The Element pop-up store at HKRI Taikoo Hui offers an unconventional reflection on curatorial retail spaces. By thoughtfully curating the space, this project explores the sustainability of materials and, on another scale, integrates material properties and applications with the site. This approach bridges macro perception with micro perspective, allowing lifestyle to be conveyed through an unprecedented spatial experience.

Aligned with Element’s sustainable branding philosophy, this project embraces bamboo to explore a spatial practice that tests the practicality and sustainability of materials. The Element Bloom pop-up retail and TURN TURN exhibition installation are interconnected, forming an ethereal landscape of flowing bamboo. This project marks the third phase of llLab.’s material research on bamboo.

In the first phase, Bamboo Bamboo, the Canopy and Pavilion were constructed in the natural setting of Yangshuo, Guilin, using native bamboo materials and traditional craftsmanship to weave nature into the design. In the second phase, Bamboo Clouds were assembled in New York City, using engineered bamboo to transport a mobile nature beyond geography. In this third phase, we aim to transcend the traditional understanding of bamboo and its applications. By delving into the material’s properties and limitations, we present an unprecedented spatial sensation.

Bamboo as one of the most important traditional building materials in the East, with the evolution from raw bamboo to engineering bamboo, the realm of material application expands to various scale. Engineering bamboo become a commonly used material like wood for building structure and cladding, yet, could we explore new application of bamboo with a completely new perspective?

Let’s imagine being an insect in the natural scale, the fibre transforming into object, structure, architecture or even crumbled into powder to integrate into the wall of space. The material understanding transform from macroscopic comprehension into microscopic feeling.

Bamboo Bamboo | Turn Turn is a new bamboo experiment, the ethereal landscape of flowing bamboo, merely 3mm in thickness, embodies the essence of bamboo itself – resilient, flexible, and gently swaying upon impact.