Promotion: housing for large families and communal spaces for people and pets are just two of the ten urban design concepts presented in the first-ever publication from Hong Kong educational institution My ArchiSchool.

Launching next month during the architecture school's Youth ArchiDesign Exhibition, Shall We? 10 Sustainable Urban Architecture Concepts by My ArchiSchool features the work of ten students.

Spread across 80 pages, each design concept – formed during a year-long research period in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic –addresses how we live in the city today.

The students were encouraged to examine how the way we live in the city will change in the next twenty years and create projects that will help to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

As a result, the designs focus on a range of issues such as strengthening communities and increasing contact with nature.

Projects include a travelling school designed by Queenie Sun that will reconnect children with nature, student Natalie Lau presents an art education building for retired artists, while Minjoon Ji explores minimalist Korean design for sustainable living.

"Young designers have utilised their fresh eyes and creative minds to review the existing environmental assets of an urban development like Hong Kong," said the school. "As architects and designers, we need to better understand how people live, the way they see, the mechanism they breathe and most importantly, how they will sustain for the future."

The book comes packaged in a gift box alongside a kit of modelling parts so that readers can build their own architectural model using digital drawings and images supplied by the school.

The modelling kit includes 20 pieces of balsa wood, two figurines, four trees and a string of mini-LED lights with a USB plug.

My ArchiSchool is an educational institution in Hong Kong that seeks to foster and develop the unique skills related to architectural design and the built environment that are not typically available to younger students through a standard school curriculum.

It was founded in 2016 by retired architect Alice Cheung and Grand Ming Group Holdings Limited chairman Chan H M, who gathered architects, scholars, builders and manufacturers to help shape the curriculum.

"Walking through the pandemic in all these years, we finally realised the undeniable fact that we are all connected," said Cheung. "When the cities were locked down, economic activities paused, schools stopped...what should we do to survive? What could we do to live happily ever after?"

"There is an urge to look for all opportunities to make things better, bit by bit, step by step. We need more ideas, we need more young architects."

Shall We? 10 Sustainable Urban Architecture Concepts by My Archischool is available to buy from the My ArchiSchool online shop.

To find out more about the courses offered by My Archischool, visit the organisation's website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for My ArchiSchool as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.