Ran Wei

The central objective of this project is to contrast and compare the way of life found in Hong Kong and London over a period of 120 years. It is an attempt to demonstrate the extreme challenges for Chinese immigrants over the early years and how in the 21^st Century the world has become more internationally homogenised with fewer points of difference

I have exploited certain properties of my building to create a careful sequence of events with a stage managed physical revelation that reflects on contemporary life.

Visitors are taken via a ramp to the upper floor which provides atmospheric representations of 1900 Hong Kong and London, the cities are full of trading and daily life but the look and feel is very different. Again using complete immersion the next level captures contrasting WWII narratives through London’s blitz and Hong Kong’s invasion by the Japanese which is followed by a fast track into the present day on the ground floor represented by a consumer’s paradise: ‘supermarket of the future’.

The final visually controlled movement, through a horizontal slot into the courtyard, provides the ‘coup de theatre’ as an architectural sculptural assembly represents the international commodification of architectural form, migration, data and place.