Serendipity in the Street | Hong Kong

The Serendipity in the Street programme, organised by Tai Kwun with onebite on board as Design Partner, included an exhibition and a series of community engagement activities.

The exhibition brought together Associate Professor Brian Kwok from the School of Design of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 7 artists, and 10 research partners participating as Urban Observers to present everyday stories in Central and Sheung Wan districts. As Design Partner for the exhibition, onebite provided the design framework for the entire exhibition.

“Modernologio”, the Japanese method of observing everyday life as a way to capture the complexity of the urban landscape and the interconnections between people, spaces and activities by uncovering how people used public spaces creatively. In particular, the project captures the nuances of urban dwellers’ everyday lives during the pandemic to understand how a social upheaval changes lifestyle patterns.

As part of the exhibition, onebite observed and captured details in Central and Sheung Wan, such as the everyday folk wisdom of residents who use homemade reinforced concrete bases to anchor umbrella shelters. We also saw the symbolic use of colours and architectural motifs in the streets, such as the military green colour of most metal retractable dai pai dong (street food stalls) in Central's Pottinger Street and Sheung Wan's Lascar Row, which had operated there for decades, if not over a century.

For the exhibition, onebite designed installations imitating the steps of Central and Sheung Wan, and concrete platforms are used to reproduce the various supporting plinths made by the residents and business owners residing along the stepped streets. Other interesting details, such as a refrigerator used as a mobile library, showcased objects transformed by residents and given new uses combined with special meaning. By viewing the exhibition or directly experiencing the co-created prototypes, onebite hoped every visitor can be inspired to improve the urban space with their own innovations.

To realise this goal, onebite also collaborated with the Tai Kwun Heritage Team to engage a group of 24 community participants aged 16 to 80, their backgrounds ranging from local residents to weekend visitors. A total of 4 workshops extended from the fieldwork approach of Modernologio and focused on the human dimension of urban spaces. Participants are facilitated to develop a greater understanding of the connections between communities and places, and use their observational skills and creativity to meet the needs of different stakeholder groups. Through a series of progressive workshops, the participants and onebite co-created two prototype installations for use in Tai Kwun, with the finalised structures built and installed in the open-air prison yard. These prototypes were developed through a number of prototyping exercises during the workshop, inviting passers-by to contribute their ideas as community users and refine the design of the installations. These suggestions were then analysed by participants with the help of onebite to bring this co-designed creation to fruition.