Press Release
Golden A' Design Award in Social Design Goes to Pocket Spaces Social Playbook by Lee Ngai Man
The international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Lee Ngai Man for social design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 16, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Golden A' Design Award in the Social Design category for Pocket Spaces Social Playbook by Lee Ngai Man, designed for Estate Of Mine. The result belongs to the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Golden A' Design Award Means
The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.
About Pocket Spaces Social Playbook
Pocket Spaces is a social intervention guide for high density public housing estates. The design turns narrow corridors and stairwells into shared social spaces. A 12-page portable manual printed on recycled paper leads residents step by step, from spotting neglected areas to building simple modular units. Assembly uses wood collected from community waste, cable ties and simple clamps, so elderly residents and children can complete a unit in 30 minutes without special tools. Pocket Spaces supports spatial autonomy and neighborly bonds in communities facing redevelopment.
About Lee Ngai Man
Estate of Mine is a social design studio dedicated to developing community-centric solutions through multidisciplinary research and creative intervention. The studio operates at the intersection of urban space, social equity, and collective well-being, focusing on projects that facilitate dialogue between citizens and their environments. By utilizing participatory design methodologies, Estate of Mine transforms complex social challenges into tangible prototypes and public programs. The studio’s work has been recognized for its contribution to community resilience and sustainable urban development, providing a framework for inclusive growth within modern neighborhoods.
Award Record
With this recognition, Lee Ngai Man is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Social Design Award
The A' Social Design Award is an international design competition recognizing excellence in social design by social impact designers and think-tanks worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to social designers, social brands, social manufacturers and social design professionals from all countries. Typical entries include community projects, social campaigns, public installations, educational programs, sustainable initiatives and healthcare solutions. The awarded social designs are published at https://desingers.org/design-category/social
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://desingers.org/181246
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/181246
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!181246
- Laureate Profile: https://desingers.org/d/378923
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Pocket Spaces Social Playbook
- Function
- Social Playbook
- Category
- Social Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Social Impact
- Colors
- Lavender, Silver, Dim Gray, Gray and Dark Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Estate Of Mine
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Lee Ngai Man
- Country
- Hong Kong (China)
- Recognition
- Golden A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #181246
Credits
- Team
- Pak Hei Wang, Ngai Man Lee, Kai Yin Lin, Nga Suet Julytha Ho and Hiu Man Chiu
- Image Credits
- Designer Pak Hei Wang, Hiu Man Chiu, Julytha Nga Suet Ho, Ngai Man Lee, Kai Yin Lin, Social Pocket, 2026.; Designer Ngai Man Lee, Hiu Man Chiu, Julytha Nga Suet Ho, Kai Yin Lin, Pak Hei Wang, Social Pocket 2, 2026.; Designer Pak Hei Wang, Hiu Man Chiu, Julytha Nga Suet Ho, Ngai Man Lee, Kai Yin Lin, Engage Material, 2026.; Designer Ngai Man Lee, Hiu Man Chiu, Julytha Nga Suet Ho, Kai Yin Lin, Pak Hei Wang, Informal Knowledge, 2026.; Designer Kai Yin Lin, Hiu Man Chiu, Julytha Nga Suet Ho, Ngai Man Lee, Pak Hei Wang, Social Engage, 2026.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This project is a social intervention guide developed for high-density housing estates. It establishes an open infrastructure system using assembly protocols based on grassroots materials. This empowers elderly residents and children to transform narrow 2 meter corridors and stairwells into co-creation spaces. It is a social resilience tool characterized by zero marginal cost and rapid scalability.
- Inspiration
- This design originates from ethnographic observations of the extreme living density in Hong Kong where space averages 15.5 square meters per person. Through 700 hours of field research and 500 resident interviews, we discovered spontaneous space hacking in corridors and stairwells to build neighborhood bonds. The core inspiration involves translating scattered grassroots wisdom into a systematic social intervention guide. We used an high participation in the manual to awaken spatial autonomy and empower neglected spaces.
- Research
- This action research project addresses human made ignorance and spatial injustice in high density urban environments. Through 700 hours of immersive ethnography and field research involving 500 residents, we found that urban apathy is a cognitive bias. Neighbors often overestimate the reluctance of others to interact. Public housing lacks the spatial rights to maintain connections rather than the connections themselves. The project resulted in a 40 percent increase in neighborly interactions.
- Challenge
- The primary challenge was moving beyond the traditional helicopter model of social housing intervention which often relies on one off actions. This project focused on building deep trust through 700 hours of field research to address the apathy caused by extreme density and upcoming redevelopment. It shifts the designer role from designing for to community led design. The project acts as a mobile preservation system that allows social relationships to migrate and integrate into housing plans.
- Realization and Technology
- The core product is a 12-page A5 portable manual printed on 100% recycled paper. Physical units utilize local material cycles, such as common public estate items and wood collected directly from community waste. Assembly employs low-barrier connections, such as industrial cable ties and simple clamps. This allows non-professionals to conduct community-making in 30 minutes without specialized tools.
- Operation and Interaction
- The Pocket Space Playbook is a portable toolkit designed to help residents transform lifeless public housing corridors into vibrant social hubs. The guide uses a step-by-step approach to help users identify neglected spaces and apply modular grassroots wisdom. This method is effective because it triggers a fundamental community shift: residents realize they have the right to define their own spaces, creating a bottom-up, sustainable ecosystem.
- Project Duration and Location
- This organic system launched on January 30, 2025 and evolves alongside public housing redevelopment. The first phase is located in Wah Fu Estate. The second phase will be exhibited at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design in June 2026. The third phase will expand to other high density communities like Mei Lam and Butterfly Estate in 2027 to establish a cross regional social design network.
- Specifications
- The toolkit uses a nested frame structure of 148 x 210 mm, 105 x 148 mm, and 125 x 176 mm. This ensures the design is portable, while the lightweight materials are easy for elderly people and children to carry. The structures are also designed to be easily relocated during cleaning or maintenance periods.
- Keywords
- Social design, social impact, spatial justice, systemic design, discursive design, participatory design, community design
