Y4S2 TK Studio | Wah Fu Archive

Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Studio Brief Proposals

Site Site Photographs

Studies Process Photographs

4

Studio Title

Contents

Proposals Cosmic \ Spirituality Wah Fu Qi Field: A Pseudoscientific Inquiry

by Nelllie Leong Wah Fu Cosmic Theatre

by Sheena Ng Rhythms of Life: Symphony of the Sacred and the Everyday

by Faith Yeo Relationality Wah Fu Mahjong Planning Principles

by Loh Min Ru Between Worlds: Wah Fu Kaifong

by Lee Zhuo Yao Culture Wah Fu Memories: Echoes of Wealth and Splendor

by Liew ChooiYee, Alison Wah Fu Mart: Elements of Chance and Fate

by Tab Chu Yi

Studio Title

5

AR5802: Of Guan Yin, Guan Yu and Maneki-Neko: The Wah Fu Community Shrine as a Transportable Archive

FINAL REVIEW Guest Critics: Associate Professor Lilian Chee Senior Lecturer Dr. Federico Ruberto Lecturer Christo Meyer Students: Faith Yeo Xin Yi Veronica Lee Zhuo Yao Liew Chooi Yee Loh Min Ru Nellie Leong Sheena Ng Tan Chu Yi

The studio explores the archive as an act of intervention in anticipation of future memories for the community shrine in Wah Fu, Hong Kong. It will investigate the archive as a transportable collection of tangible stories and artefacts that are entangled with the site’s social, cultural, economic and political forces. Central to the investigation are the following three questions.

How are memories spatialised in a transportable archive?

How are memories materialised in a transportable archive?

What are the tectonics and aesthetics of the transportable archive?

The Option Studio offers a supportive environment for architecture students to apply their transferable skills in the design of a transportable archive Contextual Understanding Students conducted desktop research and interviewed the shrine’s elders and residents to gain a deeper understanding of its history, evolution, and cultural significance within the community. These conversations offer invaluable first-hand insights, revealing personal stories, rituals, and lived experiences that go beyond what is accessible through secondary sources. The knowledge informs and shapes curatorial strategies, artefact selection, and modes of display.

This community-engaged approach ensures that the archive reflects and preserves both the intangible values of the people and the cultural heritage embedded in the shrine.

Curating, Planning and Organising the Archive Students plan and organise their curated collections to fit within the confines of the wooden archive case. They treat the space as a container and a design challenge, which demands careful spatial planning, where each item is critically evaluated for its significance, relevance, and relationship to the overall narrative. These curatorial decisions about what to include, omit, or emphasise require thoughtful alignment between concept, content, and aesthetic intent to ensure that the physical arrangement and curatorial choices reinforce the archive’s central theme.

Communication and Visualisation Students use a range of media like drawings, models, diagrams, photographs, sound recordings, and videos to support the archival experience. They assess the most effective visual strategy to ensure that these choices are contextually appropriate and resonate with the visual language and sensibilities of Hong Kong and the site. The visualisations go beyond depiction of architectural forms, but serve as interpretive tools that frame and express social, cultural, historical, and spatial narratives. Through this process, students learn how to translate ideas into compelling visual experiences that engage the archive users emotionally and intellectually.

1:1 Engaging with the archive at full scale requires students to confront the practical realities of construction, materiality, and detailing in a direct, hands-on manner. Unlike traditional representational drawings or digital models, which often remain abstract and speculative, full-scale prototyping demands that students grapple with how their designs perform under realworld conditions. This includes addressing structural integrity, tactile quality, joinery, and assembly of components. The process fosters a heightened sensitivity to materials and craftsmanship, while deepening their understanding of how form evokes emotional responses. The project cultivates a habit of iterative refinement, and coherence between functional performance, aesthetic resolution, and the narrative embedded in the archive.

Multi-Scalar Thinking The project challenges students to think about their design across multiple scales, nurturing a holistic understanding of spatial relationships. At the intimate scale, they curate and organise individual items within the archive by considering their arrangement, interrelationships and narrative significance. At the intermediate scale, students address construction techniques, detailing, and material selection. At the contextual scale, they integrate design, aesthetic sensibilities, user experience, and cultural significance to the context. Through this multi-scalar approach, students learned to think and design at different scales and the importance of their interconnection.

Wah Fu Qi Field - A Pseudoscientific Inquiry

by Nellie Leong Lexuan

Beyond the physical structure of the Wah Fu Community Shrine exists an intricate network of energy fields—collectively known as Qi (氣)—that flow in constant flux. Though invisible, these forces profoundly shape how individuals experience and connect with the space. The emotions we associate with a place are not merely reactions to its physical form but are deeply influenced by the unseen energy that permeates it.This ever-evolving cosmic field is shaped by the presence of deities, embedded belief systems, and the rituals performed over time. Unlike conventional archives focused on material preservation, this project redefines archiving as an experiential and interpretative process, capturing the essence of energy flow. By adopting a pseudoscientific approach, it explores how Qi can be sensed and engaged with beyond its intangible nature.

This transportable archive invites intuitive and ritualistic engagement with the shrine as a living entity, guiding users through three interconnected experiential scales: the macrocosm, which maps the shrine’s broader cosmic field; the mesocosm, where users explore clusters of energy fields and the relationships between cosmic elements; and the microcosm, where they personally interact with Qi—regardless of time or location.

Emulating a pseudoscientific laboratory, the experience begins with a research phase in which users analyze energy patterns to build spatial awareness of a site they may be unfamiliar with. This involves a cosmic field light chart and a series of stippled drawings recording the shrine’s energy fields. Users then proceed to tactile experiments using magnetic iron powder and engraved acrylic specimens, allowing them to physically sense, direct, and manipulate Qi flow. The archive concludes in a documentation ritual, where users construct a photobooth to photograph the results of their magnetic board experiments. This image becomes a takeaway—a symbolic artefact that preserves and carries the shrine’s energy beyond the site itself.

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WAH FU

PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC

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03.00 02.00

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LABORATORY

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BUDDHISM

COSMIC FIELD

BELIEF SYSTEMS

DEITIES/ FIGURINES

chakra

budai, buddha

TAOISM

CONFUCIANISM

wu xing, ying yang

CHINESE FOLK

ancestor, deity worship, geomacy (fengshui)

CHRISTIANITY

HINDUISM

trinity: father, son and holy spirit

chakra

jesus

ganesha

fu lu shou, sun wu kong,

tin hau ma zhu

cai shen guan yin,

gurdian lions

8 immortals

guan yu

ENERGY

PSEUDO

SCIENCE

MACROCOSM

MESOCOSM

MICROCOSM

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NON-RELIGIOUS

maneki-neko

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SITE REPORT

LOCATION PLAN

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MAGNETS [S] [M] [L]

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DEITIES

华富社区神社

Studio Title

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ITERATION 1_ARCHIVE

ITERATION 1_ENERGY MAPPING

ITERATION 1_COMPONENTS

RESEARCH_ENERGY MAPPING

华富社祠堂

RESEARCH

01

1. As you set foot into the shrine, where do you feel drawn to first?

金 木 水 火 土

FENGSHUI QUIZ

GUO FENGYI

OBJECTIVE

2. You are now greeted by a myriad of deities. How do you pray to them?

土 金 木 水 火

To understand how Guo Fengyi represents unseen energies—particularly through bodily and cosmological motifs

“Before I draw, I do not know what it will become. It is only after I finish drawing that I know. I draw because I do not know.

I draw to know.”

NAME

NAME

NAME

Analytical Diagram of the Sun Seen from

Diagram of Guan Ziming Compiled

a Distance in the State of Qigong, 1989

Xuandongjijing,1990

NOTES

NOTES

NOTES

Colored ink on glazed printing paper

Colored ink on calendar paper

Colored ink on calendar paper

NAME

NAME

NAME

Ear, 1990

Organization Diagram of Human Numeric,

The Grave of Lao Jun, 1990

3. Wandering deeper into the shrine, you encounter different spots within the space.

Which spot do you feel most drawn to?

火 土 金 木 水

S

4. A ritual to celebrate the birthday of tin hau ma zu commences, you are drawn to...

SW

SE

水 火 土 金 木 5. As you prepare to leave Wah Fu Community Shrine, what energy lingers with you the most?

木 水 火 土 金

泽

雷

火

地

E

山

风

MAGNETIC BOARD

W

天

02

水

NE

NW

木

水

火

土

精 专 致 注

生 活 长 力

流 宁 动 静

转 激 变 情

稳 安 定 全

力 决 量 心

生 自 命 由

深 平 度 和

热 冲 情 动

滋 舒 养 适

净 清 化 晰

延 希 展 望

反 沉 射 思

能 喜 量 悦

包 怀 容 旧

Refinement, Strength, Purification

Growth, Life, Expansion

Flow, Depth, Reflection

Transformation, Passion, Energy

Stability, Nourishment, Embrace

Focus, Determination, Clarity

Vitality, Freedom, Hope

Tranquility, Peace, Contemplation

Passion, Impulse, Joy

Security, Comfort, Nostalgia

N

金

Diagram of the Liver Meridian, 1990

03

WOODEN PLAQUES

金

木

水

火

土

2006 NOTES

NOTES

NOTES

Colored ink on calendar paper

Colored ink on blueprint paper

Colored ink on glazed printing paper

04

TALISMAN

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ITERATION 2_ENERGY MAPPING

ITERATION 1_DOCUMENTATION

ITERATION 2_MAGNETIC BOARD

01

MICROCOSM LAYER

02

MACROCOSM LAYER

Studio Title

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FILE

EDIT

VIEW

UNPACKED ARCHIVE

COMPONENT 01.00 - COSMIC FIELD LIGHT CHART

[MACROCOSM]

A BACKLIT LIGHT MAP THAT VISUALIZES WAH FU SHRINE’S ENERGY CENTERS AND COSMIC FLOW. IT INTRODUCES USERS TO THE SITE’S BROADER SPATIAL AND ENERGETIC CONTEXT THROUGH A FENG SHUI-INSPIRED READING.

C.

A.

D. E. B.

F.

CONTENT

MATERIALS

1.1 SITE PLAN

A. B. C. D. E. F.

WAH FU PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC LABORATORY

LIGHT BOX POWER BANK 2MM BLACK ACRYLIC 3MM TEXTURED ACRYLIC 0.2MM PVC SHEET 1MM CLEAR ACRYLIC

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FILE

EDIT

VIEW

UNPACKED ARCHIVE

COMPONENT 02.00 - ENERGY FIELD RECORDS

[MESOCOSM]

DELICATE RICE PAPER STIPPLING MAPS DOCUMENT HOW QI FLOWS AROUND SITE FRAGMENTS—SUCH AS ROCKS, DEITIES, AND OFFERINGS—INVITING USERS TO MATCH DRAWINGS WITH FRAGMENTS AND REFLECT ON INTERRELATIONSHIPS.

CONTENT

MATERIALS

2.1 ENERGY FIELD FRAGMENTS 2.2 ENERGY FIELD MAPPINGS

A. B. C. D. E. F.

WAH FU PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC LABORATORY

3MM MDF BOARD RICE PAPER KRAFT PAPER NATURAL HEMP STRING ROPE RED AND BLUE FILM PAPER CLIPS

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FILE

EDIT

VIEW

UNPACKED ARCHIVE

COMPONENT 03.00 - MAGNETIC BOARD

[MESOCOSM]

USERS INTERACT WITH MAGNETIC IRON POWDER AND ACRYLIC PLAQUES TO MANIPULATE AND VISUALIZE ENERGY MOVEMENT AND FLOW. THIS HANDS-ON “LABORATORY” ALLOWS USERS TO SHAPE AND EXPLORE QI THROUGH TACTILE ENGAGEMENT.

CONTENT

MATERIALS

3.1 MAGNETIC BOARD 3.2 SPECIMENS

A. B. C. D. E. F.

WAH FU PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC LABORATORY

3MM MDF BOARD MAGNETIC IRON POWDER 8MM DIA MAGNETIC WAND 10/15/20MM DIA MAGNETS KRAFT PAPER NATURAL HEMP STRING ROPE

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FILE

EDIT

VIEW

UNPACKED ARCHIVE

COMPONENT 04.00 - PHOTOBOOTH

[MICROCOSM]

USERS PHOTOGRAPH THE RESULT OF THEIR QI EXPERIMENT USING A PHOTOBOOTH SETUP. THE RESULTING IMAGE BECOMES A PERSONAL, SYMBOLIC ARTEFACT—A RITUAL TAKEAWAY OF THE SHRINE’S PRESERVED ENERGY.

CONTENT

MATERIALS

4.1 CAMERA HOLDER 4.2 CAMERA STAND

A. B. C. D.

WAH FU PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC LABORATORY

3MM MDF BOARD 3MM CLEAR ACRYLIC CAMERA PLASTIC SLEEVES

27/02/2025

8

17

7 [place magnets here]

1

1

[place records here]

3

4

[place paper clips here]

9

18

5

10

[place magnetic board here]

Studio Title

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[place prescription here]

OK

20 [place specimen on top]

8

OK

11

12

21 10

X

[place specimen here]

11 9

2

19 6

[place magnets beneath]

OK

13

[place pieces here]

16

16

15

15

14

15

[place camera here]

15

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Cosmic Theatre

by Ng Sang Teng Sheena

Wah Fu Community Shrine exists as a Cosmic Theatre, where time, space, and rituals coexist into an unfolding performance of the seen and unseen. Beyond religious beliefs, the shrine is a liminal space where fleeting moments dissolve into cycles, incense smoke drifts into wind, whispered prayers merge with the shrine’s echoes, and offerings bridge the human and divine. Every element participates in a performance larger than itself… One that is constantly in motion, shaped by the presence of those who pass through, pause, pray, and remember. The shrine holds not just memory, but momentum that continues regardless of who is watching.

The film reveals the shrine’s hidden dimensions, shifting between formlessness, human and animal life, deities, and the underworld. The realms that interweave on the same plane transform through perception. Just like how a statue might just be stone to one person, it is a living presence to another, or a ritual could seem like a simple action, but to someone else, it’s a connection to another world. Meaning becomes dependent on belief, and presence becomes elastic, stretching across dimensions based not just on sight, but on faith, gesture, and emotion. The shrine, then, is not fixed in space or time, but breathes with the people who interact with it.

The turntable structure mirrors this movement, emphasizing the cyclic nature of existence, where everything is interconnected rather than separate. It is a physical metaphor for the shrine’s essence of a world in flux, always turning, always returning.

Expanding beyond religious narratives, the shrine unfolds as a universal performance, where realms of human, deity, and unseen forces converge. Rituals become performances in the karmic cycle - offerings, prayers, and burning joss paper act as echoes of past actions and future consequences. This is not a static space but a rotating stage, where time, belief, and existence move in an endless interplay.

Samsara Circle depicting the 4 realms of Human & Animal Transportable Archive Unfolded and Folded.

Realm, Deities Realm, Underworld Realm and Formlessness. Cosmic Theatre and Cosmic Turntable are configured.

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The cosmic theatre configuration allows for a symmetrical and harmonious interlocking of components, forming the Mazu Shrine—the most prominent structure within the Wah Fu Community Shrine, facing the vast ocean. Rather than housing a static deity figure, the interior features a video projection of the four realms, embodying the interwoven philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism. This dynamic centrepiece transforms the shrine into a living, breathing cosmos, where movement, belief, and space converge.

The cosmic turntable is a layered, interactive platform that symbolises the cyclical flow between realms—most notably the human and animal world, and the realm of deities—where offerings are placed to honour and connect with both the underworld and celestial beings. Multiple deities and diverse offerings inhabit this spinning structure, with mirrors and reflective papers amplifying a sense of infinite vastness within the cosmic landscape. Each rotation becomes a ritual act, embodying the ongoing exchange between seen and unseen forces.

As cited in Hong Kong: Asia’s World City, Buddhism and Taoism are prominent beliefs in Hong Kong, and they deeply inform the background of this shrine. The shrine began when porcelain deities, once carefully kept in homes, were relocated here as traditions faded. But they were never left alone. Community followed. Realms began to overlap - people pray, dogs nap, hell money burns, ancestors are remembered.

The shrine lives with change and memory.

This overlapping of realms inspired my interpretation of Samsara - the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth in Buddhism. Similar to Taoism’s flow of life, rituals at the shrine mirror Karma in action.

Detailed Layout of Transportable Archive

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Image used with courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

(Students to cite own images appropriately.)

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Image References Wen Wei Po. (2018, August 30). [Article title not available]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from http://news.wenweipo.com/2018/08/30/IN1808300044.htm​ Coconuts Hong Kong. (n.d.). Shrine of a thousand abandoned Buddhas: Photo essay. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://coconuts.co/hongkong/shrinethousand-abandonedbuddhas-photo-essay/​ Blue Lapis Road. (2014, May 4). Deity Garden and Fu Gui Swimming Club: Ad hoc space-making in Wa Fu Estate. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://bluelapisroad.wordpress.com/2014/05/04/deity-garden-and-fu-guiswimming-club-ad-hoc-space-making-in-wa-fu-estate/​ Lion Rock Tales. (2020, July 23). Hong Kong retiree builds pantheon for abandoned Buddha statues. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://lionrocktales. hkbu.edu.hk/index.php/2020/07/23/hong-kong-retiree-builds-pantheonfor-abandoned-buddha-statues/ Getty Images. (n.d.). HONG KONG-CULTURE-LIFESTYLE-RELIGION. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://www.gettyimages.com/ search/2/image?phrase=HONG%20KONGCULTURE-LIFESTYLERELIGION&family=editorial​ Flickr. (n.d.). [Photograph by j3tourshongkong]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/j3tourshongkong/43753000844/in/ photostream/​ Flickr. (n.d.). [Photograph by pandamak]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https:// www.flickr.com/photos/pandamak/52013576722/in/photostream/

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Notes YouTube. (n.d.). [Video titled “戲棚】正式預告 BAMBOO THEATRE Trailer”]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=J2wKcCUpzjE​

YouTube. (n.d.). [Video titled “Chinese Mythology Creation Story Explained in Animation”]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vget_QAmo ​ YouTube. (n.d.). [Video titled “東張西望｜華富邨8000神像堆滿山｜觀音｜關公｜耶穌｜招財貓｜共存｜破解神秘擺放 源由”]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDZkfjf990c&t=318s​

YouTube. (n.d.). [Video titled “打龜步兵03 華富華貴萬千觀音賀打龜”]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=0qVoQLkHvlQ

Chinese Text Project. (n.d.). 道德經. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing​

Budaedu.org. (n.d.). [佛教教育基金會]. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://budaedu.org/budaedu/buda2_02.php​

Baidu Baike. (n.d.). 佛教经典. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://baike.baidu.com/item/佛教经典/2706290

CNN Travel. (n.d.). Hong Kong’s bamboo theater. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/hong-kongbamboo-theater/index.html​

The Temple Trail. (n.d.). 10 essential Chinese gods in Hong Kong. Retrieved April 19, 2025, from https://thetempletrail.com/10essential-chinese-gods

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Rhythms of Life: Symphony of the Sacred and the Everyday

by Faith Yeo Xin Yi Veronica

The Rhythms of Life is a transportable archive of Wah Fu that reimagines how time can be documented and experienced. Drawing inspiration from the Chinese calendar—an intricate system that weaves together cosmic, seasonal, and ritual dimensions—the project moves beyond the linearity of the Gregorian calendar to explore how time is felt, embodied, and practiced within a specific community. The calendar’s almanac-like nature, which guides daily actions through its indications of auspiciousness, served as a catalyst for investigating how temporal rhythms shape both spiritual practice and everyday life.

The proposal introduces an alternative method of timekeeping—one that traces the interplay between the mortal and the immortal across cycles that are at once cosmic, benign, seasonal, and fleeting. Rather than reducing time to abstract units, it emphasizes lived experience. The archive becomes a medium through which ephemeral moments—those that might otherwise escape documentation—are translated into a sensory “symphony of life.” This approach allows users to engage with time experientially, encountering preserved moments not as static records, but as portals into temporal rhythms that can be re-invoked.

During the field visit, the project evolved to attend more closely to the temporal nuances of the site itself: the rising and falling of tides, the routines of the shrine caretaker, passing joggers and butterflies, and the silent guardianship of porcelain deities.These observations prompted a shift in focus toward a single day on 27 February 2025 or 初一 (Chu Yi) , the first day of the lunar month.

Through a series of videos recorded between 10:00 AM and 4:30 PM, the archive captures the preparation of the shrine on Chu Yi. The resulting composition documents Wah Fu’s temporal life as a convergence of ritual, routine, and transience.

More than a record, it becomes a reflection on how time is marked, remembered, and shared—both individually and collectively.

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The Process The Rhythms of Time is a transportable archive inspired by the layered temporalities of the Chinese calendar. Unlike the linear progression of the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese calendar offers a multifaceted understanding of time—functioning not only as a means of marking days but also as an almanac that provides guidance on what is auspicious or inauspicious. These prescriptions influence daily activities, dietary choices, and ritual practices across past, present, and future temporalities.

This proposal situates the transportable archive within the context of a site visit to Wah Fu on 27 February 2025. The archive includes various components such as a hexagram device that enables users to align celestial seasons, fortune slips indicating favourable and unfavourable timings, and zodiac tools that reveal interpersonal conflicts based on astrological clashes. It also features ingredients for daily soup recipes, ritual objects for deity worship, and narrative elements that offer historical context about Wah Fu’s spiritual and communal past.

As the project evolved through on-site engagement, as i grew increasingly attuned to the diverse temporal rhythms embedded within the Wah Fu landscape. These range from the cyclical ebb and flow of the tides, to the daily rituals maintained by shrine caretakers, to fleeting encounters with joggers or butterflies, and even to the perceived timelessness embodied in porcelain deities. The archive thus aspires to document these layered temporalities by focusing on the lived experience of a single day at the Wah Fu community shrine, capturing a spectrum of rhythms that collectively constitute the spirit of the place.

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Creating the Composition The process of composing the Rhythms of Life begins with capturing a series of key video recordings that best represent the activities occurring at a specific moment. From these recordings, a “frame of view” (FOV) is identified, categorized into two domains: inside the FOV and outside the FOV. The sounds produced by individuals on site are then analyzed and differentiated based on their volume and whether their source appears within or beyond the visual frame.

These sonic elements are then mapped onto a timeline to document how various audio layers interact and intertwine. Each key figure captured in the footage is assigned a rhythmic motif and a distinct synthesized sound. Using the cues from the timeline, these motifs are developed into an audio composition, accessible via a scannable QR code embedded within the archive.

The resulting rhythm is further distilled and reformatted into the Rhythm of Life scroll, which visually indicates the presence and contribution of each participant within different scenes. When aligned with the lunar calendar—used to determine auspicious times and suggested activities—the scroll allows the user to metaphorically “turn back time.” By inserting key figures into specific moments within the scroll, the experience of that original scene may be reanimated and experientially invoked, offering an immersive reflection on time, presence, and memory.

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Hong Kong Visual Culture: Endless Streets of Hong Kong In this exercise, my box was inspired by the views I captured while visiting Hong Kong. It depicts the city’s toering commercial and residential buildings that stretch endlessly into the sky, constracts with human-scale sunset industriese that line the streets in a seemlingly infinite sprawl. Hong Kong’s identity is deeply intertwined with relgion - evident on street corners, in shop interioirs, home entrances and even walls. This cultural presence has also influenced popular culture, toys and media. However, the overwhleming cost of lviing weighs heavily on residents. This tension is represented by the bills pasted around the box, accompied by lottery tickets symbolizing the hope for quick and easy wealth.

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Mahjong Planning Principles

by Loh Min Ru

The Wah Fu Community Shrine in Hong Kong is more than a religious site or a historical relic - it is a living space of exploration, participation, and interrelation. Its collection of deities and artifacts embodies evolving social-cultural beliefs, spiritual practices and community rituals. The shrine functions as a site of both religious devotion and communal recreation, holding deep significance for many residents.

However, redevelopment threatens to displace the community, risking the shrine’s vitality, prompting a critical question: How can we preserve cultural memory and spiritual identity amidst urban transformation while fostering a sense of ownership for future generations?

The project responds by reimagining the shrine through the spatial logic of mahjong a deeply rooted aspect of Hong Kong’s cultural identity - in the ideas of arrangement, strategy, and continuity. like mahjong tiles that are rearranged to form “winning” combinations, the shrine’s dieties and objects are envisioned as modular and symbolic units in a living archive that adapts, expands, and invites community participation over time.

At the core of this system is the revival of mahjong tile carving, a once thriving craft now fading in Hong Kong. Reinvented here as a method of tactile inscription, the engraved tiles encourage hands-on interaction, allowing residents to touch, arrange and contribute to the living archive. As sensory tools of preservation, they record spiritual ties, spatial hierarchies and communal stories - safeguarding the shrine’s essence while revitalizing a disappearing practice.

Through this evolving community-driven system, it transforms the shrine from a static strcuture into a living framework for legacy and identity. It empowers displaced communities to take ownership and reconstruct their sacred space elsewhere, grounded in cultural familiarity and collective agency. In doing so, the project turns potential loss into regeneration, keeping the Wah Fu Communtiy shrine spiritually alive and culturally resonant within Wah Fu Estate’s shifting urban landscape.

Site Analysis Wah Fu Estate is a public housing estate situated near Waterfall Bay in Pok Fu Lam, within Hong Kong’s Southern District. As seen on the map, it lies at the edge of Hong Kong Island, far from the city’s core and major religious sites. This peripheral location reinforces its sense of isolation, both geographically and socially.

In response, the community-developed Wah Fu Shrine serves as a self-constructed centre of spiritual and cultural identity for its residents—particularly the elderly— who are otherwise distanced from formal religious infrastructure and mainstream urban life. Through this site, those on the margins create their own centre of meaning, asserting cultural identity and spiritual presence in a city that often overlooks them.

Cluster A: Beach by the Rocks Shrine

Site Analysis The analysis of each individual cluster began with on-site observations that may be influenced by the specific moment of presence. From these, judgments were made on how certain environmental elements encourage lingering, creating opportunities for visual connection and interaction with the surrounding deities and artifacts.

Site Analysis Judgments about the placement of existing deities were made to identify spatial and symbolic hierarchies, considering factors such as orientation, elevation, proximity to key circulation paths, and relational groupings. These insights helped uncover underlying logics that informed the design of the archive system.

Deity Analysis The analysis of deities within each cluster involved identifying their names, labels, and subtle differences among figures of the same type. It also examined the relationships between nearby deities and artifacts, exploring possible reasons for their close proximity, such as shared symbolic roles, complementary functions, or spatial logic shaped by ritual practice and communal use.

Cluster Analysis The back of the pamphlet offers a cluster-level overview, examining the overall placement, spatial hierarchies, and symbolic meanings of each group.

Cluster Analysis Within each cluster, smaller zones emerge that reflect nuanced symbolic functions revealed through the specific placement, grouping, and orientation of deities and artifacts.

The internal zoning often mirrors ritual flows and spatial hierarchies, where proximity, elevation, and directionality suggest layered meanings and patterns of human interaction.

Together, these inner zones offer insight into the shrine’s complex spiritual and communal logic.

Cluster C: Area by the Changing Room Shrine

Unpackaged Archive When opened, the box mirrors a traditional mahjong set, featuring clockwise symmetry and a central die. At the top, a micro site map highlights the shrine’s immediate context, while a fold-out macro map below provides a broader view of the entire Wah Fu Estate, situating the shrine within its urban surroundings. Adjacent to the map, an instructional manual helps users navigate the contents below, clarifying the spatial logic and demonstrating how the tiles can be read, positioned, and reassembled.

The tiles are arranged according to the cardinal orientation of the original site, enabling intuitive replication of the shrine’s layout. Decorated with intricate Chinese patterns, the boxes are seperated into rectangle or square that corresponds to the spatial logic of the hrine’s clusters. Square tiles represent clusters with a strong central focus or symmetrical arrangement, such as those emphasizing protection, harmony, or balance, where deities are inward-facing or evenly distributed around a focal point. Rectangular tiles, on the other hand, reflect elongated, directional groupings where movement, progression, or hierarchy plays a larger role. Both of the boxes house analyses of each cluster and interpretations of individual deities and artifacts, revealing their spatial, symbolic, and communal significance.

The analysis of each individual cluster uncovers lingering spots observed on site, offering insight into how people typically interact with the deities and artifacts. In contrast, the examination of the deities artifacts, both individually and in groups, reveals their interrelationships, which directly informed the design of the tiles to allow for intuitive spatial mapping during user engagement.

The tiles are designed with peripheral symbols meant to be read in a clockwise sequence. These markings indicate the deity’s type or associated religion (or lack thereof), its original placement on site, patterns of human interaction based on bodyheight proximity, spatial distance within the site, and finally, its relational dynamics with nearby deities or artifacts to define group proximities.

This project reimagines the Wah Fu Community Shrine as a living, participatory archive - one that preserves spiritual memory through tactile engagement, intuitive mapping, and symbolic design. By blending site-specific observation, cultural continuity, and the familiar logic of mahjong, it empowers users to carry forward the shrine’s legacy - adapting, reinterpreting, and extending it across time and space.

Future Vision Envisions a future where mahjong tiles serve as an intuitive system to carry forward the existing structure of the Wah Fu shrine. It reflects how the spatial relationships and logic currently in place can inform new configurations, enabling the shrine to adapt while retaining its original essence.

The project’s base is designed to resemble a mahjong table, emphasizing the shrine’s legibility and play-like quality. This format allows the tiles to be rearranged and interpreted in different contexts, preserving its cultural significance and collective memory through flexible, symbolic reassembly.

“Winning” Combinations Resembles a mahjong table that is extended from the drawing o future vision. It visualizes how new tiles, highlighted in blue, can be added to the existing arrangement. These tiles come with recommended deities or artifacts to be placed near existing relational groupings, allowing the shrine to expand while respecting the symbolic, spatial, and ritual logic of the original site. This system maintains coherence while guiding intuitive future placements.

Box Contents

BETWEEN WORLDS: WAH FU KAIFONG

by Lee Zhuo Yao

Between Worlds: Wah Fu KaiFong is a transportable archive that seeks to preserve not a fixed image of the Wah Fu Community Shrine, but the spirit that continues to shape it. This project captures the essence of Wah Fu through its continuous growth, informal care, and the layered rituals of those who quietly sustain it. At the heart of the archive is the idea of Kai Fong, a Cantonese term that refers to neighbourly ties, bottom-up maintenance, and shared presence within community space.

The shrine, located on a hillside in Wah Fu Estate, has been formed over decades through the accumulated actions of residents and visitors. Deities, figurines, and objects have been added, arranged, and cared for without a singular plan. The shrine has grown not through design, but through lived negotiation. Wah Fu: Kai Fong of the Deities proposes an archive that interprets and distills the soft rules that have guided this process. These are drawn from the identities of the deities, their spatial arrangements, and the quiet meanings tied to their presence.

Users are invited to uncover the hidden logic behind these quiet designers and the Kai Fong of the deities, moving through layered observations of names, placements, and meanings. Through this unfolding, the archive offers soft rules in the form of impressions rather than instructions, gently guiding users toward the recreation of Wah Fu itself.

The aim is not to replicate the shrine, but to internalise its essence as a logic of coexistence, care, and improvisation. The archive becomes a living methodology that resists the flattening of heritage into fixed display and instead embraces the ongoing collaborative labour of care. Even if the original site disappears, its spirit continues: reshaped, retold, and reassembled each time a new Wah Fu takes form.

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Wah Fu Mart - The Element of Chance

by Tan Chu Yi

The Wah Fu Community Shrine is a place of devotion where worshippers seek guidance, luck, or divine intervention through a ritual like qiu qian (fortune stick divination). The act of shaking a cylinder container until one stick falls out is an experience of chance, fate, and divine response—a moment of suspense where happiness or surprise unfolds. Worshippers have no control over the outcome, just as they cannot control the forces guiding their lives. Offerings left behind—incense, food, or paper money—mark the shrine as a living space shaped by the community’s hopes and prayers.

This unpredictability mirrors the thrill of opening a box without knowing the contents in it. In the transportable archive, players draw boxes containing objects that hold personal, collective, or historical memory from Wah Fu’s shrine. Deity collectibles, audio recordings, and printed personal memories become interactive tokens of history, transforming intangible cultural heritage into a tangible, evolving game experience. To recreate the experiences at the shrine—such as contributing deities or offering joss sticks in reverence—this travel archive presents three different outcomes, each offering a unique way for participants to engage with the box. Although each person may encounter a different activity, all are able to sense, experience, and connect with elements of the Wah Fu Community Shrine.

Like the shrine, the archive is a socio-religious space where players engage with fate, serendipity, and discovery, keeping Wah Fu’s unique heritage alive beyond its physical site.

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Image used with courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

(Students to cite own images appropriately.)

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荣华富贵 (Wealth and Splendor)

by LIEW CHOOI YEE

荣华富贵 (Wealth and Splendor) is a design project that archives the Wah Fu Estate and Wah Fu Shrine through the lens of popular culture. As Wah Fu faces complete redevelopment by 2040, this project aims to preserve its architectural and emotional memory in a way that resonates with children and the wider community.

This project uses popular culture as a method to archive as Wah Fu is already deeply embedded in Hong Kong’s cultural imagination. Featured in films like Limbo and known for its milk tea, myths, and mysterious atmosphere, Wah Fu has become a nostalgic backdrop for horror and memory. Popular culture is also widely accessible; it reaches across generations and invites emotional participation. People already archive their lives through movies, games, and storytelling, this project simply follows that instinct.

The project consists of four interactive archives. The TV Wall preserves the fading interiors of the estate, capturing textures, wall finishes, and the personal habits of residents through hidden compartments filled with mini zines and mementos. The Pop-Up Cards document four key community-built shelters, allowing children to physically open up sacred spaces and engage with the idea of shared protection. The Sandbox retells Wah Fu’s layered and mythic history like mass burials, pirate massacres, and ghost stories, through light, material, and atmosphere. Finally, the Poker Card Game features 12 caretakers from the shrine, using dice, color beads, and traditional rules to archive people through play, ending with the creation of a wearable bracelet as a personal souvenir.

Together, these formats create a tactile, emotional archive, where memory becomes something you can touch, play with, and carry home. Popular culture, in this project, becomes a living vessel for remembrance.

GUN� LEI� GUK�

ement Bureau 管 理 局 】

SOUTHEN NG

RACTION

【華富WAH FU HISTORY 歷史】

【檔AR � 案�

TV WALL ‒ HIDDEN MEM

FOO

【檔AR � 案�

POP-UP CARDS ‒ SACRE

【檔ARCHIVE � 案�】 TV WALL ‒ HIDDEN MEMORIES OF THE INTERIOR

FOOD

WHAT’S INSIDE? PRESS TO LISTEN

【檔ARCHIVE � 案�】

POP-UP CARDS ‒ SACRED SHELTERS FOR DEITIES AND PEOPLE

[ SEA CLUBHOUSE ]

[ MA ZU SHRINE ]

WATCH

TV FRIDGE

STORAGE RADIO

[ GAMBLING CLUBHOUSE ]

[ LITTLE BUDDHA HOUSE ]

【檔ARCHIVE � 案�】

SANDBOX ‒ WAH FU’S MYTHICAL AND HAUNTED HISTORY WHEN HISTORY AND MYTH COLLAPSE TOGETHER, THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN TRUTH AND FICTION BLURS

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MASS BURIALS PIRATE MASSACRES

THOUSAND BUDDHA

WAH FU ESTATE UFO INCIDENT GHOST STORIES

【檔ARCHIVE � 案�】 POKER CARDS ‒ THE DEITIES AS LOCAL HEROES

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【遊戲GAME RULE 規則】

THE GAME USES DICE, COLORED BEADS, AND A TRADITIONAL RULE SET:

YOU GET TWO CARDS, THEN DRAW A THIRD. IF THE THIRD NUMBER LANDS BETWEEN THE FIRST TWO, YOU WIN AND KEEP THE BEADS. IF NOT, YOU LOSE BEADS INTO THE POT. AT THE END, YOU USE YOUR BEADS TO MAKE A BRACELET OR NECKLACE — TURNING MEMORY INTO SOMETHING WEARABLE. AND FOR DEITY BEADS, THERE’S NO LIMIT — YOU’RE ENCOURAGED TO TAKE THEM HOME. GAME RULE

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