Dissecting the Street This is a street in Hong Kong’s most prosperous yet morphing district, named as Wanchai. The street is now redeveloped by the government urban catalyst agent, Urban Renewal Authority, into a gentrified shopping malls.
How can we define the Hong Kong-ness that is a complicated place with influence from British and China, and also establishing this definition before the erasure of all these evidence of HK-Ness.
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Through the images found on the internet or we call it the digital archive, can we reconstruct these vanished spaces that was once alive?
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i. duplication of the facade of the same shop ii. small shop banners with simple icon resembling the its brand iii. shops that might be closed with cloths hanging on their banner showing the closure also no one responsible to remove it
vi. cars stop at one side of the road and occupy the streets.
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iv street furniture in a short distince
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i. shops with banners that you have to look up right above your head ii. the dynamic form created by the line of car parking
iv. street furniture continues to dissipate along the street
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iii. banners owned by different people continue to extend from the start of the street ownwards
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i. banners attempt to extend towards the other side of the street to create full occupance ii. tenants create a small sign saying ‘my house’ iii. small devices are installed as a symbol of shop owners intervention to the street
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iv. projecting lights are installed by the shop owners to illuminate their advertisement
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i. signs of demolition notice hammered by the urban renewal authority are seen almost on every shop and building ii. banners of different shops continue to form a streamline of advertisement iii. the side of car parking in the street
vi. vertical banner which is rare now appears on the street
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iv. urban furniture takes position on the pavement
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i. vans and workers unloading goods such as building materials on the car parking lot ii. the continue domination of banners along the space above the street iii. small banners as a supplement to the shopfront
vi. illegal furnitures deployed by the tenants serve for extension to their domestic needs
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iv. air conditioning units in all housing units
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i. illegal architecture of the tenants start right at the first floor ii. small sub-banners are lined up towards pedestrian walking to attract their attention ii. small sub-banners on the other side of the road
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iv. large signages continue to reveal socio-politics between shops and the street
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i. a street lamp is installed on the facade of the right side building which illuminates the way of the passerby ii. illegal deployment by the tenants reveal different needs that require for living in the city
iv. signages keep changing from one to another with no one responsible to maintain it
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iii. the rooftop of both sides of the streets are a place for the top floor tenants to create their own ‘leisure garden’
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i. sometimes large truck are parked on the street and separate the view between the two sides ii.to the end of the street, there are still small signages that advertise the shops
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iii. these signages reval their age via different way of construction such as acrylic to steel frame and neon light
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i. also when looking closely, these chinese words are traditional chinese in which the mainland china didn’t use it anymore. ii. illegal structures duplicate itself from tenants to tenants, forming a street of similar but different used informal structures
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iii. other than small sub-signages, there are also things like salon installation and lights that occupy the street
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i. protest banners are anchored from the buildings facade across the street. it resembles the voice of the dwellers and users as well as the spirit of coming together ii. small sub-signages didn’t stop it’s way to the end of the road
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iii. car meter and small advertisement cabinet are seen along the end of the road