Without my bravo innocent self, mentors, tutors, family, friends, this project would not have been born this way. Thank you. WAILO 人情火食，田間起筷 20/21 Capstone Project Report Fung Kar Hei Francis
Scavenge,mutate, amplifytheworldtogether.
Manifesto Food on Fire, WAI LO in light of village extinction Scavenge | Research & Concept development Regenerative localness A word from future: Village Regeneration rather than extinction Transferring essence of life in intentional communities to WAI LO: Mindful eating 人情食材 Getting along with Local Ducklings Communal dining bonding a community, mud kitchen illustration Land Rangers threatened, Invalidation of authorities and scarce public support Mutate | Design & Making Design Decision Firewood cooking x Village regeneration Rocket stove & 8 models Amplify | Scenario Building Guide to Ah Yat Appendix Drafts, Reference List A tribute To back-to-the-land movement and activists, settlements and their roots in all forms, all dimensions. 城市、文化、生活， 一切之本； 義無反顧地與小農、鄉土同行。 Contents
WAILO(project), the one story told in three ways in two Cantonese characters and vocabularies (stove)‘hey,one”. To get along with humans and friends, the stove does want a simple name to be called and remembered. Originated from the Chinese proverb 共冶一爐 ‘smelt into one furnace’, the name remarks the context of ‘playing in the suburb 圍 爐 慰 勞 1) literally, gathering around a stove and 2) metaphorically, comforting fellows 3) consoling contributors. Remarks for non-Cantonese-speakers or writers: definitions 2) and 3) have the same Cantonese pinyin (spelling/pronounciation) but are two completely diferent sets of characters.
Manifesto | Food on Fire, WAI LO in light of village extinction
WAI LO is a window, a round table, a network webbing for farming regenerative localness in the city. At times of hypercapitalism and authoritarian rule, rural village communities in Hong Kong are on the verge of extinction. In exchange for quick massive money, the regime disregards the value of regenerative land activism and ruthlessly exterminates green belts, rural villages, not to mention bureaucratic procedural injustice during the execution of such development projects. To urban residents, these issues seem inconceivable. Most of the time, even villagers themselves struggle to deal with the situation. Facing such intertwined systematic chaos, apart from banging the doors of jurisdictions, project WAI LO introduces a down-to-earth, small but powerful alternative. Food as a daily necessity is what connects these seemingly distant worlds. Having their home built in the rural area, the country residents are accustomed to living alongside open space, outdoor nature and a neighbourhood community. Depending on the local landscape and culture, they commonly practice different levels of gardening, farming or participate in other stages of the food-production-distribution stream. Instead of farming for commercial production i.e. agricultural purposes, they circulate their home food product within the local community under a gift economy, cultivating a small but quality foodscape. Living in the concrete jungle, consumers take food in a mainstream meal for granted. In a village community, the entitled food breaks the static role of a plain consumption object. It becomes the embodiment of a warm-heartedly pragmatic way of life. Understandably, its organic nature and humanistic value can hardly share with the industrialised commercial context, so is the residents’ decision/ tradition of settling down in rural living.
Apart from creating more joyful memories, the stove, as a firewood cooking and gathering unit, promotes regular exchange of information within the local regenerative land activism community. Once built and attached to the Land, the village has one more “site” while the broader network has one more “station” for events and the like. The more anchors a network has, the more resilient it is. While the ally of sustainable living on the Land remains a marginalised minority in the society, spreading such impacts to more communities- hence strengthening the network foundation is essential. Support and diversity are wanted not only by farmers and practitioners but also by builders and facilitators who web the network creatively, people like the team of project WAI LO. The flexible maker-friendly design of AH YAT creates a low threshold to building and refining one on your own. Red bricks and cement, highly accessible and affordable quality building materials, are the ingredients of the first AH YAT and shall be the foundation of more to come. The open-source need-to-know: follow-through building procedures, preparation notes, all in all, assist keen place-makers in engaging rural living communities. In the long run, when the practice adapts to the local way of life, it is expandable to outsiders, visitors through experiential learning activities, arming the ally further with social and financial capital.
Holding hands with primary producers and creatives together, we farm localness, regenerating edible scenery across rural and urban Hong Kong. Let’s WAI LO with AH YAT.
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To address this undervalued practice, AH YAT, a dual rocket brick stove for village gatherings, exposes this kind of food as a treasure, a delicate work of sweat to the spotlight of fire. It is a platform for villagers, friends and farmers to cook up their food, sharing a flavoured meal. Some of the residents grew up living a traditional rural village life. The process of firewood cooking is no new to them. Yet, with AH YAT, such experience is enhanced emotionally and technologically- with the local context and high energy efficiency of the stove. Multi-purpose, multi-user, the project facilitates mindful teamwork and fellowship throughout the ‘food on fire’ event. Ideal for group meals, the stove supports high and low flame cooking, charcoal-roasting, and grilling on a total of 4 surfaces with just one flame at the same time. Challenging enough to be fun, refreshing enough to be fulfilling, firewood cooking requires more patience and attentiveness to the situation. Unlike cooking with a gas or electric stove, users need to team up and work hand in hand, with extra care for food and flame to ensure things go well with each other. In addition to its handy firewood storage and cooking utensil organisation, the stove comes with a removable countertop, aiding users to walk through the flow of cooking. Along with the invincibly tasteful firewood cuisine, the food prepping-cooking-gathering experience with AH YAT brightens up the local community and boosts its morale.
Regenerativelocalness:
Scavenge Research&Conceptdevelopment
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Permaculture 樸門永續設計 [tool]
refers to permanent agriculture and permanent culture, it means an approach to land management and philosophy that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole systems thinking, applicable to fields such as regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience. First coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in 1978, who formulated the concept in opposition to Western industrialized methods and in congruence with Indigenous or traditional knowledge. The word is officially added to The Oxford English Dictionary in 2019, showing its ever-growing recognition in the world.
Ecovillage/Ecocommunity[dynamics]
Satoyama 里山 [village-scape]
an intentional, traditional or urban community that is consciously designing its pathway through locally owned, participatory processes, and aiming to address the Ecovillage Principles in the 4 Areas of Regeneration (social, culture, ecology, economy into a whole systems design). Intentional community, similar to ecovillages, refers to a group of people who intentionally live together or share common facilities and co-create at least some of their social, economic, ecological and/or cultural relationships.
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Scavenge | Research & Concept development
a Japanese term describing the border zone or area between arable flat land (sato) and mountain foothills (yama). Its meaning is derived from ‘community forests’ to ‘mosaic of mixed forests, rice paddy fields, dry rice fields, grasslands, streams, ponds, and reservoirs for irrigation.’the ideal human-nature symbiosis landscape.
Remarks: There is an overlap between intentional communities and ecovillages, yet they are not the same. Traditional ecovillages are not intentional communities. Some intentional communities are too small to be recognised as ecovillages. Eco-communities are ‘small ecovillages’, with a population of less than 20 inhabitants, but still consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes in all four dimensions of sustainability (social, culture, ecology and economy) to regenerate their social and natural environments.
Regenerative localness in different forms
A word from future:
Village Regeneration rather than extinction
The words ‘sustainability’ or ‘eco’ are so widely used that they no longer describe the subject concisely enough. The following concepts, as branches of sustainability, constitute the narrative of this report. Supported by official reference, they will be briefly illustrated in relation to the project context.
reality: Not all existing villages in Hong Kong are Satoyama though they once were the pillars of the 1980s farming industry peak. After the fadeout of the agricultural industry in the 2000s, where the self-sufficiency ratio dropped to single digits, the landscape of Satoyama largely diminished.The “Lai Chi Wo Rural Cultural Landscape” project is the sole officially recognised project by the Satoyama Initiative. Most other villages in Hong Kong rest at the edge of town i.e. suburbs, greenbelts, which is a significant geo-political pull factor for urban extension. More about local village-scape will be covered in ‘Invalidation of authorities and scarce public support’.
Transferringessenceof lifeinintentionalcommunitiestoWAILO:
The farm was established in 2010 in Ma Shi Po village, Fanling with the objective to confront land development plans with eco-community-making. The last of them remained living the normal farmer’s life on their family land until June 2021 then came government officers, driving them out with the accusation of “illegal squatters”. In 2020, they started partnering with To Yau, a village-house-based intentional community that serves local vegetarian gourmet food, to run a regional (Northeast New Territories) veggie and produce ordering business. On 25-26 Feb, 2021, they were preparing for another weekly market sale and had to process unsellable tomatoes into flavoured sauce. I joined the team backstage as a 2-day-1-night market helper and production worker. Not the whole process is recorded due to busy on-site work then but any relevant info will be hHighlighted. TauKokNamChung of in Intentional
a down-to-earth eco-friendly community under gift economy circulating resources. Residents’ daily needs can be fulfilled within the area. my role as 1. natural building workshop and event assistant (since 2018), 2. part-time intern at Partnership for Eco Agriculture and the Conservation of Earth (PEACE) (6 mth), 3. village resident (since 2020 fall) (Right) Map from Mapopo. (Left) Kitchen at Wah Shan village, Sheung Shui, To Yau home/ base, where food production, catering service and other down-to-earth daily events occur. As the last stage of eviction plans has started in June 2021, Mapopo and To Yau sites are removed now (July 2021). Scavenge | Research & Concept development Transferring essence
communities 12
Sha
MapopocommunityfarmxToYau
life
GettingalongwithLocalDucklings Mindfuleating 人情食材 01 14
Hong Kong’s highly dependent food supply Our city has a heavy reliance on imported food. Vegetable self-sufficiency rate has declined to less than 2% of overall consumption, from 60% in 1950-60 to 30% in 1970-80, and 1.8% in 2018 with Mainland China responsible for the other 95% of imported vegetables. The growth of these massively produced food products are boosted with chemicals, doing no good to human and social health. Many natural nutrients are lacking in them. The long production chain does not only provide poor food but also much waste. Much food is thrown off the market and turned into waste due to the balance of cost, even the market is not able to consume all it has. In addition to the huge amount of energy used to run this chain, people involved such as primary producers, transportation workers are exploited and exposed to health threats while consumers are left innocent. All in all, they do not receive really any benefits from doing what they do, this is a loop of alienation and detachment from self-sufficiency and autonomy.
Distant but the alternative at hand: Local Ducklings
Hong Kong’s condensed landscape can actually be in favour of Satoyama development. A 27% food self-sufficiency rate would be possible if all abandoned agricultural land were regenerated (Yiu, 2016). Although maintaining a piece of land can be expensive, our vibrant trade and commerce-friendly sets the ideal ground for value-added business, allowing fresh produce to thrive in the local market in other ways. Despite such potential, local food and its primary production industry is fading in the hypercapitalist city. This project glorifies these Ducklings as the embodiment of our lost ability to feed ourselves healthily.
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chain Farm-to-Market-to-Table
Veggies from farm have to be further processed and filtered to be “presentatble” and “attractive” enough. The ones of the finest quality will be packed for customer pre-orders while the more inclusive farmers’ market sells stock of different quality. They often meet up friendsand customers there to intorduce their products. Packing for orders
To Yau makes good use of bags of different shapes and sizes for carrying specific produce.
08:30 Departure
Local Ducklings I. seasonal, nutritious, natively grown and/or processed, the product of a production-consumption inamorning
short
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Deliveryonwardsmeets
10:43
09:48
08:00 To Yau collects and transports produce from farmers nearby to Mapopo community farm. Filtering & Streaming
After selection,To Yau weigh and package veggies and food products for preorders. Recycled materials are usde for packaging, cloth bags, PP bags, paper/cardboard boxes are collected and reused from the regional and customer community. After the rountinary community lunch, drivers atart their delivery journey. :05 customers
According to the experience of the two intentional communities, this lemon with thick and rough skin is native to Hong Kong. Though its meat is too bitter for raw consumption, it is sterdy taste makes delicious and nutritious stew for throat health.Its scratched skin has unique scent which is often used for desert making. As fresh fruit, they have no competitiveness in the commercial market. But as local ducklings, the communities want to bring them to the table, making them a little more popular befoe going back to the Land.
Local
Our
LeafyRootDucklings Ducklings
Home Decoration, extra food apart from main stem Flower
unsellable goods) are sophisticatedly selected to mix in with the sauce for scent and flavour: garlic, red onion, passion fruit, lemon… With no precise recipt, To Yau tailor make each batch of sauce in respononse to fruit conditions. The more juice and meat is contained inside the body, the better it is preserved. In addition to using a well-polished knife, how to cut is carefully managed, too. To Yau teaches how “the belly line” at its stem indicates the fruit inner structure, thus should lay the knife along and cut cacordingly.
FruitDucklings
Marination, Grilling, Pan-Frying, sauce-making Lemon -> Stew w/rock sugar or jam, Tomato -> Sauce
Local
HongKongBloods 港產 ways of getting along with Ducklings Ducklings II. emotionally tangible: embodied with human bond and extra care
real-timeface-to-facecommunication, physicalpresenceofusers// 02 20
● Natural building construction and education projects:
Francis’s experience in Eco-Community catalyst/ Apprentice from 2018-2020:
Farm, the United States of America (2019 Spring)
○ with TOUDEI, a Taiwanese natural building agency: assist in mud house construction in Taiwan, eco-kitchen construction site visit in Cambodia (2018 F/W)
○ with PEACE and community in Sha Tau Kok Nam Chung, Hong Kong: assist in earth oven, mud kitchen and charcoal bamboo farmhouse construction (2018-2019)
● with Earthship, Synergia Ranch, Country Gardens
In the field of natural building, one of the action branches of permaculture, communal dining is often the means and end of design and construction work. Eco-friendly and localised methods of building, such as bamboo cob house, adobe, sticky rice paste and more are more specifically demanded and supplied, thus connects different parties much more closely than modern construction work does. Using such structures, common examples are mud oven, mud kitchen, requires more on-site preparation and serves a large quantity of food per cooking session, making it essentially a group activity. Construction period can normally run 8-12 hours of labour work per day, 7-14 full days per work-camp session, 6-12 participants per session, 1-3 facilitators/ (assistant) leader. Natural building work camps are draining and yet, “incredibly calming and fulfilling”, not only because of the collectively experienced joy, but also for the community-serving nature of the work. Farming, eating, dining, together, as simple as it is, breeds and reaches many more.
Communal
Constructing and using a communal cooking facility prompts community-bonding. The keypoint is executing it through a bottom-up approach so that the community is able to develop their sense of belonging with the object, the team and partially the place. diningbondingacommunity
Meal gatherings around the dining table before and after hard work is extra rewarding. Instead of keeping it indoor and private, it can be communal and the magnet of a community.
“Placemaking is the process of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in.” Placemaking is a process. It is a means to an end: the creation of Quality Places. (Steuteville, 2014) Resourceful & Inventive, making good use of materials at hand Flexible and simple activity setting in outdoor space Multi-species living harmoniously Left: MiaoLi Taiwan. Right: So Kwun Fut, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong Mountainhouse &mudkitchen 22
Diligent earthlings, people who practise, conserve, regenerate agriculture/ village way of life/ rural-living, or facilitate its course.
Despite their meaningful hard work, the project beneficiary group is heavily underprivileged in present Hong Kong society. Local Ducklings would not be visible on the table without their consistent input. As there is not yet an official label for these workers, after extensive research, I condense the essence of their work into the naming of this self-invented identity, the Land Rangers.
LandRangersthreatened
When it comes to reality, their values and interests are seldom considered in the public domain. High authorities turn a blind eye to these impacts and values, choosing white elephant infrastructure projects over diverse ways of living thriving in the city. Not only do the government and monopolies pillage Land Rangers’ properties, but they also dishonestly justify such acts in the facade of sustainable land development, placing public residential needs and village living on the two ends of a false dilemma. “The government claims we don’t have enough land for public houses, but just a few kilometres away from here is a golf course which is almost thrice the size of Mapopo Community Farm. If we’re really that desperate for land, that golf course could provide more than our homes could. It’s obvious that the government’s policies accommodate the rich and elite,” said Becky Au, a Land Ranger rooted in Ma Shi Po, Hong Kong during an interview with South China Morning Young Post in 2016.
Hong Non-indigenousKong villages to be evicted ➔ map retrieved from Land Justice League (2021 Jun) artificial island in pogress: North Ku Tong, North East Fanling, Tsiu Keng, Wang Chau and more 03 24
Even if mainstream media opt to release news about land injustice, which is uncommon to see, with little understanding and capacity for each coverage, they often fail to depict a comprehensive narrative, thus making facts unintelligible. Eventually, Land Rangers remain in the loophole of public interest and support.
Shared values include but are not limited to
# Land and environmental justice, # efficiency and eco-responsibility in a circular economy, # self-sufficiency and resilience in bottom-up efforts. Each Land Ranger may bear one or more identities from the following: farmers, gardeners, sellers and promoters, chefs, (scientific/ spiritual/ artistic) eco-education practitioners, designers and artists.
As allies of the grassroots community, they hold strong faith in civic movements and proactive citizen actions. As a result, their extensive experience in cross-disciplinary practice breeds community-based alliances in the forms of trades and resource sharing of different kinds. For example, community farm, a common form of hub constituted by Land Rangers, attends the full food-production-distribution-consumption stream to breed a quality local foodscape in contrast to the centralised mainstream. The ‘Land Rangers’ identity is not bound to any field specialist but rather, just anyone who conscientiously makes sense of their belonging with the Land and locality.
Invalidationofauthoritiesandscarcepublicsupport
To create a replicable platform (able for batch production) for real-time mindful engagement with Local Ducklings in the context of rural village life for Land Rangers (stove builders, activity facilitators/organisors, farmers, chefs, neighbours)
Design Mission:
It is high time we civil citizens did justice to these honourable efforts.
Mutate| Design&Making
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Firewoodcooking xvillageregeneration
A dual rocket brick stove for village gatherings, to be used within the Land Ranger community and for public activities. It situates an emotionally and technologically enhanced food prepping-cooking-gathering experience where native food (Local Ducklings人情食材) is exposed as a treasure, a delicate work of sweat to the spotlight of fire and more audience. The stove and its activities will be open source to suport dissemination of such impacts to more communities- hence strengthening the network. empower, brighten up and connect the village regeneration community. For (Beneficiary x Collaborators) Through (product and scenario) To Design(objective)Solution:
Land (knownRangersinterested parties include NamChung residents and PEACE, Kuk Po Mark Sung, Mui Wo residents,)
Design Decision
D. heating surface where cooking occurs
C. a burning channel of around 40 cm tall with airtight environment,
8modelsmodifyingrocket stovemechanism
A. Air channel where air inflows into the bottom of the stove, providing oxygen for combustion B. Feeding channel (where we place firewood) above, which forms 1:1 ratio to air channel
Making it work by referencing from past experience and mainstream practice in the field
The Rocket stove is a simple product with huge adaptability, perfect for either an easy cook-up or permanent structure in the garden/ outdoor kitchen. It has been one of the most popular appropriate technologies nowadays. This is largely due to its low threshold for building one for oneself, high accessibility of widely seen materials such as bricks, metal plates. Its energy efficiency when it comes to outdoor cooking is another significant pull factor. By reaching full combustion as closely as possible. The structure of a typical rocket stove, which also applies to Bite, goes:
beetroot, lettuce, carrots ducklings (seasonal food) have been the main ingridients to test with firewood cooking lego models as scaledown construction mock-up 1:1 modelsfunctional
AhYat 8thmodel.final(2021Jun) removable countertop low flame cooking/ grilling handy firewood storage fuel-feeding channel + charcoal-roasting Multi-purpose, multi-user, the stove facilitates mindful teamwork and fellowship throughout the ‘food on fire’ event. Ideal for group meals, the stove supports 4 cooking surfaces with just one flame at the same time. cooking organisationutensil Air channel + Ash box (low flame charcoal roasting) high flame cooking 34
Apart from creating more joyful memories, the stove, as a firewood cooking and gathering unit, promotes regular exchange of information within the local regenerative land activism community. Once built and attached to the Land, the village has one more “site” while the broader network has one more “station” for events and the like. The more anchors a network has, the more resilient it is. While the ally of sustainable living on the Land remains a marginalised minority in the society, spreading such impacts to more communities- hence strengthening the network foundation is essential. Support and diversity are wanted not only by farmers and practitioners but also by builders and facilitators who web the network creatively, people like the team of project WAI LO. The flexible maker-friendly design of AH YAT creates a low threshold to building and refining one on your own. Red bricks and cement, highly accessible and affordable quality building materials, are the ingredients of the first AH YAT and shall be the foundation of more to come. The open-source need-to-know: follow-through building procedures, preparation notes, all in all, assist keen place-makers in engaging rural living communities. In the long run, when the practice adapts to the local way of life, it is expandable to outsiders, visitors through experiential learning activities, arming the ally further with social and financial capital.
Amplify| GuidetobuildingAhYat
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WAILOisawindow,aroundtable, anetworkwebbingforfarming regenerativelocalnessacrossthecity.
Standingbythefateofruralcommunities, WAILOstrivestoregeneratethefuturemainstream.
Thechoicehasbeenmade Parasiteoffactoryjungles
runningOursaroundtheclockandtheglobe
Concretecitiesmaybeour first,butaresurelynotthe onlyvisiblestageof possibilities.
Appendix |Drafts&References
● life to farm/outdoor nature- object
● frying cauliflower_use of water flow analysis
morning
● ideal down-to-earth-life illustration by a new NamChung villager
i
Appendix-Drafts
next
illustration
themed about interaction with 人情食材 previous brainstormed ideas: veggie container (market), food processing houseware/ device (home), farm-hunting game (rural/outdoor)... products that enable a fragment of such practice by extracting certain elements to the hands of users, the experience still seems plain with limited impact. full focus on tangible product _interim presentation
ii
Reference List 本土研究社與綠色和平（2021）。《失棕罪 香港棕地現況報告2021》。本土研究社。取自https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OpwN7b9BccgbaL_7gDKMoFtB03xEDuQb/view 姚松炎（2019年6月17日）。〈城鄉共生，里山倡議〉。《眾新聞》。取自 https://www.hkcnews.com/article/4703/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF-4703/%E5%9F%8E%E9%84%89%E5%85%B1%E7%94%9F%EF%BC%8C%E9%87%8C%E5%B1%B1%E5%80%A1%E8%AD%B0 鄒祟銘（主編）（2013）。《重奪新界東北：構建城鄉郊共生的6種想像》。香港：本土研究社
Caldas, A. (2021). (rep.). Annual Report 2020. Global Ecovillage Network. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/AbbieCaldas/global-ecovillage-network-annual-report-2020
Hang（2020年12月14日）。〈綠化地帶下的里山生活 被發展埋沒的人文價值 https://hamlets.land/2020/12/14/maonshan/#
Improved Cook Stoves. CTCN. https://www.ctc-n.org/technologies/improved-cook-stoves
Liber Research Community. (2018). Missing Option: Research on Temporary Use and Vacant Government Land in Hong Kong. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OpwN7b9BccgbaL_7gDKMoFtB03xEDuQb/view
Neill, P. (2021, February 5). The greatwood burning stovedebate. Air Quality News.Com. https://airqualitynews.com/2021/02/05/the-great-wood-burning-stove-debate/
Steuteville, R. (2014). Four types of placemaking. Retrieved from https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/four-types-placemaking
〉。《阡陌之間》。取自
Bacon. (2013, October 22). Principles of Rocket Stove Design Simplified [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92mrPwNhjYQ
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Chan, M. (2016, February 24). Mapopo Community Farm wants the gov to leave their homes and history alone. South China Morning Young Post. Climatehttps://www.scmp.com/yp/report/latest-reports/article/3057731/mapopo-community-farm-wants-gov-leave-their-homes-andTechnologyCentreandNetwork.(2016,August11).
Holmgren, D. (2017). Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Melliodora Publishing.
WAI
20/21 Capstone Project Report
Fung Kar Hei Francis, tutored by Benny Long
LO 人情火食，田間起筷