Urban Design Studies, CUHK X HAP SAP

‘The city as museum,

the city as a positive concert of culture and educational purpose,

the city as a benevolent source of random but carefully selected information […]’

Collage City, Rowe, C., and Koetter, F. (1978)

The city is an assemblage of human interventions. Whether it is a purposefully constructed artifact or an aggregation of mundane activities of life that do not require sophisticated intention, the city exhibits the dwelling process and a collective will of acts of humankind. The Urban Design Lab, initiated by Hong Kong Arts Centre and Project Hap Sap, examines the bits and pieces found in North Point and reimagines our urban realm as a common living room for all.

The Urban Design Lab is an urban excursion in the city of unseen. Through a series of mapping workshops, artists, professionals, and the community collectively explore the identity of the neighborhood, (re-)discover the quality of urban living, and search for the aesthetic through the mundane. The findings of the urban investigation will be further explored in the next co-design workshops informing design ideas, principles, and prototypes of place-making elements. By seeing the city as museum, the works of the Urban Design Lab will be exhibited in various designations in North Point to generate discussion and sharing with community and beyond.