Hospital for broken things

Full description

The installation was commisioned by the Hangzhou International Design Week and located in one of empty traditional shop houses that populate Southern Song Imperial Street in the Nansong district of Hangzhou, China. As a response to the theme of 'healing' outlined by the IDW curators, the design and construction of an installation that considered issues of cutural and environmental sustainability by responding to the physical fabric of the existing buildings and which exhibited works that were produced through the recycling, reuse and reconfiguration of found and broken objects seemed appropriate. The design used the concepts of the 'hospital' and the 'patient' as a way of constructing a spatial narrative. To this end the project attempted to intertwine ideas that were concerned with the realm of medicine with ideas about the nature of the designed object and contemporary lifestyles. Through the adaption and re-use of particular objects and materials the installation raised issues brought about by the nature of modern technology and the consumerism that accompanies it. It was intended the installation would offer a reflective experience for the visitor, a moment to consider the nature of the world and question their role in taking care of it. The installation attracted more than 15,000 visitors over seven days and was featured extensively in Chinese newspaper and television reports . The project was also shortlisted and highly commended in the peer reviewed 2015 Australian Interior Design Excellence Awards. An academic essay on the project, 'Spatial Translations', has been accepted in the 2015 issue of the International Journal of Interior Architecture and Spatial Design that focuses on 'Adaptive Interventions'.