SONG Hong Yang (David) was born in Harbin, China. He received an Arts Design Master Degree from Normal University including Graphic Design and Environmental Design, in 1998-2005.After graduation, he worked as a lecturer in Normal University, School of Design for one year. In 2006, David was interior and exterior designer in Environmental Arts Design Institute Centre of Tsinghua university working with Professor Ma Yi Xi of that University. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at School of Design. His research experience includes the interior environmental design of BoShi Industrial Uptown in Harbin Industrial University; the environmental design of Commercial Building and Public Building of Capital Airport in Beijing of TsingHua University, and the environmental recondition of painter village in Song Village Beijing Tsinghua art design of environment art, Tong village of Beijing.
 

RESEARCH TITLE
Relating design brief abstraction and design expertise to design performance

NAME OF PhD ADVISOR
Prof. Michael SIU

SHORT INTRODUCTION / DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH PROJECT
Street furniture is an important element of the urban environment as it provides people convenience, orders city space and enhances aesthetic appreciation. According to the Design Council of the United Kingdom, street furniture includes all public facilities on streets, such as rubbish bins, benches, mail boxes, guides, street name boards, bus stop boards, lamps and lightings, bollards, railings, posts, barriers, planters, AD boards, information boards, etc.

Street furniture is a key “tool” to supporting people’s ability to fulfill their urban needs and preferences. Kevin Lynch, a well known city planner and designer, states that design (i.e., details) of street furniture affects the “image” and “operation” of a city. It also facilitates how people interact with the city’s public environment. It also improves interaction between people and the city environment.

Moreover, the living standard of many cities in recent years has improved, with a significant amount of money spent on the improvement of interior and exterior environments. However, the city environment (i.e., streets) at night remains a relatively less considered area. For example, once night comes, most existing street furniture is difficult to find/identify and some do not function well as planned. And many help points (for emergency purpose) do not function well at night. People cannot find them and the instructions on them are difficult to read. Because of such limitations, the function of street furniture is greatly impaired.

For this research, I intend to:

• Explore the comprehensive (all-around) function of street furniture.
• Explore the possibility of extending of the existing function of street furniture to function better at night; that is, how to extend the function of street furniture to meet contemporary urban life needs.
• Take Beijing and Hong Kong as case studies, generate a reference for the extension of function of street furniture for meeting the urban life at night for modern Asian cities.
• Generate experience with urban and design research; in particular related to the topic of street furniture.