The former Police Married Quarters sits quietly on Hollywood Road, keeping to itself as an historic monument; a quiet record of the past. The paint is peeling, and parts of the exterior are caking off. The windows are dirty – stained by rain and dust – but nearly all of them are still intact. If the complex wasn’t gated with security on site, the small rooms with balconies and long hallways would make for an excellent game of hide and seek. It’s here that artist and architect William Lim will host his latest work.

“I think this place is wonderful – in terms of architecture it’s very strong,” says Lim. “It’s not intended to be high architecture, but the form of it is almost monumental in a way. It’s kind of like your 1950s Bauhaus type of look. I think it’s wonderful.”

Because of his involvement in numerous art and architecture projects throughout the city, it’s impossible to put a peg on Lim. By day, he’s the managing director of Wan Chai-based CL3, an internationally renowned studio for both architecture and interior design. After work, he can be found at art openings at galleries around the city. He’s a board member of Para/Site Art Space, promoting Hong Kong artists locally and abroad, and, on top of all that, he’s one of the few collectors who actively buys art from Hong Kong artists – at once an artist and a patron.

This fortnight, Lim leads the artist takeover of the Police Married Quarters. For this year’s Detour – a series of design events branching off from Business of Design Week, organised by the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design – more than 100 Hong Kong artists and designers occupy three floors in each of the complex’s two buildings, with on-site installations from Thursday 26 to Wednesday, December 9.

Of all the artists involved, Lim is probably the most ambitious. Few people, for instance, would see two buildings set 20 metres apart and decide to bridge the gap with a bamboo structure that visitors can walk across. “I felt that it really shouldn’t be a backdrop or just something to look at,” Lim says, by way of explanation for his unusual art work. “I always feel that art should be experienced – installation [art] especially. I thought of the idea: why not build something that people can walk across?”

The bamboo bridge, officially called route-D, will be suspended three storeys above ground and allow two to three people to walk across at a time. Not only is it a unique installation, but it is also leverages an iconically Hong Kong material by using scaffolding techniques invented on our streets.

“It will be a challenge and a major breakthrough, but it’s not anything to be alarmed about,” says Lim. “We have a lot of safety measures.”
For the project, Lim is working with veteran bamboo scaffolder Choi Keung, a legend in the field who trained many of the scaffolders on the streets today. Lim has collaborated with Keung before, for the award-winning Lantern Wonderland at Victoria Park in 2003 – the biggest lantern Hong Kong has ever seen. The lantern became a beacon of a harmonic fusion of East and West, one of Lim’s constant artistic visions.

“It’s a challenge, but I don’t find it particularly difficult [to] explore the creative nature in the local language. I think people from overseas are starting to feel very interested in Hong Kong culture. A lot of Hong Kong artists are starting to show internationally. It’s a great thing and I hope with all of us working together we can really push that internationally and let the government know what’s important to preserve.”

In some ways, Lim explains, route-D is a larger version of his installation Illegal Structures, which he displayed at the Art HK fair last year. That ‘civil sculpture’, as Lim calls it, was made from local construction materials, including mirrors and light, that transformed a small contained corridor into another experience. Participants walked through a crate wide enough to fit only one person, but it was built in such a way to create the illusion that person was in endless room. “This [route-D] is about twice as long as that structure. It’s a piece that people can pass through.”

Because of restrictions at the site, Lim has to build the bridge in just ten days, using eight-metre-long bamboo sticks, painted red and prepared in Yuen Long. “As it’s a temporary structure, you can be a lot more experimental with it,” says Lim of the perks of the project. “We just have to worry about the few weeks duration that the art is up, so we can be a lot freer in terms
of our creativity.”

On the same note, other projects in Detour’s huge programme are similarly experimental. Alvin Yip of Polytechnic University, for instance, is building a beach on site (titled Beach in Central) with students from the university’s School of Design. In addition, Detour features more than 40 events, all in the name of showcasing Hong Kong’s creative talents and getting more people involved in the scene – a big driving force for Lim in particular. “I hope to bring more public awareness to art and architecture,” he says. “The only way we can introduce that to people is to come up with something interesting and exciting that they can experience.”

Bourree Lam

Detour is at the Former Police Married Quarters, corner of Aberdeen St and Hollywood Rd, Thu 26-Wed 9.