Adela Mo

Adela’s primary interests lie in exploring the relationship between the urban environment and the local community, delving into the way in which social relations intersect with cultural frameworks, and engaging in spatial dynamics within the urban landscape. Her curiosity towards the exploration into collective memory within a community is driven by the intersection of cultures from her upbringing in Hong Kong, looking to further understand the shared mentality of communities and approach to sustaining cultural identities through interdisciplinary means.

Prior to her time at the Royal College of Art, Adela graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2018. Following this, she acquired two years of experience in London-based practices, where she worked across a range of projects, including urban design, residential, and infrastructure projects.

Language is an intangible force of culture that binds a community through a shared collective memory, history, and tradition – shaping cultural identity by means of a common mode of expression. Translating Home investigates the Macanese diaspora through the diminishing language Patuá, seeking to connect them with their native community in Macau through testimonies that extract material and spatial qualities defining their cultural heritage. Within the Macanese community, efforts have begun to revive this dying language in the form of performative arts – which will inform how performance, visual language, and spatial memory can recreate a sense of identity and belonging.

How can language and cultural identity be translated to the central location of Macau, in order to reconstruct the notion of home for the diasporic community? By investigating the typology of a theatre as a reference, this project recreates the spatial interactions within a home to express the performativity of the daily lives of the Macanese, ultimately weaving domestic space with theatre to create a second home for the diaspora.

Spaces of intimacy

Visual identity

As Macanese Patuá was prohibited to be spoken in schools or in public in fear of social discrimination, it became constrained within intimate, domestic settings; spaces that are meaningful to the collective memory of the Macanese. Objects found in such spaces are extracted and collated onto a theatre backstage props table.

Building plan – A continuation of the street, extending into the building.

Seasonal inhabitancy of the living room

Privacy screens with cultural motifs

The building is a mediating space for three user groups: the local Macanese community for general inhabitation, the Patua theatre group for language learning, and the Macanese diaspora for visiting.

PDF: Translating Home: Seasonal inhabitancy

Dining room for cha gordo rituals

Living room for theatre rehearsals

The notion of shared spaces reflect upon Macau’s deep-rooted communal culture. Through exploring the role of the streets, the project redefines a home by blurring boundaries between the street and the home, performance and domesticity, and the diaspora with the local residents.

Duality of spaces – Convergence between inside and outside, private and public, performance and domestic.

Section – Stepped internal street as a ‘third space’ to mediate collective memories between the community.

The street frontage as theatre sets

The role of the ceramic tile in Macanese collective memory – Privacy screens with specific tile motifs relating to the space in which it belongs.

Each domestic space has its own stage, its own performers, its own audience. The home is represented as a theatre in terms of spatial layout and distinguishing between backstage and frontstage, highlighting the performativity of the Macanese culture.

Adela Mo

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Royal College of Art