Do you use less or are you useless? The Detour festival will make you think twice about what you buy and what gets left behind. Andrea Yu picks out some of the coolest designers to check out

Over a two-week period, the Former Police Married Quarters (PMQ) on Hollywood Road will be taken over by local artists and design students sharing ideas about upcycling – the concept of taking something that would otherwise be sent to the landfill and repurposing it into a useful object. Detour’s 30-plus designers and their exhibitions, installations and workshops will challenge how you consume. Here are some highlights...

Martin Cheung – Pinhole Photography
In the age of Hipstamatic shots and chunky DSLRs, Hongkonger Martin Cheung pares photography back to its simplest form – a hole in a box. His pinhole cameras and photographic work have garnered admiration across the city, notably the Peking duck camera (yes, you read that right) that has exhibited both locally and in Melbourne too. Martin will be patrolling the PMQ with his photo trolley as well as teaching participants how to make a pinhole camera from cardboard and a few simple materials. It’s likely to be his last free workshop, so don’t miss out.

Kevin Cheung – Plastic bottle wind chimes
Since graduating from HK Poly U’s School of Design just two years ago, this young product designer has been making waves with his innovative upcycled designs that create new products from industrial waste. His Boombottle (which debuted at Detour 2010) repurposes a plastic vinegar jug into a portable speaker while his Cardboard Luggage is a surprisingly durable suitcase which is nearly 100 percent recyclable. This year, Cheung will exhibit his PET bottle wind chimes. They are pressurised and make a funky glass-like sound when knocked together, proving that with a bit of handiwork, trash can become treasure.

Design Mart
With Christmas just around the corner, the Planet D Design Mart is a great place to find unique, locally-made gifts crafted by Detour exhibitors as well as other Hong Kong artists. Pick up a distinctive piece of jewellery from Crazy Macramé who create beautiful knotted bracelets and necklaces by hand, while Present Present use discarded wallpaper sourced from interior decorators and hand-sew durable and waterproof sketchbooks using a process called Coptic binding. More than 50 vendors will be selling their unique wares here.

Four Dandelions
If you’ve ever battled the streets of Hong Kong on a rainy (or sunny) day, you’ll have witnessed the sheer amount of umbrellas our city goes through every downpour. This exhibition from students of the Hong Kong Design Institute makes us aware of the waste created by discarded umbrellas. Four Dandelions is a concept installation where umbrellas are assembled as seeds of a dandelion, where they will ‘blow away’ and hopefully return to their owners.

The Cave – Recycled wood designs
Six ‘cavemen’ make up this creative workshop which gleans recycled wood and goods (often abandoned in alleys and street corners) and creates beautiful furniture such as chairs and side tables. The Cave is exhibiting their installation Twisted Timeline which uses wooden pieces assembled as joints along a central staircase. You can also catch the cavemen in action at their ‘regeneration’ workshops, where you can make your own kooky furniture creations out of discarded wood.

Former Police Married Quarters. November 25-December 11. FREE www.detour.hk

Grab a free coffee and browse the magazine at the Time Out Cafe
Saturday and Sunday from 1pm-3pm.