Art Basel Hong Kong: have you seen the artsy makeover of Wan Chai’s O’Brien footbridge and tram stop yet?
- Top landmarks in the city’s art hub, have been given a creative lick of paint, thanks to the creative vision of Hong Kong Design Centre
Hong Kong Tourism Commission launched a three-year Creative Tourism Project last year to encourage the creative use of public spaces and develop community connectivity.
Organised by the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC), Design District Hong Kong (DDHK) is aimed at inspiring residents and visitors to discover and appreciate creative community designs.
In 2018, the Hong Kong government gave the CreateSmart Initiative HK$1 billion (US$127.4 million) to support the city’s creative industries.
“While Art Basel is the anchor event, the art and design happenings are the magic that makes March ‘Arts Month’ in Hong Kong,” says professor Eric Yim, chairman of the HKDC.
“Instead of opting for the conventional approach of a gallery, being held at a specific location or building, DDHK is ambitiously turning the entire Wan Chai district into an open-air design district gallery.”
Starting this month, Wan Chai will see no less than six new thematic “design activitations”.
“Wan Chai has always been a creative hub, with 2,700 creative organisations such as the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, 7 Mallory Street among them. It is home to 10 per cent of all the creative organisations in Hong Kong,” says Sam Lam, project consultant of HKDC.
“To create an authentic experience that allows visitors to familiarise themselves [with art], we tapped into a network of local and overseas designers and artists.”
Sarah Mui, the co-founder and design director of One Bite Design Studio, DDHK’s creative partner, and her team came up with the ideas for the several activation themes.
“The pavilion #ddExperience in Fleming Road Garden has five components, each 3m by 3m, transforming the characters “#, d, d, H, K” into a set of spatial interventions to improve the usability of the public space,” Mui says.
“These characters become settings that encourage various activities concurrently, including a chess station, game zone, library and lunch corner.
Wan Chai has always been a creative hub, with 2,700 creative organisations such as the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, 7 Mallory Street among them
“#ddGathering is a set of furniture alongside #ddExperience Pavilion. Inspired by Chinese character strokes, this is a flexible spatial divider in the open space. #ddWalk takes on the busiest central spine of Wan Chai, the O’Brien Road Footbridge, to connect daily walkers with nature. The makeover of this footbridge aims for interaction with pedestrians in a more relaxing way, while presenting the change in nature over four seasons.
“#ddSmile and #ddFresh are exciting works that transform our tram lanes and stops. In painting a length of tram lane green, we seek to expand the public’s perception of our street and road.”
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