Micro park ideas for Hong Kong – gardens in refuse skips, pop-up Chinese pavilions and more proposed by young designers
High Line in New York among inspirations behind Hong Kong architect’s quest for ideas to counter city’s shrinking flats by turning streets into our living room; DIY micro-parks app and railings that morph into fold-out seating among ideas
Deposited outside homes and offices, usually during renovations, refuse skips accumulate mounds of unsightly waste and block valuable space at the expense of cars or pedestrians. A group of up-and-coming Hong Kong designers see potential to change that.
Hong Kong environment chief allays fears of developing country parks for housing
Designers Ffion Zhang, Stephen Ip and Cesar Harada want to transform skips into leafy micro parks. In place of bin bags and construction waste, these skips would be filled with plants and possibly even benches. You could walk in, sit among the greenery and read a book.
This radical idea is one of four bold new proposals to create micro parks in Hong Kong, all of which will be unveiled at an exhibition running from October 15 to 31 at Yat Fu Lane in Shek Tong Tsui. Other micro park blueprints on show will include a 21st-century take on a traditional Chinese pavilion and plans to turn roadside railings into fold-out seating.
These four projects are the result of the first Design Trust Futures Studio, an initiative run by the Hong Kong-based charity the Design Trust, which pairs up-and-coming local designers with mentors worldwide who then jointly investigate how design can enrich city life.
Architect Marisa Yiu, co-founder and executive director of the Design Trust, began this inaugural Futures Studio programme by thinking about the phrase “small is meaningful”, but she says inspiration came from all directions.
That includes having found little gems around the world that have allowed for quiet moments, as well as larger playgrounds that have captivated her children. Yiu grew up in Kowloon and in 2005 set up architecture studio ESKYIU with her partner, Eric Schuldenfrei, after returning from the US, where she studied at Columbia and Princeton universities.