Social Housing For Crabs

For their solo show ‘Moving Sideways’ at the Tang Contemporary Art gallery, the Hong Kong-based architects of MAP Office built a residential building for a community of 100 sea crabs. Their installation consists of 24 identical aquariums (four towers stacked at six storeys high) and represents a standardized social housing unit which you can find plenty of in Hong Kong. However, the building reverses the traditional logic of luxury as density decreases from top to bottom. According to its creators, ‘Crab Island’ aims to explore notions of displacement, territory, economy, social movement and/or play. Explains Designboom:

“The space of the aquarium is projected outwards onto the gallery walls with multiple fluid shadows of the crabs in movement. more than just a playful game of calculated steps and patience, ‘Crab Island’ alludes to various conditional tensions and paradoxes that we face in our daily progress along the lines of fixed, existing environment and cultural relations.”