Yau Ma Tei, a district in Hong Kong, is well-known for its street market culture, which attracts thousands of tourists every day. However, before growing into a “superstore” with all ranges of goods, this street market was originally only a temporary cheap flea market serving this community with the lowest income rate in HK and a lack of public infrastructure.

Nowadays, the street market has grown to a scale that current streets cannot hold. Due to over-crowdedness, hygiene and safety problems also become more severe. Therefore, the community is in urgent need to expand the scale of the market and upgrade the facilities.

On the other hand, while street market represents the mainstream culture in the area, there are also a huge “invisible” crowd that lives here, namely the immigrant workers from southeast Asia, taking up as much as 12% of the population. Many of them moved in because of the low rent, and makes the community much more diverse than it seems. However, under the expansion of mainstream “street market” culture, it is very hard for them to carry out their own cultural activities and showcase their own cultural expressions.

The design bases itself on the demand of both. Working on two different scales – the masterplan and an iconic community plaza design – aiming to fuse the cultural need of both and create a better living environment in Yau Ma Tei.

At the scale of the master plan, I seek to improve street conditions and revitalize outdoor spaces as a whole by improving some of its key nodes, while in the plaza design I work especially with the need of ethnic minorities, creating a stage for them to reveal their culture to the majority.