One Bite Design Studio is a Hong Kong Institute of Architects-registered boutique multi-disciplinary design studio in Hong Kong with an office in Singapore. Since 2014, One Bite has completed more than 200 projects in Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia, ranging from the more ‘conventional’ projects (architectural, interior and graphic design) to placemaking and the curation of space. With in-house designers, community outreach and event managers, One Bite’s holistic approach to spatial curation projects often involves both physical design and the curation of events.

The studio prides itself on understanding community and neighbourhood, and being mindful of sustainability. One Bite explores a joyful, collaborative and user-centred design approach, believing design is the tool for empowering creativity, imagination and diversity in the city. One Bite bridges design with stakeholder engagement to create a wide variety of work through social creative solutions.

Collaborative at heart, One Bite adopts a people-centric approach for all its projects, striving to bridge the gaps between space, place and society by exploring synergies among stakeholders. The team will often rewrite the client’s brief and bring in opportunities to collaborate at various levels –with potential end-users as a participatory design approach, and with other artists and designers to enrich the design process and outcome. One Bite is known for collaborative design and inclusivity in Hong Kong and has a wide project portfolio of participatory design.

Since 2017, the studio has run a project called Project House, in which vacant shop spaces in Hong Kong are taken over and transformed spatially with simple design interventions. Following that, an open-call allows NGOs and members of the local community to utilise the shop space in turn. The result is a month-long inclusive community program. It is a successful demonstration of how design can create social value in the midst of impossibilities in a highly commercialised city like Hong Kong.

Photography: Tai Ngai Lung.