Exploring the public spaces of the city and revealing the hidden significance of plants, students learn the relationships between nature and the built environment. Kate Lau, a local landscape practitioner, will lead the creation of a small intervention at the HKU campus as the module’s conclusion.
Site visit: Hong Kong Asia Society
As part of Workshop 2, students visited and discovered the architectural and natural heritage of this iconic complex, the Hong Kong Asia Society. After the guided tour, participants selected areas of interest and captured photos of the environment and landscape features for the coming workshop session.
Exploration 2: Urban-nature narrative
The activity expanded the content of the workshop; it introduced mixed-media methods with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in order to analyze and illustrate reimagined landscapes for the generation of narratives. These “sculpted sceneries” revealed and reflected the relationships between city and nature through the eyes and imaginations of students.
Talk 1: The symbolism of plants in Hong Kong
Division of Landscape Architecture (DLA) member, Dr. Yin-Lun Chan shared his research on the symbolism of plants in Hong Kong.
Intertwining: Tropical Asia
The activity reveals the relationships between the existing plants in public spaces around Hong Kong and the Southeast Asian region. As a common group, participants were required to discuss and generate a flow map with their peers after visiting a local park.
Exploration 3: Public spaces – HKU Campus, Haking Wong Podium
DLA alumni and local practitioner Kate Lau introduced concepts about public space from her own practice and led a small intervention at the Haking Wong Podium
(HKU Campus). The closing session included presentations of the students’ productions and reflections on city-nature relationships.
