“It’s been an extraordinary process – both online and offline – over the last four years,” says Yiu of the micro-parks project, which brought together a think tank of architects (including multiple-award-winning Gary Chang, of Edge Design Institute), designers, landscapers, contractors, local councillors, NGOs and community members.
In total, 362 people have so far been involved in creating the four micro-parks.
“Similar to the other pocket parks – Yi Pei Square Playground [in Tsuen Wan, New Territories] and the Portland Street Rest Garden [in Mong Kok, Kowloon] – we were really interested in how we could reimagine this underutilised space into somewhere that could enliven the community, bring them together and build collective memory,” she says.The park’s genesis was shaped in the research phase, with Yiu and her team delving into the history of the area.
Flowing down Hill Road towards Des Voeux Road West, the park is imprinted with a series of subtle ground plaques recounting landmark moments in the neighbourhood’s past.
These range from Shek Tong Tsui’s origins as a stone quarry, to its place as a red-light district at the turn of the 20th century, to the 1904 debut of the Tai Ping Theatre, to the deadly explosion of a gasholder in 1934, to the neighbourhood’s portrayal in Lillian Lee Pi-hua’s bestselling novel Rouge, first published in 1984.
Alongside such nods to the past, the project works to showcase clever contemporary materials in innovative ways.
Paving comes in the form of cream and moss-green Tiostone eco-glass bricks, invented and patented by the research team at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Each block is made from recycled glass and Portland cement cut with fly ash, a combination that reduces the amount of construction waste that usually ends up in landfill, as well as helping preserve natural resources often used in cement, such as river sand.
“We conducted a lot of site interviews,” say newly minted architect and mentee Aron Tsang Wai-chun. “We understood from the start that a lot of elderly people use the park, visiting for fresh air in the day and to play chess after nightfall, so we wanted the space to remain useful and familiar to them while giving them something new to enjoy.”
Based on these observations, old-fashioned linear park benches were replaced with curvaceous, cream-coloured terrazzo ones made from GRC (glass-fibre-reinforced concrete) featuring wide circular slabs on which people can stretch out – the polar opposite of the hostile architecture so often seen in Hong Kong.“Everyone is welcome in the park and should be treated with dignity,” say Yiu.
Planters of hardy sword ferns and slender lady palms add to the ambience of the area, whose seating capacity has increased from 34 to 60 places. “We’re also adding three chess tables and three recycling bins,” says Tsang.
The park’s most striking feature is its overhead lighting, which, aside from being beautiful, should reduce electricity consumption by about 30 per cent. Resembling an oversized yellow ribbon caught in the breeze, the sculptural, 4.6-metre-high (15ft high) installation is made up of eight 18-metre-long interlinked lengths of stainless steel and low-energy LED tubes.
“We were really inspired by the height of Hong Kong’s infrastructure and many mountains, but we also had to find ways to mitigate this highly sculptural form into something our factories could produce and which could also be easily maintained. It wasn’t easy,” says Tsang’s classmate and fellow mentee Andy Cheng Chun.
More familiar with producing two-dimensional curves, the contractors Cheung Hing were pushed out of their comfort zone to make the 3D ribbon by welding and hammering the pieces in situ by hand.
“The ribbon is useful and playful but we were also envisioning how the [Hong Kong government’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department] could use it in the future as a structure for decoration; for example, decorating it for Christmas or with lanterns during Chinese New Year,” says Cheng.
“In the future, we’d also really like to add sensors to create a more mindful way of using lighting.”
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This is a space that will evolve over time, drawing more visitors to the area, boosting business at local shops and providing the basis for further innovation – changes that Yiu and her team will be able to enjoy in person from Design Trust’s new, permanent home on Hill Road overlooking the park.
“We’ve been renting co-working spaces for nearly eight years, so we couldn’t be more grateful to our generous donor and trustee board members for stepping up to give us this space,” says Yiu.
At 1,500 square feet, it has space for offices, an archive and presentations. “Once we’re done with the four parks we’re going to put on an exhibition about them here, with some of our prototypes and old models – hopefully next summer,” she says.
