CONSIDER the average Hong Kong home. It is small. It is not very efficiently designed. It is stocked with pots, pans, cleaning equipment, and other appliances that do not very effectively do the tasks they are supposed to do.
Above all, contends Assistant Professor Philine Bracht, course leader of industrial design in Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Design, those domestic tools are not friendly to the environment.
Professor Bracht and a talented team of 25 honours students studying industrial design are trying to remedy some of these problems. In a series of design projects, they have taken an appraising look at Hong Kong homes and what is in them.
The latest in the series examining the Hong Kong home split the 25 final-year design honours students into four teams. Each looked at a different aspect of the Hong Kong 'eco-home of the future'. One group concentrated on the kitchen, others on bathroom or living room, and one focused on common household appliances.
Their findings, not surprisingly, showed many items in most homes are energy-wasting, inefficient and old-fashioned. Many appliances or home systems are expensively duplicated; one student came up with a sophisticated design that would use one compressor to power refrigeration, air-conditioning and air-purifiers. Another sensibly combined an air-purifier with a vacuum cleaner.
From toilet flushing to hot-pot design, the student teams envisaged improvements that could be used - simply, sensibly and within a reasonable budget - to make an average home much more friendly to the environment - and to the user.
