Looking for the Voids - Research
Looking for the Voids is a long-term research project investigating the liminal urban spaces of Asian cities—thresholds, residual fragments, and informal in-betweens that resist conventional architectural categorization. Drawing from 15 years of fieldwork in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Seoul, the research bridges observation and intervention, proposing a method for reading the city as a tool for design. Through five spatial principles—void, interlock, boundaries, overlap, and frugality—it offers a critical framework for shaping architecture that is minimal, adaptive, and deeply attuned to context.
Locations: Hong Kong - Bangkok - Seoul
Dates: 2006 - 2023
Principal Investigator: Géraldine Borio
Research Assistants: Tina Wang Tianduo; Kelly Mok Man Wing, with contributions from assistants involved in the reviewed projects
Book
Borio, G, Looking for the Voids: Learning from Asia’s Liminal Urban Spaces as a Foundation to Expand an Architectural Practice, Park Books, Zurich, 2023. Foreword by Prof. Thomas Daniell. Peer-reviewed.
Related Publications
BOOK CHAPTER
Borio, G. Looking for the Voids: “In-Between” Towards Architecture. In Intervention and Adaptive Reuse, edited by Liliane Wong and Marcus Berger. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2022.
ARTICLE
Borio, G. Looking for the Voids: “In-Between” Towards Architecture, Int|AR: Interventions Adaptive Reuse, Vol. 10, 2019.
Conferences and Keynotes
16 11 2023
Looking for the Voids and Drawing the Liminal, paper presented at Drawing the Urban, Symposium co-organized by ETH Zurich and USI Mendrisio, Switzerland. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G. Peer-reviewed.
28 11 2019
Learning from Hong Kong and Asian Liminal Spaces, paper presented at the Symposium Made by People: Micro-Design in the Asia Pacific City, the School of Architecture, The University of Queensland, Brisbane. Sole author & Research [PI]: Peer-reviewed.
15 03 2019
Studying Hong Kong from the Liminal, paper presented at the Symposium Mapping Creativity: Exploring Narrative Strategies for the Advancement of the Creative Ecologies in Hong Kong and at a Global Scale organized by the Academy of Visual Arts (AVA) and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G. Peer-reviewed.
14 03 2024
Investigating Bangkok, Hong Kong and Seoul from their Liminal Spaces Korean University of the Arts, Keynote Lecture at the Department of Architecture, Seoul, South Korea. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
06 12 2023
Looking for the Voids Kyoto University, Keynote Lecture at the Department of Architecture, Kyoto, Japan. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
05 12 2023
Looking for the Voids, Keynote Lecture part of the Architecture for Global Intimacy lecture series, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
15 06 2023
Looking for the Voids in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Seoul, Lecture at Domansa, Seoul, Korea. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
25 02 2021
Learning from Urban Liminal Spaces in Asia, paper presented at the Research Seminar Series, Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
14 12 2019
Observing the liminal in Hong Kong Urban context, Keynote at SEA, Architecture Department, Mumbai. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
27 04 2018
Parallel Works: Looking for the In-Betweens, Lecture at Nakatani Lab. Waseda University, Dept. of Architecture, Tokyo, Japan. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
25 04 2018
Voids, Gaps and Left-Overs within Hong Kong’s Dense Urban Fabric, Lecture at Almazan Lab. Keio University, Dept. of Architecture, Tokyo. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G.
