Nam Chung Loam

Within the Starling Inlet in the village of Nam Chung, the Partnership for Nature Education & Conservation Nam Chung (PNEC) is a proactive group of community members who live in conjunction with the land to promote ecological farming, food and agricultural education, and natural architecture. Recently, they launched their Community Kitchen 2.0, a community architecture space open for communal meals, workshops, and gathering.

The construction of the Community Kitchen utilises materials mostly found within their proximate landscape, including foraged large bamboo, mud, and soil to create the walls and roof of the building. The walls were partly built with unfired mud bricks and plaster derived from this soil sample. Whereas a great deal of architecture in Hong Kong relies on prefabricated and standardised methods, the architectural practices of PNEC represents a creative return to tradition for innovative building in Hong Kong.