Recycled Christmas
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
2014
Have a sustainable Christmas
LAAB was commissioned to design a Christmas installations at the Lee Gardens in Causeway Bay. Christmas installations usually only last for a few days before they get dismantled and discarded. How can we celebrate the joy of Christmas in a less wasteful way? What if we can transform something disposable, say water bottles, into an art installation?
We set up recycling stations at the Lee Gardens to collect water bottles. These deposed bottles were sorted, cleaned, and ground into bottle flakes, which were processed and melted into Baubles. Thousands of recycled Christmas baubles were made and painted into different colours, which were then assembled and nested into various designs for different locations.
For example, thousands of brass and bronze baubles were suspended from the atrium ceiling of Lee Garden I, forming the shape of a teddy bear. A snowy landscape was created along Hysan Avenue using hundreds of frosted baubles with embedded LED luminaries.
We also made special Christmas Trees in the form of Gashapon (Capsule Toy) machines for people to try their luck to get featured Baubles designed by an artist collaborator. All revenue generated was donated to Make-A-Wish Hong Kong, a charity organization that helps children in need.
At the end of the season, these baubles were taken away and upcycled into felts and carpets.
In the atrium of Hysan Place, we built a FabCafe made of recycled shipping containers. FabCafe not only offered warm beverages for the cold weather but also workshops for people to learn about making Christmas crafts and decorations using laser-cutting tools.
Art Installation
2017
Various locations in Hysan Place, Lee Garden I, II, and Lee Theatre, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Hysan Development
Make-A-Wish® Hong Kong
Araki Nobuyoshi, arr, baby Milo, Craig & Karl, Fantasista Utamaro, Green & Associates, FabCafe, GAP, Jeremyville, LINE, Lisa Larson, Mina Kwon, Phillip Lim, Piers Atkinson, Sticky Monster Lab, Urban Bakery
Otto Ng, Kenneth Cheung, Hugo Ma, Kathy Li, Ricci Wong, Carolyn Tam, Catherine Cheng