Exhibition: 'Blooming Mechanical Flowers'

Organised by the Design Fab Lab of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design (PolyU Design), the exhibition showcases creative works of students from Master of Design (Intelligent Systems Design), as well as three local secondary schools, Po Chiu Catholic Secondary School, SKH Lam Kau Mow Secondary School, and Society of Boys' Centre Hui Chung Sing Memorial School. 

The creations of the secondary school students are outcomes of a STEAM education programme held in Dec 2022 to Apr 2023 offered by the Design Fab Lab. The programme aims at allowing students to understand and appreciate technical design of a mechanical flower developed by the Design Fab Lab through hands-on assembly workshops, as well as supporting them to customize and decorate the mechanical flowers with their aesthetics and creative expressions. The mechanical flower is designed parametrically using Rhino Grasshopper, and was developed for the research goal in identifying easy-to-use (software) components and processes to facilitate design, simulation and fabrication of electro-mechanical systems through Rhino Grasshopper and digital fabrication techniques. The mechanical flower is made up of customized 3D printed parts, commercial off-the-shelf electro-mechanical components, and electronic controller boards with WiFi-enabled microcontrollers. Multiple mechanical flowers can be controlled remotely through WiFi for coordinating their movements. Through the programme, students were exposed to knowledge and practice in 3D printing, mechanical design, electronic circuit design and programming of connected devices.

Prior to the programme, the Design Fab Lab also engaged students in the Master of Design (Intelligent Systems Design) from Sep 2022 to Dec 2022 in the subject “Lab Studies in Systems Design” with the project “interactive mechanical flowers”. Selected creative outcomes are also showcased in this exhibition.

Participating schools (in alphabetical order):

Po Chiu Catholic Secondary School

SKH Lam Kau Mow Secondary School

Society of Boys' Centre Hui Chung Sing Memorial School

Sponsor of Society of Boys' Centre Hui Chung Sing Memorial School:

Visit the exhibition

If you would like to visit the exhibitions at PolyU Design but without PolyU campus access, please fill in the online registration form.