Victoria Vessel

Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong

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Victoria Vessel

Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong

Firm

Studio Log

Type

Cultural › Pavilion
Landscape + Planning › Public Park Playground

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2021

SIZE

0 sqft - 1000 sqft

BUDGET

$10K - 50K

The urban furniture seeks to tell the tale of Hong Kong’s magnificent maritime history and celebrate the naval icons of Victoria Harbour. The spatial narrative of the design will provide an interactive, unique and attractive social node, thus strengthening engagement with the community and delivering a positive and innovative experience to visitors. Being a sustainable, experimental and low-cost design are the main objectives.

Glue Laminated Timber is selected as main material, as timber is a “carbon sink” to minimise carbon footprint when compare to high energy demanding steel and concrete. The catenary-shaped beams can support multiples of weight compare to a straight beam as they have either pure tension or compression force, maximising structural stiffness with the least material required. Compare with the modern CNC milling method using tree logs, bending curved glulam beams by only 2 mould minimise both the material waste and construction cost when achieving catenary shape.

The use of woven nylon helps beat the heat while sitting under the summer days, it also allows natural ventilation across the deck surface to bring the heat away. The vessel is the perfect place for enjoying the sea breeze. Unlike typical urban furnitire that made of metal, the use of timber maintain a cooler surface with its low conductivity. Together with the woven nylon net, the furniture provide a longer usable time under the strong sun in summer. Engineering plastic are used at the bottom of the timber to prevent rain water touching the glulam beams directly. The angled glulam beams and wood protection coating is applied to make the Vessel weather-proof, thus increasing the lifetime of the design and prevent any permanent anchor to the ground. Therefore, after the display period, ‘Victoria Vessel’ can be easily relocated toa new site or dissembled for other medium of creation.