Exhibition
The natural is not always as natural as we first perceive. Thriving habitats supporting diverse biodiversity often camouflage past histories of change resulting from urbanization and industrialization. What appears natural is actually a complex interplay between human stewardship and biological processes. This condition exists in the wetland ecology located at Hong Kong’s border area with mainland China, which is currently being pulled between the opposing forces of conservation and development. However, are conservation and development mutually exclusive? Is it possible to attract people to the landscape without having a detrimental impact on the existing ecology? In response, we have designed a series of devices that enhance the current fishpond operations to future-proof the wetland ecology from further degradation. At San Tin, we have built three support structures that harness solar energy to power ecological machines that assist aging operators to make their work less labour intensive. The exhibition demonstrates these design ideas, and the difficulty of realising the project, in this contradictory, yet unique zone.
Project Authors: Joshua Bolchover, Donn Holohan, Xiaoxuan Lu, Jersey Poon, (HKU Rural Urban Lab)
Project Team: Kevin Lin, Jack Mok King Hei, Lewis Maplethorpe, Sandy Wang Qianhui, Aristo Chan Hui Bun (HKU Rural Urban Lab)
Ecological Consultant: Asia Ecological Consultants Ltd.
Structural Consultant: Prime Consulting Engineers Ltd.
Contractor: Plus Engineering Ltd.
Filming and editing: Kevin Lin, Lai Ching Kit Adrian
This exhibition is part of the project “Balancing Ecological Sensitivity and Enhancing Experience: Experiments for the Deep Bay Outer Ramsar Site” funded by Countryside Conservation Funding Scheme