Long Live Chinatown!
Installation, Placemaking, Environmental Graphics and more.
Academic project for UNSW Art & Design
Year: 2022
Long Live Chinatown is a graphic installation conceptualised as an expressive, not-to-be-ignored love letter to a fundamental cultural precinct right at the heart of Haymarket in Sydney.
With the objective of conveying a revived sense of pride in Chinatown’s dynamic and richly complex streetscapes; the project attempts the task by enriching placemaking through the implementation of new visual markers for Chinatown in the form of variable large-scale installations.
Resembling an infinite sea of floating lanterns during Chinese New Year, the installation consists of more than 120 light boxes, ranging from 2 to over 6 metres tall, that are suspended at differing heights to elevate a dynamic rhythm of the forms as organised against the street horizon.
This project was prompted in response to the tense uncertainty in Sydney’s Chinatown as a result of COVID-19 affected businesses as well as rapid development of residential buildings/multi-purpose complexes.
The objectives are aligned at the pursuit of agitating a streetscape from the day-to-day urban lethargy and hum-drum. Thus, this narrative ultimately serves as a respite from what is now ordinary as well as a break from all the cynicism and drab prompted by a site torn by its questioned fate.
Ultimately, this installation’s endgoal is to revitalise interest in the site, celebrate activity and help small businesses struggling in Chinatown and to eventually bring foot traffic back into the site.
