The course begins with a three-week small-scale design project requiring students to repurpose everyday materials and objects, establish a material library, design a compact doghouse, and construct it at actual dimensions. Through model-making at various scales, students gain hands-on experience with structural reuse workflows and learn to diagram static mechanics, developing foundational experiential understanding of material repurposing. Subsequently, during weeks 4 to 15 of the semester's design studio course, students transition to a real architectural site and environment—the soon-to-be-demolished State Theatre in Hong Kong—to transform it into a design workshop for international exchange.
Students first modeled and simulated the theater, focusing on its structural logic and components to gain insights into its architecture and construction. Subsequently, they conducted detailed research, categorizing internal structural elements by type, material, geometry, dimensions, weight, quantity, and other factors to create a “component library” for future design use. Subsequently, each student selected specific structural components from the library to create new designs according to the assignment brief. Using relevant digital tools, they analyzed and evaluated the structural performance and environmental parameters of the building.
State Theater Exterior in 2017 (Image Credits: Wpcpey - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55233558).THE NEON ALLEY (Image from Student: Lee Wing Tao, Rachel)Erection of the material bank and actual construction results: the doghouse named Spectrum Tunnel (Image from Student: Cheng Cheuk Lam, Ingrid; Lee Wing Tao, Rachel; Tse Ka Wing, Amena; Wang Yi Lam, Amber).Course StructureCore Logic of the StudioIn Preserve of Odell with redesigned interior theater (Image from Student: So Pak Man)Serene Ceramic Studio (Image from Student: Tse Ka Wing).Building for Urban Life (Image from Student: Kwan Ho Chi).