2023

Chinatown, New York City

09/2023

Public space design

Group work with Lydia Li

The project is based on the idea of adaptation and cultural exchange. We ex­tracted these ideas from installations and superimposed them onto larger public spaces located in the heart of Chinatown. The questions we are trying to respond to are: What would happen when Western and Eastern, two different cultures encounter? On a smaller scale, what would happen when different communities encounter, or even when individuals encounter?
For individuals, the exchange is about making eye contact through the differ­ent heights of benches. For groups, we designed various activity spaces, and some parts are overlapped with each other, the part overlapped will generate unpredictable activities. For communities, we built a bridge to connect all kinds of space to blur the boundaries, make the public space more dynamic, and continue to influence at an urban scale.
This is a design that aims to transcend boundaries, where people can come across and interact with different groups, where people can be themselves and have fun, and where different cultures can encounter and synthesize.