SITE PROGRESS // Portal House. Lower floors demolished. Temporary concrete pads cast. Building is now sitting on these temporary props. 0mm deflection or subsidence of existing surrounding masonry detected!

EXHIBITION // Village in the City. Casting begins in Shenzhen Nantou Old Town 深圳南头古城 for the UABB public space collaboration. We are creating 16 large blocks showcasing an alternative design code for Hong Kong's small house policy. The casting process is in situ, the concrete poured mixed with the aggregate vermiculite, a hydrous phyllosilicate natural mineral. The result will create a concrete 15% lighter than normal concrete with a natural pink/orange finish..more info to follow!

EXHIBITION // Test casts. We have recently completed some concrete test casts for our upcoming UABB Shenzhen Biennale 'Village in The City' public space collaboration. The casting took place at a concrete factory in Hunan Province.

RESEARCH // HKU - Investigating Illegal Structures in Hong Kong. We've been documenting the vast amount of illegal structures in some of the Hong Kong's walled villages for a series of short films for an upcoming exhibition. (Collaborating with Superposition, Yongki Sunarta and Evelyn Tjuatja)

Exhibition // UABB Hong Kong Shenzhen Biennale. Research and teaching work on Hong Kong Walled villages we have undertaken at the University of Hong Kong will form a new exhibition and installation of work in the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB). More information to follow #Exhibition

NEW PROJECT // Unknown Works have been appointment to design a new domestic abuse trauma centre in London.

PROJECT // Thin House. Planning Submission for Thin House in North West London. We have recently submitted a proposal for a 1.5m wide extension to a property in North London.

NEW PROJECT // New Music Space in Hong Kong. We have been commissioned to design a new music space in Hong Kong. The mix use space will be a social hub for local and international creative artists. The music bar concept for the space in the heart of central Hong Kong has strong emphasis in music, creating a venue for gathering creative artists from different fields as well, such as visual artists, photographers, etc, all of which are complementary art forms to our concept of music as an art.

SITE PROGRESS // Portal House. Unknown Works are transforming a four story house into a live/work space in West London.

NEW PROJECT // Kickstarter Project. We are working on a new kickstarter project for Hong Kong. Updates will be posted soon..

EVENT // Rooftop screenings in Hong Kong.

​Research // New design code for Hong Kong walled villages. Research studio with first year architecture students at HKU examining Hong Kong urban villages. There are 642 recognised villages in the New Territories. These villages, which are scattered between urbanised parts of the Kowloon peninsula and mainland China, existed when the New Territories were added to the British colony in 1898, but many existed for hundreds of years before that time. The Small House Policy (SHP) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong. The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural villages in the New Territories. The Policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 years old and is descended through the male line from a resident in 1898 of a recognised village in the New Territories, an entitlement to one concessionary grant during his lifetime to build one small house. What is the problem with the policy? Land supply in the New Territories is not unlimited. It is impossible to satisfy indigenous villagers’ demand for small houses indefinitely. According to a study on the Small House Policy by the think tank Civic Exchange, it estimated that there may be 90,000 outstanding small house claims. These claims would require another 10+ square kilometers of land to fulfill – around the size of 270 Victoria Parks in Hong Kong. Small houses are legally limited to three storeys, but poor rural planning has led to the problem of illegal building works, the local media have often found illegal structures in some small houses, in some cases making them up to seven storeys in height. In 2013, 18,000 declaration forms of illegal infrastructure were declared, but the Buildings Department suspects that this is only half of the real amount. It is estimated that there is total of 200,000 possible illegal structures. ​​ ​ Has the illegal become legitimised over time? From an architectural and urban perspective, this is an interesting phenomenon. That’s why we are interested in the code. The challenge could be to find a new way to re-write the building code for the village in Hong Kong. Can the illegal become legitimised through design? Can the informal be formulated (as a code) without losing its natural spatial quality? As architects can we develop the unique moments of problem solving occurring in these villages? The studio will collectively analyse the small house policy on houses in three walled villages in the New Territories and attempt redesign the code for the village. Our goal is to translate bottom-up processes into top-down strategies. The final result will be the design of new housing prototypes, and a new collective proposal for villages in Hong Kong. ​ ​ ​