{"id":39824,"date":"2025-06-12T08:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T08:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muse.international\/?p=39824"},"modified":"2025-06-12T11:29:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T11:29:53","slug":"choy-team-on-making-gardens-a-space-for-community-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muse.international\/index\/choy-team-on-making-gardens-a-space-for-community-and-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Choy Team on Making Gardens a Space for Community and Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yiran Mao, Zaiying Li, Qianyue Yuwen, and Hongming Li are four designers from China and graduates of ArtCenter College of Design. Together, they created Choy, the Community Garden Sharing Hub, to connect people, culture, and environment through thoughtful design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q1. Congratulations on winning the MUSE Design Awards! Can you introduce yourself and share about what inspired you to pursue design as a career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re a team of four designers, all originally from China and graduates of ArtCenter College of Design. While we don’t operate as a formal agency, we came together for this project, each bringing a unique perspective from different design disciplines\u2014like interaction, environmental, visual communication, and strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our journey into design was largely driven by a shared belief in its potential to foster deeper connections: between people, their communities, their cultural roots, and the environments they inhabit. We see design not just as problem-solving, but as a way to nurture relationships and meaning in everyday life, which was the core motivation behind creating Choy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q2. What does being recognized in the MUSE Design Awards mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We submitted Choy to the MUSE Creative Awards, drawn by its focus on creative excellence, innovation, and lasting impact. We felt Choy embodied that spirit, as it centers on using design to nurture community, sustainability, and cultural connection. Winning this award is incredibly meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, as early-career designers, it\u2019s a huge encouragement and validation that our approach\u2014human-centered, culturally sensitive, and values-driven design\u2014resonates. Professionally, it affirms that thoughtful, perhaps \u201cquietly powerful\u201d design has a place and can spark interest. The award has already opened new conversations and strengthened our commitment to pursuing genuinely meaningful work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q3. How has this achievement impacted your career, team, or agency, and what opportunities has it brought so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story behind Choy began with simple, personal observations: the quiet joy and cultural connection found in home gardening, especially growing vegetables tied to our heritage, contrasted with the underutilized green spaces and sometimes disconnected nature of urban life. We saw an opportunity to bridge this gap. Inspired by both the resourcefulness of everyday home gardening and the communal spirit of shared farms, we envisioned a way to weave these threads together in a modern, accessible format using smart technology and collaborative principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s industry, we feel Choy represents a move towards design that is deeply rooted in everyday life, cultural context, and genuine human needs. It\u2019s about more than just aesthetics or technological novelty; it embodies how design can act as a gentle catalyst for community building, sustainability, and preserving cultural practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It stands for \u201cquietly powerful\u201d interventions\u2014thoughtful solutions that address real needs and foster connection in subtle yet meaningful ways, showing how tradition and possibility can creatively coexist in our contemporary world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q4. What role does experimentation play in your creative process? Can you share an example?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think what made our project stand out was how grounded it was in real community needs while still imagining a future system. Even though the project was speculative, we kept asking ourselves: Would this actually help someone? Would this make sense to our grandparents or neighbors back home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, each of us comes from a different design background\u2014product, graphic, spatial, and UX\u2014so we naturally thought about the problem from different angles. That made the final outcome feel more complete. We were constantly learning from each other, and that gave the project a lot of depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q5. What’s the most unusual source of inspiration you’ve ever drawn from for a project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, it was actually hard to land in a shared direction. We had different strengths and ways of working, so it took a while to find our rhythm as a team. Sometimes we\u2019d get stuck because we weren\u2019t sure whose perspective to prioritize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What helped was creating a shared vision early on\u2014why we\u2019re doing this, and who we\u2019re designing for. Once we agreed on that, decisions got easier. We also gave each person more space to take ownership in their area of expertise, which really helped us move forward with more clarity and confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning Entry <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choy – Community Garden Sharing Hub<\/a><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Explore the journey of Lawrence Kok Hua Yang<\/a>, the Gold Winner of the 2025 MUSE Creative Awards. He is the founder of LK Group Tech, leading with a passion for impactful artistry that inspires and uplifts, turning bold ideas into creations that connect cultures and spark positivity.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yiran Mao, Zaiying Li, Qianyue Yuwen, and Hongming Li are four designers from China and graduates of ArtCenter College of Design. 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