Department of Architecture and Design Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Grotto Retreat Xiyaotou – a play of privacy & connectivity with context”
Department of Architecture and Design Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Grotto Retreat Xiyaotou - a play of privacy & connectivity with context”
07
Dec
Learn more about the ‘Hollow Village’, a common spectacle in China’s rural landscape, presents an opportunity for reinvention, with Matthew Hon, Creative Director and Founder of A()VOID (Macao).
Architecture and Design Programme | 2023-24 Public Lectures
Man-Machine Made
The Department of Architecture and Design (DAD) of USJ announces its series of public lectures for the academic year 2023-24, inviting students, architects, designers and other curious viewers from around the world to join the school’s dialogue. The lecture series will stage public conversations with speakers from across the architecture and design disciplines with the theme “Man-Machine Made”, a collaborative endeavour of technologic and analogue processes of making.
We will explore the modus operandi of designers and researchers that gravitate on the boundaries of architecture, design and public arts, seeking alternative for interaction with the city. We will highlight DAD’s commitment to experimental work at the edge of the discipline with a range of Macau’s and international contemporary practices to outline propositions for alternative forms of design.
About the Talk
The ‘Hollow Village’, a common spectacle in China’s rural landscape, presents an opportunity for reinvention. In Yu County, this renaissance involves providing employment to economically challenged households and preserving local cultural heritage. The goal is a community that combines traditional and modern living, a symbiotic fusion of the old and the new. This socio-architectural experiment takes shape on a 4x6m canvas, reimagining dwellings and choreographing human ingenuity with nature. The result is a rationalised cavern, marked by varying fenestrations and angular unit placement to evoke a sense of kinship. Our aspiration lies in a hotel complex bridging ancient cave-living with modern connectivity, a testament to the resilience and evolution of Yu County.
About the Speaker
Matthew Hon – A()VOID (Macao)
Born in Macau, Matthew Hon has been exploring the possibilities of future urban and rural transformation in the context of a post-colonial city. He has received his bachelor of architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. First learnt about the transitional Chinese ruralism during his spell at Zhao Yang Architects, hoping to conduct conceptual experiments on cross-scale regionalism via various media (including but not limited to graphics, architecture, multimedia, urbanism and interior design). He is the creative director and founder of A()VOID.
Details:
Date & Time: Wednesday, 7 December 2023, 19:30 (Macao)
Location: USJ Ilha Verde Campus Courtyard
Organised by: Department of Architecture and Design – Faculty of Arts and Humanities USJ
Moderated by:
Prof. Filipe Afonso, Programme Supervisor | Bachelor of Architectural Studies filipe.afonso@usj.edu.mo
Prof. Filipa Simões, Programme Supervisor | Bachelor of Design Filipa.simoes@usj.edu.mo
