An Archival Methodology of Improvisation and Resilience in Hong Kong
This paper proposes Zap Sang Design (執生設計) as a distinctly Hong Kong design methodology rooted in the everyday practice of improvisation under constraint. Derived from the vernacular ethos of zap sang, the practice of making do with available resources, the research reframes this mode of action not as a marginal survival tactic but as an embodied and sophisticated system of knowledge. Drawing on a decade of observation across Hong Kong’s diverse urban and rural settings, the paper argues that ordinary citizens continually act as designers by creatively repurposing objects, infrastructures, and spatial conditions. Central to this argument is the concept of negative space, understood as the gaps, leftovers, and overlooked zones within the ordered city where zap sang practices emerge. Examples such as the reuse of washing machine parts as ritual trays, the inventive storage of pushcarts, or the informal appropriation of railings as bicycle parking illustrate how design ingenuity flourishes outside formal systems. These practices are typically ephemeral and under acknowledged, yet they articulate resilience, sustainability, and adaptive intelligence embedded in daily life. The paper further contends that Hong Kong’s true archive of creative resilience does not reside solely within institutional collections but exists as a living, dispersed archive enacted through everyday practices. Zap sang thus becomes both an analytical lens and an archival framework, one that captures how spatial, social, and material constraints are continually negotiated from the ground up. By recognising these informal practices as design knowledge, the research contributes to Hong Kong studies by foregrounding an under appreciated cultural logic that speaks directly to resilience, sustainability, and local identity.
SAILING WITHIN HONG KONG’S OUTLYING ISLANDS: The 2nd Inter-Island Festival, Hong Kong, November 2023
publication
Shima Journal
Author: Myriem Alnet co-writing with Otto Heim, HKU
Marine Connections Laboratory
Shima Journal
Author: Myriem Alnet co-writing with Otto Heim, HKU
Marine Connections Laboratory
If there is a thing that crystallises conflicts amongst Lantau residents, it is as simple as a cattle dung.
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As we observe the cows roaming freely on Mui Wo roads, hear residents and janitors talking of them like of old neighbours, see beautiful landscapes thriving peacefully, we realise Lantau residents are engaged in a large-scale ‘rewilding’ experiment...
