Hong Kong.
Design Trust Seed Grant research “Photovoltaic Hybrids: Hong Kong’s Experiment on Climate-Responsive Architecture” led by Emily Po and Quentin Yiu presents their design research of “Photovoltaic Hybrids” which functions like trees, providing essential shade and shelter while harvesting solar energy. This approach transforms conventional roofs into Climate-Responsive Architecture that enhances both resilience and sustainability. The hybrid systems represent more than mere infrastructure—they embody a fundamental shift from scarcity to abundance thinking, offering a new paradigm for understanding the interconnections between energy production, food security, and community engagement.
Showcasing Hong Kong’s overlooked but significant post-war public architectures and their civic aspirations through the media of an archive, together with the construction of a stage using the technique of bamboo scaffolding in the outdoor courtyard space, the exhibition "Projecting Future Heritage: An Archive of Hong Kong,” which opened at la Biennale Architettura in Venice and representing Hong Kong on May 9th 2025. The exhibition is curated by Design Trust Grantees Ying Zhou and Fai Au, with Sunnie SY Lau, supported by Eunice Seng and Joan Leung as Curatorial Advisors, and by Curatorial Team members Wing Yuen and Jonathan Yeung. Design Trust Co-founder, Lead Curator/ Executive Director Marisa Yiu also joined as a speaker in the Forum “Archiving of Architecture and Urbanism” on May 8th 2025, alongside guests Philip Ursprung from the ETHZ, Max Hirsh from NUS and the Airport City Academy, Design Trust grantee Guillaume Othenin-Girard and moderated by Eunice Seng of HKU. 15 Design Trust past and current grantees have participated in this exhibition representing Hong Kong on a global stage in this year’s Venice Biennale.
Design Trust Feature Grant publication “Plugin Housing” led by People’s Architecture Office (PAO) is also presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 China Pavilion curated by Yansong Ma as part of the installation “Renew City Plugins”. The publication “Plugin Housing” is also featured at the China Pavilion Exhibition “Balancing Dynamics: The Law of Civilization Development” at Milan Triennale 2025. Design Trust Advisory Council members participated actively in this year’s Venice Biennale from the Saudi Arabia Pavilion curated by Beatrice Leanza, “Water Parliaments: Projective Ecosocial Architectures” curated by Eva Franch, to Aric Chen as the commissioner of the Dutch Pavilion.