UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Conditions of the Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/43t4721n Author Tan, Zheng Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Conditions of the Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture by Zheng Tan 2014 © Copyright by Zheng Tan 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Conditions of the Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments by Zheng Tan Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Dana Cuff, Chair This dissertation explores the urbanism of Hong Kong between 1967 and 1997, tracing the history of Hong Kong’s vertically integrated developments. It inquires into a Hong Kong myth: How can minimum state intervention gather social resources to build collective urban form? Roughly around the MacLehose Era, Hong Kong began to consciously assume a new vertical order in urban restructuring in order to address the issue of over-crowding and social unrest. British modernist planning provided rich approaches and visions which were borrowed by Hong Kong to achieve its own planning goals. The new town plan and infrastructural development ii transformed Hong Kong from a colonial city concentrated on the Victoria Harbor to a multi-nucleated metropolitan area. The implementation of the R+P development model around 1980 deepened the intermingling between urban infrastructure and superstructure and extended the vertical urbanity to large interior spaces: the shopping centers. Metro stations were fused with the basement of superstructure and formed into a continuous podium structure connecting the towers and the ground surface. Underlying this urban form is a planning system based on speculation, calculation and contracts. This dissertation is composed of three parts. The first part (Chapter 1 and 2) positions the phenomenon of “Hong Kong Section” in the historical lineage of metropolitan urbanism, or the “Culture of Congestion,” defined by a breed of urban scholars including cultural critic Walter Benjamin and architect Rem Koolhaas. The second part (Chapter 3) is a review of the planning history of Hong Kong on the basis of a series of colonial city plans and programs, with a focus on its evolving vertical integration. It argues that the vertical order results from planning regulation and programmatic demands. The third part (Chapter 4 and 5) investigates two types of “Hong Kong Sections”: the interiorized exterior (networked pedestrian space clustering around metro stations) and the exteriorized interior (retail center as interiorized public space). The conclusion states that the specific planning regulation and programmatic demands of Hong Kong has yielded a new Asian urbanism and a new perspective for considering the relationship between urban form and population density. iii The dissertation of Zheng Tan is approved. Diane Favro Vinit Mukhija Michael Osman Dana Cuff, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION.................................................................................... ii ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................................x VITA ....................................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 1. Hong Kong Section .........................................................................................................1 2. Urbanism of Congestion ..................................................................................................9 3. Embedding Modernity ................................................................................................... 18 4. Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 2. Proto Hong Kong Section: Representation, Topography, Mobility and Space ........... 32 1. Representation: Anatomy of the City ............................................................................. 33 2. Topography: Mat Urbanism ........................................................................................... 46 3. Mobility: The Cityscape of Circulation .......................................................................... 51 4. Space: Interior Urbanism ............................................................................................... 62 5. A Question of Terminology ........................................................................................... 75 v Chapter 3. The Hong Kong Section and its Institutional Context ............................................... 81 1. Hong Kong History and Urban Geography .................................................................... 82 2. Towards Integrated Development .................................................................................. 91 2.1 British Influence and Local Minds ....................................................................... 91 2.2 “Environmental Area”: Civic Design in the 1960s and 70s ................................... 94 2.3 Public Transport and Rail-retail Integration ........................................................ 102 3.4 Metroplan and Mediated Cityscape .................................................................... 115 3.5 Urban Design Guidelines ................................................................................... 122 3. Vertical Integration across the Boundary: Luohu Checkpoint ....................................... 126 3.1. A Brief History of Border Cityscape across the Shenzhen River ........................ 128 3.2. From the Bridge to the Entry City: Three Generations of Luohu Checkpoint ..... 133 4. Consciousness of Hong Kong Space ............................................................................ 149 Chapter 4. Hong Kong Section in Public Space: Multi-level Pedestrian Network in Hong Kong ............................................................................................................................................... 162 1. Introduction to the Pedestrian Network in Hong Kong ................................................. 162 2. Grade Separated Pedestrian System: Context and Discourse ........................................ 167 3. Evolution of the Multilevel Pedestrian Network in Planning History ........................... 175 vi 4. Selected Case Studies .................................................................................................. 186 Case Study 1. Town Center of Sha Tin .................................................................... 187 Case Study 2. Pedestrian Network in Central ........................................................... 197 5. Conclusions and Reflections ........................................................................................ 208 Chapter 5. Hong Kong Section in Consumer Space: Vertical Shopping Centers ...................... 212 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 212 2. Modernity and Hong Kong Consumerism .................................................................... 218 3. Internal Paradox in the Vertical Shopping Centers ....................................................... 223 4. Langham Place ............................................................................................................ 227 5. MegaBox ..................................................................................................................... 234 6. Casbah and Market Tyranny ........................................................................................ 243 Chapter 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 247 1. Hong Kong Section in Retrospect .............................................................................. 247 2. Concluding Statements ................................................................................................ 252 2.1 Rail-Property Integration as a Way to Guide Urban Restructuring ...................... 252 2.2 Architectural Practices Fused with Programming ............................................... 253 vii 2.3 Public Space as Performance instead of Service ................................................. 255 2.4 Architecture as an Integral Part of Topography .................................................. 256 2.5 The Esthetics of Density and its Social and Historical Content ........................... 257 Bibliography: .......................................................................................................................... 259 viii ABBREVIATIONS CIAM The Congrès internationaux d'architecture