Prof. Thomas Chung and Jimmy Ho win Most Outstanding Design of the DesignInspire 2020 Exhibition

The three “School Redesign for Well-being” projects led by our Prof. Thomas Chung and PhD student Jimmy Ho are one of the winners of the top three Most Outstanding Designs of the DesignInspire 2020 Exhibition “Reimage, Repurpose, Redesign for Good”. The virtual exhibition, co-organised by The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and The Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA), features a wide range of creative and sustainable designs of various local architects.

This series of “School Redesign” projects are part of a more extensive design-research collaboration with primary schools to renovate school environments for enhancing individual well-being. The team started by identifying the school community’s needs, followed by an iterative co-design process, then proceeded to refine their design strategies and construct operational prototypes. All three projects emphasise the application of place-making concepts.

Project 1: Communal Identity Boulevard, Fung Kai Liu Yun Sum Primary School

To nurture a sense of belonging and encourage interactive learning, the original solid separation between the corridor and activity room of this school is removed to create a communal boulevard.

Project 2: Outdoor Playful Landscape, Pat Heung Central Primary School

A tree-house of steps, platforms and curving enclosure; a semi-cone pavilion; a sunken lawn; a grass hill; a sandpit; coloured EPDM shapes – a range of interventions are built to remodel the large open area of this school into a playground, allowing students to explore the use of space and objects freely and playfully.

Project 3: Adaptable STEM Room, Po Leung Kuk CASTAR Primary School

This school’s standard computer lab is transformed into a multifunctional STEM room, with large and adaptable spaces for hands-on experiments. Individualised mobile workstations are introduced to facilitate student-centred, self-regulated learning tasks.