From Land to Laboratory
“From Land to Laboratory: Plague, Sanitation, and Architecture in Hong Kong“ is a speculative museum exhibition tracing the evolution of Hong Kong’s architectural and medical infrastructure as an urban palimpsest shaped by disease, colonial ambition, and scientific awakening. Now recognized as a global city, Hong Kong’s early years were defined by a chaotic entanglement of trade, migration, and environmental precarity. While the island was ceded to Britain in 1842, its transformation into a major port and urban center exposed deep flaws in its infrastructure—most notably in the realms of sanitation and public health.
This exhibition investigates the events and ideologies that culminated in the Institute’s construction, situating it within a broader lineage of sanitary reform and epidemiological architecture. It links archival imagery, such as David Knox Griffith’s 1894 photograph of plague victims, with bureaucratic reports and cartographic interventions—from Edwin Chadwick’s 1842 Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain to Osbert Chadwick’s 1882 Hong Kong-specific studies—to argue that the Bacteriological Institute was as much a political instrument as a medical one.
Design Direction
In this branding campaign, there are 6 main components:
- Variations of title walls for the exhibition.
- An exhibition catalogue explaining the themes covered.
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Motion design for subway advertisements.
- Wildpostings and posters.
- Building banners and billboards.
- Wayfinding and signage within the exhibition space.