We are pleased to share that the Collateral event of 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia - Hong Kong Exhibition ” Transformative Hong Kong” curated by Design Trust former grantees Sarah Lee and Yutaka Yano along with other partners has opened recently at Venice. The Hong Kong exhibition is arranged according to three designated scales - “Territorial Transformations”, “Architectural Transformations” and “Public Space Transformations”, including “Common Ground; Constructing Civic Spaces of the Future” exhibition from Design Trust Feature Grant research project “Hong Kong Estate Centres as Public Amenity” by Building Narrative and Kris Provoost Photography and “Automated Landscapes” book launch led by Marina Otero Verzier and Het Nieuwe Instituut. Combining a total of 11 sets of exhibits to showcase initiatives with interactive mixed media representations and visual essays, snapshots of this transformative moment in our city with focused themes on Hong Kong’s sustainability, climate change, technology and energy/resource management, and how the architectural collaborations and innovations have been using the city as the “laboratory” to meet the challenges faced by the future generation of Hong Kong.
Design Trust Grantee Project Highlights at The 18th International Architecture Exhibition Venice Biennale
21. 6. 2023
“Common Ground; Constructing Civic Spaces of the Future” from Design Trust Feature Grant research project Hong Kong Estate Centres as Public Amenity by Building Narrative and Kris Provoost Photography is currently on display at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia 2023 until November 26th 2023. The short film, based on the research of their previous seed grant “Retail Reset; Hong Kong Estate Commercial Centre as Public Amenity”, delves into lessons from Hong Kong social housing estates constructed between 1967 and 2005. At the centre of each project is a desire to sculpt the ground, both natural and constructed, into a piece of public amenity that forms the heart of each residential community – an especially challenging task given the city’s demanding topography. The film combines two media; sectional drawings trace the as-designed ground plane while photography documents the as-occupied civic spaces. Today, with approximately half of Hong Kongers living in such estates at precedent-setting densities, these projects from the past offer valuable insights into ways of cohabitation for the future.
The international book launch of Design Trust Feature Grant research project Automated Landscapes led by Marina Otero Verzier and Het Nieuwe Instituut recently took place at the Hong Kong Pavilion in 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia. Víctor Muñoz Sanz and Marina Otero Verzier from the editorial team presented the socio-ecological, political and spatial consequences of automation, focusing on a series of work environments at the forefront of automation.
“From automated kitchens, dairy farms and tailor shops to robotic arms and agricultural drones, the spatial arrangements and protocols that are the result of the automation of labour challenge conventional spatial requirements and normative rules for health, safety and welfare. They bring new forms of territorial occupation and contestation, and lie beyond classic notions of authorship and signature.” The sharing dialogue took place with Design Trust former grantees Sarah Lee and Yutaka Yano who together co-curated, with other partners the 2023 Hong Kong Exhibition “Transformative Hong Kong, the Laboratory of the Future” at this year’s Venice Biennale. Design Trust is also pleased to include this publication in our archive to further disseminate the knowledge produced to local community in Hong Kong.
The research project Automated Landscapes: Architectures of Work without Workers led by Marina Otero Verzier and Het Nieuwe Instituut examined a series of work environments at the forefront of automation, from dairy farms and greenhouses to factories and data centres. Following on research about automaton in Rotterdam, the project looked to the Greater Bay Area to shed light on the impact of automation in other geographies and scales, compared the spaces of automation in both regions, and opened conversations on the transition from the man-powered “factory of the world” to a territory of automated production.