Using popular children’s games as a research base, “Recess in Vic Park” is a project which archives, reveals, and reimagines our vernacular game culture in Hong Kong through engagement with different generations, notably post-war baby boomers and Generation Z.
How did children play in the post-war period Hong Kong? What are the differences comparing with the life of Generation Z nowadays?
Can boomers and gen Z play together?
Can vernacular children's games be part of Hong Kong cultural identity?
Inviting youth and young-old to participate in the design process, together we redesign a series of popular pastime games that suit all generations to play together.
By transforming the northern promenade in Victoria Park into a recess playground, we hope to give a joyful experience to all age groups to recall their forgotten childhood and play together!
+COMMUNITY DESIGN +GRAPHIC DESIGN +PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT +CO CREATION
RECESS AT HARBOURFRONT
2021
IDENTITY DESIGN
Our brand combines the concept of recess and Victoria park together. Recess is a symbol of childhood memory, relaxation and play time.
Recess in Victoria park shows our goal, which unearths the unique memories of Victoria Park and invites the community to join. Our logo combines alarm clock and courts lines to create an image of energetic children. Alarm clock is a symbol of recess, it is an object that announces the beginning of recess. And our concept of vintage street games is shown via the court lines. We believe our design can motivate park users to play.
For the colourings, it is inspired by Victoria harbour and trees in the park.
CO CREATION
Besides using an archaeological approach to reveal the history of recreation onto the site, we will also apply an ethnographical approach in the design research period by engaging with different communities in Wan Chai to understand the popular culture of sports and recreation in different generations. Using popular game and sports as a research base, “Unearthing Victoria” is a project to archive, reveal and reimagine our vernacular sports culture in Hong Kong, to link up different generations and different culture. Our engagement activities will be divided into three phases to enhance cross generation linkage:
Phase 1
Oral history with Elderly in Wan Chai
We contacted the local Wan Chai elderly centre to do oral history of Victoria Park and popular sports activities in the pastime. Using their stories, memories and creativity from daily life, we transformed these information into the design of the new recreational landscape in Victoria Park.
Two engagement workshops were conducted to test and refine our design. The first workshop with youth was to jam in ideas on how to renew pastime games suitable for both elders and generation Z. Second workshop was a game trail where youth and elderly will play together. The engagement result of the workshops were used to refine our design for final production.
Phase 2
Design Testing and
Multi-Generation Engagement
Phase 3
Playtime!
“Unearthing Victoria” was an installation and series of events that set to engage the wider community through architecture, sports and recreation. Highlight events included Sports Challenge and Sports festival.
GAME GRAPHIC DESIGN
Imagining the vast types of vernacular recreational games collected from oral history and desktop research, we imagined that the superimposition of different recreational grounds provides an overlapping of the past and present, which then creates a platform for cultural exchanges between communities of different backgrounds under the idea of transforming the ground.
NEW TOFU IN CROSS
HOPSCOTCH COMBAT
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS HOPSCOTCH
GRID TRAFFIC LIGHT
NOT ON GROUND
+COMMUNITY DESIGN +GRAPHIC DESIGN +PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT +CO CREATION