VNET is short for Youth Volunteers Network, a service unit of Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups. Established in 1998, VNET focuses on the development and promotion of various volunteering programs, currently with more than 110,000 registered volunteers, recording more than 4 million hours of public services.

Locating in the new government-sponsored Youth Square building, VNET sits among other youth organizations and information centers. Our scope of work including space-planning for Administrative Offices, Activities Room, Classroom, and a featured Volunteers’ Gallery. The immediate challenge for the Design Team is access and visibility of the Gallery’s to visitors, since the project is located on the 9th floor and property management restricted any alterations to the public corridors and access doors/windows. There will be some peek-in’s from curious visitors who are passing, and we would like to make the Gallery a welcoming place.

By demolishing a party wall between two opposing leased units, we took advantage of the offset view windows and began to develop ideas and program elements to enhance the visual connection from both sides. We also discouraged direct walk-in and walkout from one access door to another by a shifting featured “Wall of Knowledge”, an attempt to contain visitors in the Gallery for them to learn about completed volunteering works and upcoming future projects.