Upon visiting the waste depo site in Chai Wan I was inspired by the remnants of objects scattered throughout the yard. Although waste, all the different materials were neatly organised and being packed onto boats for transportation.
As I watched these squares of waste being loaded onto boats, I wondered where they were going and so this led to my curiosity in the cycle of waste and consumerism. Whereby consumerism in Hong Kong leads to use to waste to land and or public fill. Through my research I identified that Hong Kong’s landfill sites will be full within 6 years without any alternative solutions to the problem. Reuse has become a more prominent system in Hong Kong in order to prevent any unnecessary use of landfill, however the significantly overpopulated island is still fairly dependent on the use of landfill. Alternative means of deferring waste include the use of ‘public fill.’ Suitable for use in reclamation and site formation, public fill repurposes waste from construction, excavation, renovation, demolition and road works. Such waste may include rocks, concrete, asphalt, rubble, bricks, stones and earth. The use of public fill is a feature utilised in Hong Kong, providing alternative means to discard of waste and alternative locations to build upon. By following this wave length, I became interested in the idea of waste being the foundations of Hong Kong, where consumerism leads to waste, leading to public fill, alternative land, homes and further consumerism. Thereby Hong Kong is built upon their own waste.
I wished to use this idea “the foundations of society” to form an object. Exploring this idea I consciously realised that a foundation within a society could conceivably be the head of a hierarchy, for instance a King within a Kingdom, or a President of a country. An iconic object in history, with a strong identity as a ‘foundation’ is ‘the head seat within a society,’ for instance a throne. As such, following that train of thought I conceived creating a seat, representing Hong Kong’s consumer and social culture.
With this in mind I started sketching different seats which were representative of the forms in the waste depo.
At this point in time, I conceive the stool to be made as a bar stool, raised higher in reference to the skyscrapers of Hong Kong. It will be made in part, if not all from found objects in the Chai Wan waste depo site and reference the consumer culture and nature of Hong Kong built upon waste. Possibly by the use of found objects being predominantly on the base structure of the stool and the upper structure constructed from concrete reflecting the materials of the buildings.
