Architectural firm sparks creativity and design of disadvantaged Hong Kong children
Architectural firm Aedas works with pupils to get them thinking about ways to create sustainable designs for use in the community
"The children are terrific," he says. "They haven't been moulded by adult thinking, so there are no limits to their creativity. It's real left-field thinking!"
For the past two years, staff members from Aedas have been helping young primary schoolchildren from underprivileged backgrounds. It's part of the firm's "Help To Build, Build To Help" project.
Aedas has been nominated by NGO St James' Settlement for the Corporate Citizen Award of this year's Spirit of Hong Kong Awards, which is organised by the .
Architects, plus architecture students from the University of Hong Kong, help to educate the youngsters about sustainable and community design. The children then go on to create models based on their ideas. So far, more than 1,000 children from schools recommended by St James' Settlement have benefited from the project.
One idea was "barrier-free" parks. The children would head out with their mentors to a park and suggest ways it could be made more people-friendly for those in wheelchairs, the visually impaired, pregnant women or those with walking difficulties, such as the elderly.
"One idea," says McGoldrick, "was to create strong-smelling flowers, to guide visually impaired people into the park."
Aedas director Joanne Lam Chi-wan describes how members of a charity called the Regeneration Society helped the students think about community needs. To make them understand better what it felt like to be in a wheelchair, she says, a disabled member of the society allowed the children to sit and move around in a wheelchair and look at life and movement from that perspective.
The children participate in workshops, go on site visits and then split into teams of about 10 children at school to create their ideal community architectural model.
"There's a briefing session before each outing," says Lam. "Then we bring the children to a park. We provide them with learning materials and then different checkpoints in the park where they have challenges", or members of the Regeneration Society describe their experiences before the children return to school for a debriefing.
Aedas provides the children with building samples from the firm. "So it is a good way for us to recycle," she says.
"It's very interesting to see how they create their 3D forms," says McGoldrick. 'They're very fluid. They seem to have natural leaders in each team who like to present the design and their ideas."
More than 20 schools have been involved in the project. They are based in Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Sheung Shui, Tin Shui Wai, Tai Kok Tsui, Sha Tin, Tsing Yi, Chai Wan and Southern district.
Some 21 models were exhibited at Tai Yau Plaza in Wan Chai and at Yuen Long Theatre last year.
