Tin Man No.11 is an urban sleeping unit for the homeless, which was built on top of a moving trolley. It could be an attractive sculpture when parked on the pedestrian walkway, but is otherwise extremely functional and critical to survival. Standing vertically it looks like a tin robot, but lying down, it transforms into a comfortable home with a bed, a desk and a chair. That’s all well and good, but who in their right mind is going to purchase one of these for a homeless person? But I digress.
Designer Kacey Wong stated that he did a field study on homeless people and discovered 2 important things: (1) Not all homeless people are jobless and just sit around. Some actually have a job but the cost of living is too high here in Hong Kong; if they apply for housing from the government they will be sent all the way out to the edge of the city, so they decide to save more money by sleeping on the street and living closer to the source of jobs instead; (2) Many people consider the shelters constructed by homeless people to be ugly – they are physically and visually damaging the cityscape.
