This project deals with issues of the natural and unnatural, of reality and simulacra. The clients had previously engaged SKEW to masterplan and design a series of arts related homestays at an emptied-out village sited in Tonglu, Zhejiang. The desire by urbanites to leave the city – in search of wellness, of respite, of nature – has given rise to an industry aimed towards packaging “authentic” rural experiences for consumption, and which is driven by government policies and a growing urban middle class. [+]
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The Kowloon Fitness Park Masterplan looks to revitalizing an original fitness trail located in Hong Kong. The project looks to address various issues surrounding the park – from a rapidly aging population to engaging new technologies, sustainability, and accessibility and safety issues. Recognizing that the historical significance of the site, the project attempts to reconcile different time cycles and layers of temporalities. [+]
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The proposed Permaculture Library is located in Sanhuai Village, a so-called “hollowed” village in Zhejiang Province, China. Such emptied-out villages have become common-place since the market changes in the 80s and rural land reforms from the 2000s on. This project acknowledges the changes to the rural, but aims to reinvigorate such areas by introducing new forms of cooperation between the local and transient populations. [+]
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This sister exhibition to the Seoul Biennale edition expands on the original to include industrial sites along the Pearl River Delta, in addition to the Yangtze River Delta. Spanning research and design from the 1950s to 2010s, the installation analyzes the political, technological, economic and social forces shaping industry in China, and theorizes that far from the typical tropes of deindustrialization, production is very much alive in the city, even as it takes on new forms. [+]
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This exhibition at the inaugural Seoul Biennale features Shanghai’s industrial history as a backdrop to unpack questions of production within a city. The exhibition dives into architectural and planning scales, unearths archival material and remaps areas such as Jiading, Pengpu, Songjiang and Caohejing, in order to reveal potentials, invisible connections and alternate narratives. [+]
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The theme “Exhale” is a timely one for Singapore. For us, “exhale” does not simply refer to a slow space for decompressing within a high density environment such as Singapore. Instead the act of exhaling grants the public agency through the act of reflection. Having passed SG50, we need to take stock of our current lifestyles in multiple ways, and to reflect on Singapore’s past, present and future, thereby forming a stronger sense of identification with the city-state. [+]
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The "Nap-avillion" is a temporary installation in the middle of a vinyard in Xi'an, China. The project morphs from a gable roof on one side, to a butterfly-roof on the other. Between the structural members are draped plastic sheets that correspond to different anthropomorphic sections, allowing visitors to interact, sit, lie, and "nap" within the pavilion.
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This drawing is an exploration and reinvention of the figure ground mode of representation. It absorbs multiple plans from a variety of milestone periods in the history of a city, combining conflicted ideas of picturesque Garden City planning from a colonial planning office, technically and climatically efficient execution from a nationalist government, and politically legitimate and democratic persuasions from a regime trying to stay in power. [+]
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The “Building M+” Exhibition serves a dual purpose for the M+, the first museum in Asia about the visual culture in the Asia-Pacific region. On one level, it is the inaugural exhibition for the M+ building design, where the design process multi-year design process culminating in the winning entry by Herzog & de Meuron is first presented to the public. The exhibition is simultaneously the first display of the growing architectural collection of the M+. [+]
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Modern Weekly Magazine commissioned SKEW Collaborative to participate in a holiday issue. Designers were given a luxury item to be wrapped and photographed for the magazine. Drawing inspiration from the 12 nights of Christmas, we wrapped the Marni shoe in 12 "leaves", printed in a pattern that indexes the body in Tchaikovsky's ballet, "The Nutcracker".
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These two related exhibition installations were commissioned by the Chengdu Biennale and Singapore Hub-to-Hub Exhibition. The projects question both cities' statuses as "Green Cities", in order to uncover the policies and forces driving how cities brand themselves within a global network. These projects will thus unpack the term “green”, and act as a machine to demystify the act of greenwashing. [+]
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This installation at the 2019 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale deconstructs a commonplace architectural element – the curtainwall – into its structural and decorative components. By using a strong material (steel tubes) in a relatively weak rectilinear form, and overlaying a weak material (bamboo scaffolding) laid out as reinforcing diagonals throughout, the piece uncovers and brings into tension the dialectical relationship of form and function in curtainwalls. [+]
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This installation was commissioned by Francesco Bonami, curator of Foundazione Sandretto re Rebaudengo in Torino. The work was the culmination of an eight-month research on the relevance of manufacturing in China and its impact to the world at large, where China begins to sell ideologies to the world, not simply just satiating the world’s appetite for cheap manufactured goods. [+]
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This project for the 2017 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale analyzed Mission Hills – one of the largest luxury and golfing developments in Shenzhen. By breaking down planning into “patches” of nature – sand, sun, water, greening etc, instant cities are deployed whenever and wherever in a rapidly urbanizing China. This installation proposes that such “thin” applications of the purportedly natural help drive the development and real estate speculation in China post-reform. [+]
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This project combines the spatial strategies of the changing room and the programmatic possibilities of the Shanghai partition. It is the only object needed to accommodate the lifestyles of the 2 young professionals. 2 structures are erected on the ends of the block-length loft. Each comprises a closet and changing space in the interior and an extroverted function on the exterior – one for lounging, and the other for an audio-visual console. [+]
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Art Asia Pacific, People's Architecture, and Lego commissioned a group of international artists and architects to produce pieces for charity, and provided each group with a box of white Lego pieces. The abstract whiteness of the blocks contrasted with the immediacy of the pieces as playthings for children, and this seeming disjunction was taken as the theme for the installation. [+]
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This exhibition installation was commissioned by the 2004 Singapore Arts Festival. The project transplants a New York apartment to a Singapore shophouse in transition and awaiting redevelopment. The project critiqued and made visible the anthropomorphic movements inscribed by an apartment plan of a typical postwar building that was transplanted from downtown Manhattan, and becomes, in effect, a changing room. [+]
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Inspired by Kobo Abe’s story “The Box Man”, this dwelling box attempts to recreate multiple domestic functions within an object: the bed, dining table, sofa, tv set, clothing cabinet are wrapped into a spinning stand-alone furniture piece that can be reconfigured for different uses. [+]
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