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A SOCIAL CONDENSER in HONG KONG Research THE PUBLIC INTERIOR: A SOCIAL CONDENSER IN HONG KONG Research Ho Wai Sum Michelle 4820444 Contents Introduction 4 1. Why? / Phenomenon 8 Protests and Queering Space A Case Study: Taipo Lennon Tunnel 2. How? / Conditions 14 Hong Kong as a city of Top-down culture Politics, City and Architecture A culture of Bottom-up Re-appropriations 3. Position / Research Questions 34 4. Who? / Generator and Users 36 Mass Media Artist group as the mediator 5. Where? / Site 66 Identity of the place A site of power confrontation Yau Ma Tei Carpark Building 6. How? Feasiblity Study / Economics of the Market 112 Meanwhile use as an act of resistance Reflection 7. What is the outcome? / Program 126 The notion of misuse and intentional openness Occupying the roof Occupying the Street 8. Project Statement/ Brief 162 Friends 164 Bibliography 178 Introduction 4 Introduction With regards to the current situation in Hong Kong and my personal background, the graduation project places the interest in the relationship between the ongoing public events (i.e. protests) and the built urban fabric. The project wishes to address the role of architecture in reflecting on the ideologies and identity of the people, in the specific social and historical context of Hong Kong. Research is conducted to understand the political relationships behind the constructs of public life, from colonial era to the recent times. Specific public building typologies will be studied against the background to understand the evolutions of forms and roles of these public infrastructures over time. The understanding derived from the research study is then translated into a proposition for a complex public building in Hong Kong, which aims to provide a free-space for the gathering, shape social lives and offer intimate experience within the building and the particular condition it is set in. In the particular contextual setting of Hong Kong today, the building mainly serves as a platform for public - people of opposing ideas -, a ground for discussion, debating and interactions. Taking references from informal political spaces, such as coffeehouses and Jewish eruv, I consider architecture as a soft mediator between different power conflicts, I envisioned an architectural outcome of a institutional cultural building, with different programs stacking on top of each other, will address the role of architecture confronting the political issues in Hong Kong. The thesis also attempts to shed light on the discussion on the relationship of architecture with the material culture of the place and time. The design will come across solutions in different scales, from the urban massing study through to the constructional detail, in order to relate the interior with the urban condition it sets in. In response to the theme of the chair this year, this thesis wishes to reflect on the changing role of architecture against a particular social and political context in the Eastern scope. By comparing the site with the European building environment, the proposal attempts to discuss how different cultural and contextual settings will lead to different solutions to sustainability, labour practices and public relations problems. To quote, German philsopher Jürgen Habermas defines “the public sphere as a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed.”1 Where access is guaranteed to all citizens. At the end, this project attempts to offer a framework of design for a public interior to be adopted in future urban developments to engaging social life and collective activities against the contemporary controversies and contexts of Hong Kong. 5 A Social condenser in Hong Kong The analogy of Hong Kong as a floating city. “The floating city is a stable city that neither rises nor falls. It is also an illusion. The story of the floating city is not a fairy tale after all.” - Hsi Hsi, Marvels of A Floating City fictions Renditions, 1988. René Magritte, The Castle of the Pyrenees, 1959 Introduction 6 This is an old photograph of a street established as centre of commerce in early colonial days. Buildings are built with architectural languages brought from European cities. Pedder Street, 1870s. 7 A Social condenser in Hong Kong In the setting of the contemporary, the street becomes a shopping district for tourists for luxurious brand-named products. It is a street of consumerism. During the Water Revolution recently, protesters occupied this street as it is the major thoroughfare in Central district, that could obstruct the normal functioning of a business core of the city. Pedder Street, June 2019. Phenomenon 8 Protests and Queering Space Since the outburst the Water Revolution in June 2019, protesters in Hong Kong have been actively engaged in realizing a set of ideologies for public life and events. They have been transforming public spaces in the city into grounds for accommodating political activities and vibrant public life. People creates space of encouragement and solidarity, by posting posters and memo notes with messages on walls of public elevated walkways, footbridges and underground tunnels. These public places becomes a public gallery, where people stop and read the messages, express their thought and exchange ideas. These phenomenological examples illustrates the transformation of a city to a ground of social engagement and participation, where public lives occupy spaces disregard of ownership. In David Harvey’s words, this is an act of “Creative Destruction”. The city is transforming itself to accommodate various modes of encounters and social interactions. With regard to the specific social events and background, local traditions and public life of the city is changing, and their various ways of appropriation argue the need to reconsider existing social structures and public interiors, where the city needs public rooms to cater the new modes of public life. The public interior should contain not only people, but also contain the idea and imageries of the contemporary, speaks for the city with its materiality and urban responses. This chapter illustrates a study of the fluidity in the use of urban spaces during the social movement, and how this notion could be adopted into constructing a public building/spaces. 9 A Social condenser in Hong Kong The city of social engagement. The painting expressed a similar idea: where people took over the large building that dominates the square with important civic buildings like town halls. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Children’s Games, 1560. Phenomenon 10 A Case Study | Lennon Tunnel at Tai Po A underground pedestrian tunnel was transformed into a public gallery, where people are invited to post memo stickers on the wall to express their thoughts towards to society and particular towards the social movement. An analytical study is done with an axonometric drawing of the space, to understand its contexts, spatial quality and what allowed them to appropriate the space. A short conclusion could be drawn from this study exercise, that they chose a strategic spot for gathering people by choosing this counterpoint of different modes of public transports. Everyday citizens will pass by this transitional space and therefore given the chance to encounter with the appropriated interior and its information on the wall. It is a successful “propaganda” in my opinion, as the posters made by the protesters themselves, and the means of inviting everyone to join their “appropriation” attracted citizens to engage with each other, and “political debate” with another. 11 A Social condenser in Hong Kong Appropriated public spaces of encouragement and solidarity, where the wall is composed of self-printed posters and memo stickers written with messages about protests and the city at the public tunnel. Lennon Tunnel, near Tai Po Market Station. 7 July, 2019. Phenomenon 12 Axonometric Drawing A Strategic location | intersection point between different modes of public transport 13 A Social condenser in Hong Kong Perspective Drawing Art as a medium for people to express / make culture together Conditions 14 Hong Kong as a Threshold Before China open up, Europeans had a difficult time to trade with China, and the United Kingdom saw Hong Kong as an valuable spot due to its deep harbour in the middle, as well as its location at the periphery of China. It claimed Hong Kong as a colony since 1842. Since then Hong Kong is developed into a free-port, and further developed into a financial centre today. With this notion of developing it as a colony, the spaces are always given with the priority to business and commercial benefits, rather than the good living of the residents. 15 A Social condenser in Hong Kong United Kingdom PRC Hong Kong A Threshold as a Value to be established as a free port since 1841. Conditions 16 Photograph of Cheung Chau Anchourage of Hong Kong, early 1900s. from Hong Kong as it Was Pre-Colonial: Hong Kong as rural communities 17 A Social condenser in Hong Kong Pre-1869 painting, E. L. Watling Since 1841: Hong Kong as a port of commerce Conditions 18 Victoria Harbour, 1950. Since 1841: Hong Kong as a port of commerce 19 A Social condenser in Hong Kong Victoria Harbour, 2019. Today: Rise of Hong Kong as a Financial Centre Conditions 20 Politics, City and Architecture From a Western perspective, the meaning of ‘politics’ could be traced back to the emergence of the first democratic systems of government, following the conception of the Greek term polis, meaning cities. The word politics now could be interpreted as management of a city, where people in the city who gather and make decisions together for the place. Hong Kong is known as the Special administrative region of China, under “one country, two systems”, which indicates that the city-state adopts a separate legal system from China—and an independent judiciary—based on British common law.
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