TAL-L: An Archive for Living Materials

Panel Discussion: Material Practices in Hong Kong

Date & Time:  9-June-2022 (Thursday), 7:00 – 8:00 pm (HKT)
Venue: Zoom Webinar & Facebook Live @hkulandscape (Register here to receive the webinar link and the latest updates)

Panelists:

Ivan Valin
Associate Professor of Practice in the HKU Division of Landscape Architecture
Susanne Trumpf
Senior Lecturer in the HKU Division of Landscape Architecture
Man Tsang
Material Resource Center at Polytechnical University
Steven Chiu
General Manager at NF Developments
Lidia Ratoi
Assistant Professor in the HKU Department of Architecture
Matthew Seibert
Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia School of Architecture

In this online panel discussion, Ivan Valin and Susanne Trumpf discuss the ambitions of the Library and the potential for a more productive, grounded, and innovative set of material practices that might be found in Hong Kong. Panelists representing different streams of material expertise: collection, application, and discovery, will discuss their own work and questions framed by the TAL-L project. Matthew Seibert, from the University of Virginia, will discuss the notion of material agency and its impact on forms of practice. Man Tsang, from the Material Resource Center at Polytechnical University, will share her work on developing material resource archives. Steven Chiu, General Manager at NF Developments, will discuss durable and sustainable practices through specification and design detailing. And Lidia Ratoi, from the HKU Department of Architecture, will share her experiences with material experimentation and robotic fabrication.

Introduction

The ‘Taxon | Archive | Lab – Library’ or, TAL-L, is a database and teaching tool for landscape materials. Open and extendable, it indexes the varied materials that make up Hong Kong’s constructed terrain, recording the material alterations, extractions, and accumulations within its physical composition over time. The project reflects on the environmental challenges of contemporary material design and specification in landscape architecture and challenges designers and educators to restore traditions of making and material experimentation within our public realm.

For enquiries, please contact Ms. Ada Jiang (Email: jq1201@connect.hku.hk)

Supported by

HKU Division of Landscape Architecture, Taxon | Archive | Lab – Library (TAL-L), HKU Teaching Development Grant

Curators

Susanne Trumpf, Ivan Valin, Ceci Sze Lee Wong

Exhibition works from

CHAN Ching Yin Kurt, CHAN Shu Fai Eddie, CHAN Kung Wing Chris, CHAN Yuet Sum Canossa, CHANG Pui Ching Wendy, CHEUNG Kai Yin, CHIU Ho Wan Issac, CHUNG How Yu Jonathan, HO Po Yu, KWONG Wai Lam Rae, LAI Sophie, LAM Yuen Ching Esther, LAM Pui Kwan Candace, LAU Fong Yui Yvonne, LEUNG Hoi Kiu Kathy, LIN Heimen Vanessa, LIN Kevin, TSIM Yuenting Jessica, TSUI Ho Yin Tony, YEUNG Hei Marco, ZHAO Yuwei.

Special thanks to all students of ARCH7182, ARCH7307, ARCH7138, ARCH7254 and ARCH7156 whose hard work, curiosity, and imagination are behind the development and success of the TAL-L project.

Digital Archive

Byron Pai Lun Chiang