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Nov 2017 | Art Promotion Office (Hong Kong)

Beyond Imagination – Want to be a professional sketcher and storyteller? You can create an imaginary character with the shape of “Hack-a-Bench”, a set of public furniture located at Aldrich Bay Park and designed by Hinz Pak and Dylan Kowk for the campaign "City Dress Up: Seats Together".

Share with us on how you want to play and interact with these beautifully-hacked benches!

(This is a government-funded commission project by the Arts Promotion Office (APO) inviting 20 local designers to produce new park benches for 20 parks in Hong Kong, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.)

About Hack-A-Bench

In almost all major cities, municipal governments and professionals spend a lot of effort in designing public facilities and facelifting the urban landscape. But the results are often far from satisfactory. Many public facilities fail to satisfy user needs and are eventually underutilized, causing a waste of resources. What if we can bring up an open management model and let citizens modify existing public facilities or even utility infrastructure?

Hack-a-bench, launched by designers Dylan Kwok and Hinz Pak, encourages citizens to rig up their ideal bench by modifying existing ones. In this first-round engagement, the designer duo take the helm and realize the wildest dreams of surveyed park users. The end product is a set of 10 ergonomic and sinuous benches that will stay in the park for at least 3 years.

It is a park bench reappropriation project in Aldrich Bay Park, Hong Kong. By bestowing citizens the right to alter public facilities, the process has democratized the privilege to define our cityscape which was once exclusive for professionals. (Text by Hack-a-bench)

Project Page: https://hackabench.org

We have nonscheduled workshops. Feel free to contact us if you form a group of 8 or more. Send us an email at info@uuendylau.com .