The young design pair upcycling Hong Kong marine trash into desirable objects of art
- Christine Lew and Florian Wegenast have created a striking range of items out of trash collected from Hong Kong’s seas and beaches
- The project is showing as part of an exhibition exploring craft as a pioneering strength in contemporary design and culture
Two talented young designers have been lured to Hong Kong, not by its culture, cuisine or shopping, but by its rubbish.
Studio Florian + Christine is a two-person multidisciplinary design studio founded in London by Christine Lew from the US and Florian Wegenast from Germany. But instead of frequenting the trendy design studios and galleries of the British capital, the pair spent three months last year trawling through Hong Kong’s trash-strewn harbours on a small boat, and combing local beaches for waste glass, plastic and metals.
It was all done as part of an ambitious design project called Future Sea Craft.
“The project is part-education, part-art and partly a practical solution to waste, but critically it’s all about design,” says Lew, who along with Wegenast completed a master’s degree at the prestigious Central Saint Martins college of art and design in London in 2017.
Having practised internationally, the two came to Hong Kong with expertise in industrial design, fashion and material innovation design, and earned the support of the Hong Kong-based Design Trust.
“The project was funded by the Design Trust Seed Grant, which is awarded to projects with a social, educational, economical or environmental impact for communities,” says Marisa Yiu, executive director and co-founder of the organisation, adding that upcycling is an important theme and approach in contemporary local design.