EVENT INFORMATION
step up! is a curated exhibition of performances, events, art, and architecture installations which reflect on conflict, ownership, responsibility and cultural occupation in the context of public right of ways in Hong Kong. The installations are situated on an essential type of pedestrian right of way on Hong Kong Island: the public staircase.
The intent of step up! is to instigate greater awareness about the importance and role of stairs in Hong Kong culture and daily life. As part of the everyday landscape of mountainous Hong Kong, outdoor stairways play a critical role in creating a permeable and accessible public realm. Embedded in hillsides, stacked on sidewalks or replacing streets and alleys altogether, Hong Kong’s ubiquitous and often emergent stairs (and the complex wayfinding they enable), are a reflection of a diverse city in continual flux. Serving as markets, ephemeral gathering places, secret short-cuts, wedding photo hot-spots, or quiet rest areas away from vehicular traffic, stairways are a vital type of pedestrian and community infrastructure which define and embody the shared cultural experience of Hong Kong’s extreme topography. Stairs in many places in the city are threatened by careless maintenance practices, infrastructure proposals and/or urban development – step up! is a chance to celebrate these unique places and the often unacknowledged stair culture they engender in Hong Kong.
Join the opening tour on Saturday December 7 at 4pm and get more info about the installations and performances on stepuphk.wordpress.com or step up!'s facebook page.
COLLABORATOR INFORMATION
Transverse studio is a collaborative practice which bridges the trajectories of landscape, culture, urbanism and infrastructure through a documentary process of investigation and design. With a focus on distributed networks, their relations, and their evidence of action (objects/sites as proof of process), the studio works at a range of scales and project typologies. Recent projects include installation and landscape design, participatory workshops and events, community advocacy, policy research, rooftop vegetable production, and speculative work concerned with memory, time, and the ecology of agency in the landscape.
Melissa Cate Christ
The founding director of transverse studio, Melissa Cate Christ is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Hong Kong and a registered landscape architect (Ontario, Canada). Melissa's design research and practice concentrates on contemporary mechanisms of urban intervention at the juncture of landscape, culture, urbanism, and infrastructure. Her design work and writing has been recognized in international competitions and featured in regional publications and exhibitions. Prior to teaching at HKU, Melissa was a designer at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd, where she was the project manager for CityCenter DC, a 10 acre mixed use development in downtown Washington DC which includes a public plaza and alley over structure, a public park, and extensive and intensive green roofs on four residential buildings. She has also worked as an urban designer at Dutoit, Allsop Hillier, and as an instructor and design critic at the University of Toronto and the University of Washington. Melissa holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree from St. John’s College.
