Design duo foster debate on the built environment
Couple create food for thought in multimedia projects, opening a forum for interactivity and social comment on urban structures
One of the more creative projects to emerge in art-obsessed Hong Kong this year is an intriguing installation by architects Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu Kar-san, of ESKYIU studio.
Titled Industrial Forest, the work comprises hundreds of 4.2-metre-high, pencil-thin metallic bamboo filaments arranged within mirrored walls to simulate an infinite forest beside a highway on the third-floor terrace of Spring Workshop, a non-profit art space in Wong Chuk Hang.
"We are fascinated with facades and building skins as an interface between inside and outside," says the Princeton-educated Yiu, who was raised in Hong Kong and returned in 2007 to establish the multi-disciplinary ESKYIU with Schuldenfrei.
Spring's industrial forest, which will remain planted for two years, is emblematic of the duo's innovative take on what architecture encompasses and how it can contribute in different ways to modern urban environments.
There are plans for the forest installation to evolve, introducing experiences such as herbal gardens and experimental sound components to inspire discussion on what Yiu calls "the complexity of artifice and nature".
The installation's eerily realistic artificial grass, showing the effects of global warming together with the bamboo's photovoltaic lighting - which reflects current weather conditions; blue for clear skies and a glowing red-orange when pollution is high - has already stimulated commentary on the state of Hong Kong's environment, particularly the air.