Hong kong condition article by anahitac

The Hong Kong Condition

Architecturally, is the Hong Kong Residential Tower a Manifestation of Global or Local Conditions - a Product of Unique Regional Circumstances or Westerncentric Homogenisation? ÂŠ Anahita Chouhan 1

Contents Introduction 2 Background - Social, Political and Historical 3

Extreme Urbanism Verticality as an Architectural Type 4 The Density Scale 6 Multi Layering 8 The Hong Kong Tower - High and Higher Rise 9 Case Studies 1970 Mei Foo Shan Cheun 9 2012 Kai Tak Site B1 10 The Global and / or the Local 11 Conclusion 12 The Locality of Global Affects - The Hong Kong Condition End Notes 14 Bibliography 17

Cover Page Hong Kong Residential Towers, Kai Tak November 2012

Right Hong Kong Verticality as an architectural type as a consequence of topography Image Source; Google

Introduction This article examines Hong Kong’s ubiquitous residential towers, asking whether they are a product of globalisation or localisation. It will investigate the themes that surround the development of the tower and attempt to propose whether or not the architectural response is a result of conditions that exist only in Hong Kong – the Hong Kong Condition or, conversely, whether it is a result of homogenisation commonly associated with contemporary urbanisation globally, “… modernisation is still viewed as a homogenizing process.”1 The article will take into consideration social, political, economic, cultural and physical variables that have contributed to the creation of a modern city that is often regarded as unique. Hong Kong exhibits some of the most extreme living conditions in the world2. It is also one of the most dominant examples of an Asian economic power.3 As a city, it is unique as a result of colonisation; political separation from Chinese sovereignty in conjunction with its geographical location and topography. These factors (alongside many others) can each be attributed to the general modernisation of Hong Kong and could also be associated with the specificity of the Hong Kong tower. In the discussion of the global and local, the main perspectives are either to highlight how global issues are localised – or to analyse local modifications as a result of global integration. In contrast, a perspective from the local to the global can be examined in order to unveil how the local can in turn make-up the global collectively. In analysing the Hong Kong Condition and its relationship with globality and locality, the local in this instance is defined largely by political influences, cultural ‘blurring’ (integration), urban density, topography and the historical context of colonisation. Factors that help define the locality of Hong Kong exist exclusively in the city. Can the local inform the global? Hong Kong has maintained itself as a global hub for international commerce for over a quarter of a century. While Westernisation is often perceived as akin to modernisation, the emergence of a city with a new local / global hybridity can be seen to have spawned a unique architecture that, although it originally conforming to Western modes of modernity (in that Westernisation was seen as a sign of economic growth) may have resulted in a local, indefinable, culturally blurred version of modernity. Following a brief exploration of the notions of global and local, this article will question if the architectural condition in Hong Kong is unique and to what extent, if any, it has influenced the development of the Hong Kong tower.

Background Social, Political and Historical Situated off the Southeastern coast of China, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. Measuring only nineteen square miles in area, the island’s topography is generally hilly with a deeply indented coastline, making it ideal for a major port. In 1898, the New Territories (Xinjie) was officially leased to Britain by China for ninety-nine years.4 Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century there was a concern that the customs of Hong Kong’s native population would be compromised and that the region including Hong Kong would lose its cultural identity to Western influence and modernisation. “The ideologies behind modernisation were also used in Western

colonisation, and so were seen as tools to enhance Western power and control. Modernity was asserted and defined by European leaders who claimed authority over its concept and ideologies through historical precedence.”5 In the agreements signed at the time of the handover, the Chinese government requested that within the leased area the land usages would remain unchanged and ‘the local customs and habits shall all remain entirely unchanged, according to the wishes of the Inhabitants.’6 Hong Kong’s independent judiciary functioned under the common law framework.7 The British exertion of the English Common Law left Hong Kong with a Western system of governance, which has been maintained after being handed back to China in 1997. Under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy Hong Kong is still described as having a high level of autonomy. Today, the identity of Hong Kong and the New Territories can be argued as being heavily influenced by the experience of colonisation. Although Britain’s role in Hong Kong becoming a major international financial centre is without question, it could also be said that the city’s renowned commercial success owes itself also to its neighbour and mother territory: China. According to Max Webber, “The Chinese” (without any further elaboration) are ”in all probability more capable than the Japanese, of assimilating capitalism which has technically and economically been fully developed in the modern culture era.”8 When investigating China’s current modernisation, it is therefore impossible to ignore Hong Kong. Although seen as detached from China, Hong Kong is still essentially Chinese and leads the way for China in terms of its economic position and foreign business relations. Looking back at the early stages of Hong Kong’s colonisation, there was much deliberation over how it will be modernised. The population in the late 1840’s was a mere 33’0009 (compared to that of 7.1m today10), most of which were indigenous, it would be fair to say that at the local level, tradition had become somewhat “objectified for the villagers in the context of modernity and urbanisation”.11 At that time, a conscious

effort to establish and maintain a boundary between the indigenous inhabitants and the more recent immigrants to Hong Kong had been made by villagers. There was much being debated at the time about the extent to which Hong Kong should modernise. Modernisation was seen at this point, along with much of the developing world, as a tool that aided nations to ‘Westernise’. Westernising (to use the term in the most general sense) was idealised by the Orient and seen as a method of improving the economy and developing financially. The founders of modernity believed that it would become a universal notion that “would ultimately take over in all modernising and modern societies”12. The concept of a uniform ‘modern’ world was assumed and its success remained unquestioned, worldwide. With the influence of the British still prevalent in Hong Kong, the city’s residents still see themselves as detached from Mainland China - more ‘modern’ and with greater economic power. Hong Kong is seen as a major competitor even amongst its native neighbouring cities, “… posing a threat to Singapore and Beijing in attracting overseas industries.”13

Extreme Urbanisation The city state of Hong Kong has one of the highest population densities in the world, with a population on average of 700’000 pkm².14 Hong Kong’s vertical density is a result of concentrating residences on a small percentage of the land. Throughout the mountainous territory, more than 75% of the area is preserved as natural landscape. Despite significant differences in overall life conditions, the general Hong Kong population enjoys a quality of life comparable (by many indicators of physical, mental and material well being), with other major cities in the developed world.15

Verticality as an Architectural Type Due to the geographical composition of Hong Kong Island only 23.7% of its land is developed. 76 square kilometers of land is developed for housing use, which occupies only 6.8% of the total land area. Due to the high population density caused by limits on land development, 7.0716 million people mainly live in residential high-rises. There are a total of 6,588 high-rise buildings in Hong Kong17, in contrast to New York City’s 5,818 buildings. Vertical concentration in Hong Kong equates to convenience and efficiency. Stacking apartments in the city saves on space and improves functionality - “… to maintain an efficient intensity of land use in the context of competing demands on a limited supply of developable land.”18 The Hong Kong Planning Department set out strict guidelines for residential buildings. See plot ratio guidelines for Hong Kong, Figure 1. High density provides opportunities for the application of more efficient centralised systems. City dwellers in Hong Kong prefer living in high-rise dwellings as they are provided with a view and transport links, it is not seen as a social hindrance to live in a high-rise tower.

Population growth and economic growth are often linked, which is certainly the case in Hong Kong. This combined growth can be directly related to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s necessity for density, in that the economic growth has affected the population growth to some extent. With this combined growth it becomes economically viable to build high-rise residential dwellings in the city for all sections of society.19 Whether luxury, middleclass, or social, the vast majority of Hong Kong housing is high-rise and high density. The government leases land for development and keeps the value of land high by encouraging residential density with the attitude to use its capital beyond the maximum in conjunction with mass transit. Housing developments are invariably built with the MTR (mass-transit rail company), in mind. Rail stations form the hub for new and existing multi-level commercial shopping that also serves as the podium base for apartments that are often inclusive of a cluster of identical towers of 40-60 stories.

Figure 1 Plot Ratios in Hong Kong Table available online at http://www.pland. gov.hk/pland_en/tech_doc/hkpsg/full/ch2/ ch2_tbl_1.htm

The Density Scale Density in Hong Kong can be applied to its residential architecture as well as its population. Architectural density is the more apparent, conspicuous form of density, but what is less obvious is that this density filters down to street level, individual homes, and personal space. ‘Visual density’ is a term that can be applied when examining the complexity of density in Hong Kong. Typical of Chinese culture, this phenomenon exhibits something of a visual sensory overload, when compared to a similar city situation in New York City, Times Square as evident in Figure 2. There are few, if any, gaps of clear space visible at the lower street levels in districts such as Mong Kok, where the architectural condition could be said to have been influenced by New York, yet manages to intensify the effect. This difference in density can easily be attributed to urban grain. Comparable to that of how London had developed as a city, Hong Kong residential towers were built unaware of their predecessors, alongside one another, each with varying plot ratios and budget, as evident in Figure 3. Figure 2 Top, Times Square, New York City September 2012

Above, Mong Kok, Hong Kong November 2012

Key iconic ‘bright light spectacle’ attractions for tourists

To understand the enormity of architectural density in Hong Kong, we can travel to the other end of the visual density spectrum, to the Hong Kong Taxi, Figure 4. Density operates on numerous levels across various scales in Hong Kong. The prevalence of density throughout the city cannot be compared to Hong Kong’s often-paired cities, such as New York, Singapore, Shanghai, and Mumbai. New York, perhaps the most analogous of these cities, does not exhibit Hong Kong’s severe scale of density. Characteristic of Chinese aesthetics, this visual manifestation is distinct from what is seen as Western conformity. To be orderly and live in a typical Western fashion is to utilise storage space and to be ‘tidy’. We can assume that density at these extreme scales is a feature unique to Hong Kong, and that this is characteristic of Chinese aesthetic culture.

Figure 3 Residential Density November 2012

As seen from a 14-storey roof in the MidLevels District, Hong Kong

Figure 4 Hong Kong Dashboards November 2012

Density Scale, Visual density operating on various scales in the city.

Multi Layering

Figure 6 Hong Kong and Kowloon Topographic Map Image Source; , http://www.landsd.gov.hk/mapping/en/paper_map/tp.htm

As a result of varying densities in Hong Kong, there has been an extreme development of multi-layering in the Mid Levels region, famous for it’s Mid Levels Escalators (please refer to Figure 5) where passage between towers is often 2-3 storeys above ground at podium level. Finding bookshops on the 7th floor of a high-rise in the Mid Levels of Hong Kong is not unusual. Another unique city condition is the mixed use and functionality of the residential tower. Multi-layering of social and commercial uses further contributes to the urban density that is becoming somewhat of a necessity, a requirement set out by the Honk Kong Planning Department - “… Creation of space by fully utilising the already-existing areas within buildings, such as roof tops and podiums, and transforming them into community and recreational spaces.”20 Another factor consequenting in the extreme multi-layering and densification of Hong Kong is its topography. See Figure 6. Topography greatly influences the way land is used in Hong Kong, further contributing to the architectural condition.

Figure 5 Mid Level Escalators, Mid Levels District, Hong Kong November 2012

Travelator ferrying passengers down to the bottom of the Mid Levels region in the morning and up during the afternoon, highly accessible, it is also the longest outdoor escalotor in the world.

The Hong Kong Tower High and Higher Rise

The Hong Kong tower lends itself to rapid construction, a ‘modern’ method of building, which could be argued as being devoid of design, but is undoubtedly environmentally viable in terms of its mixed functionality and building footprint. Rapid construction and the architecture of prefabrication and modular design allows ease of stacking, promoting higher buildings with shorter construction times. This pragmatic design takes advantage of limited space with great ease, with some buildings soaring into the sky while only being one apartment unit in width. Can one define the architecture in Hong Kong as Post Modern? What many of us think of as Post Modern, the merging of historic motifs, or direct referencing of modern buildings is not exhibited in the Hong Kong tower. The style, which has developed as a direct result of functionality can be, attributed to (alongside many other variables) the rapid population growth and topography of Hong Kong, suggesting it’s own version of modernity. High-rise, commonly world wide is seen as global architecture, without cultural reference or identity. Yet in Hong Kong, this ‘global’ tower is more the local tower, as it is identifiable by the locals, and yet is recognised globally as categoric of a metropolis.

Case Studies Mei Foo Sun Cheun The Mei Foo Sun Chuen housing development was the first conceptual realisation of high-density and high-rise urban design by way of modularised housing for Hong Kong. It was a phased private project beginning in 1969. The first phase, completed in 1970 (See Figure 7with successive phases added until 1989. Extensive expansion on the project began after its immediate success with the local authority and with residents. As it grew in size it became Hong Kong’s and one of the world’s largest private housing estates. Today Mei Foo has 99 residential towers

Figure 7 Case Study - Mei Foo Sun Cheun, 1970 Hong Kong’s first mass residential high-rise housing scheme. The success of the development is echoed by the recently built towers in the background (as seen on the cover page), which conform to Mei Foo’s functionality as necessity. Image Source; www.landsd.gov.hk

of 20storeys on four adjoining sites, constituting a self-contained township for its (on average) 75,000 mid-income residents21. Until recently (late 2011) the single remaining plot of land that had been left untouched for almost four decades was allocated to further expand the housing programme.22 A new 20 storey block with sea views has been proposed, much to the dismay of the long term residents of Mei Foo, but only further highlighting the indisputable success of the scheme.

Figure 8 Case Study - Kai Tak, Site 1B, Completion due Spring 2013 November 2012

Government funded social housing scheme using mostly prefabricated modules

Associated with the great success of Mei Foo, was the speed at which it was completed. It was the first mass housing development in the city and made excellent use of prefabricated components. The success of the project had great impact on the acceptance of high rise, high density living, and rapidly became a model for subsequent housing schemes in Hong Kong. It is still an exemplar project to the residents, government planners and developers. What followed and flourished in Hong Kong were not merely repetitive copies of the Mei Foo estate, but instead a gradual advancement of a highly sophisticated self-sufficient and mixed-use tower that became a driving force for subsequent generations of high density living. Making excellent use of mixed functionality, the Mei Foo estate exhibits some of the first examples of multi-layering for different usage in Hong Kong. This multi-layering within residential dwellings has evolved over the decades and is now inclusive of a ‘podium level’ where several storeys from the ground floor up they house retail and food units for the residents of the towers above. Further increasing the variation of density and further highlighting Hong Kong’s unique condition in which the locality of the peoples’ needs informs the architecture. It is worth noting that the Mei Foo development is thought of as somewhat luxurious residential housing. Contradicting a common perception in many Western societies that high-rise living is undesirable and promotes hostile behaviour, the case of Mei Foo in fact encompasses family living, education, retail and transport links in a seemingly effortless manner where the local residents are generally satisfied.

Kai Tak, Site 1B

At the other end of the housing spectrum, there are government-funded social housing schemes such as Kai Tak, Site 1B on the site of Hong Kong’s old airport. The obscure project title suggests the scheme might be devoid of a personal touch. However, the project adheres to a locality of design functionality and aesthetic. Currently under construction (please refer Figure 8), one of the most explicit differences between Site 1B and Mei Foo is the sheer scale of the project. The necessity to build in such a way highlights not the only Hong Kong’s population increase, but the government’s need to provide social housing, even at this almost incomprehensible scale, as expressed in Figure 9.

9 residential towers in total make up the currently develping sire. Each tower an exact version of the pervious, reaching 60 storeys high.

It is evident that looking back at the Mei Foo development, that the architectural progression of the Hong Kong residential tower has advanced over the years. Despite differences of scale, what is most interesting about these two projects is that they each exhibit a similar aesthetic. Both

Figure 9 November 2012

built using prefabricated methods (albeit the Site 1B scheme using more comprehensive modules) they essentially adhere to a Hong Kong style of modern architecture - a style that can be argued as having been born out the locality of the Hong Kong local authorities and its people’s needs. Social housing in Hong Kong, as the case of Site 1B illustrates, represents an extreme version of the Hong Kong Condition. Government requirements for such projects are without tolerance in relation to architectural design and their strict budget for such schemes. The design is often seen as ‘neglected’ by Western commentators, yet when looking back at privately funded schemes, the design varies only slightly. Perhaps one of the most notable differences in ‘design’ is the square footage of each residential unit. However, as one commentator suggested, the desire among some Hong Kong residents for low-density housing or even recreational facilities, “while laudable, is unlikely to tackle the lack of affordable housing in the city.”23

The Global and / or the Local Compared to previous discussions of a ‘modern world system’24 the globalisation debate is much more multi-faceted and complex. There has never truly been one accepted definition of what globalisation is, and furthermore, the popularity of the term has only further increased its vagueness.25 Hong Kong’s geographical and political positioning between East and West has encouraged its role as an entrepôt, and underpinned its economic success. However this intermediary role has also created an identity crisis. Being neither wholly Chinese nor Western is problematic. This question over Hong Kong’s identity became a critical issue in the run up to the 1997 handover when Hong Kong, caught between colonialism and the global economy on one side and an interrupted legacy of Chinese culture on the other, became increasingly uncertain about its identity and also about its future. As it looked forward, Hong Kong needed to be something more than a bridge between China and the rest of the world: the place where “East meets West” and “where all the resulting cultural tensions are played out”26. During the 1990s, there were increasing attempts to develop an identity representative of post-colonial Hong Kong.27 This displayed itself in popular culture, politics (with the gaining in strength of the local Democratic Party) as well as architecture and design. The architectural programme of the Hong Kong residential tower seems to have been unaffected by these wider ‘tensions’ and if anything has flourished under the new conditions. The Hong Kong tower can be seen as a point of local-global interface that has developed as a result of numerous factors, a style that draws upon utilitarian principles and manifests itself as modernist functionalism born out of its unique setting.

Conclusion

The Locality of Global Affects - The Hong Kong Condition Hong Kong has long prided itself in being a site of modernity - projecting a modern, universal, global style. Its success is convincing when you look at its global financial status, its economy, its popularity with the Chinese, as an Asian economic power and its global renown as a destination for leisure and tourism. The city adhered to many global traits, promoting global brands and recognising Western methods to govern the city. In reference to modernism as a movement “the universal can surely be particularised… Universality itself is already localized, a consequence of the crucible of colonisation.”28 Nonetheless, Hong Kong has managed to conform to its own version of architectural modernity, to be generic; the architecture can be viewed as something as a global canopy under which localism thrives. “To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.”29 Even while the distinctions between lifestyles in the village and the rapidly modernising city continued to blur, integration between the two was unavoidable. This cultural blurring resulted in recognition of a cultural condition locally that resonates in the now modern Hong Kong within the complexity of what might be seen as global. The Hong Kong tower is a utilitarian display of functionalist architecture. There were no precedents to formalise its style and it developed independently over time, addressing the slowly changing needs of the city, “… it has been shaped by the continuous interaction between the cultural codes of its society,”30 with its growing population, its status in the global economy and its topography. Looking at Site 1B in isolation, one could argue that the Hong Kong tower manifests itself as a generic architecture, unrelated to its surroundings, that it is unforgiving of its context and disassociated to its site. However, looking back over the evidence, in the case of Hong Kong this is not true. The development of the residential high-rise has resulted in a multilayered, multifunctional tower uniquely associated to the setting from which it originated. Adaptability within towers is fundamental. “Hence, its basic characteristics are not universal but are closely tied to a specific historical situation.”31 Universal notions of modernity or, ‘multiple modernities’ are prevalent and emergent worldwide. Modernism manifests itself globally, but does this mean that it is the same model of modernism that is exhibited worldwide? Without idealising a western notion of modernity in its history, it is unlikely that the Hong Kong residential tower would have developed in this way. Hong Kong’s aspiration for being ‘modern’ as a conscious alternative to Mainland China, further attributes to the Hong Kong Condition which assisted the development of the local high rise.

Although the term ‘multiple modernity’ could be deceiving in that it may be understood as a branch of modernity, it must be remembered that modernity was never intended to be ‘owned’- it was intended to be ‘nonidentitarian’32, to be universal.

However, we can see clearly that what is a typical example of high-rise living in Hong Kong, does not equate to the same example of high-rise living universally, as evident in Figures 10 and 11. The key difference is that the social implications of high-rise living are not applicable to Hong Kong. Globally, this ‘modern’ utilitarian architecture on a façade level is ostensibly the same. “Originality has correspondingly been put into

Figure 10 High-rise living in Hong Kong November 2012

Privately funded scheme

question.”33 However, when we look beyond the face of the building and understand the implications that the residential tower has, we can see that Hong Kong stands again, isolated from the rest of the world, developing a unique version of something that may be misread as global. The Hong Kong tower has evolved beyond the basic requirement to fulfil a need; it has become something of a necessity. It is not seen by residents as an austere, poorly constructed, social housing response to an ever-expanding population, it is seen more as a local representation that adheres to the city’s specific needs.

Evident from the almost brutal aesthetic of the Hong Kong residential tower, it is not a question of finding the exact reference or influence for each prefabricated architectural element, but rather, of interpreting the towers as wholes or elements of a greater whole, as an amalgamation of what modernity, global and local architecture might represent. Hosagrahar describes buildings in non-Western contexts as: “The emergent built forms, their use and meanings, though not identical to the ones idealized in Western Europe, were nevertheless modern.”34 This argument, when applied to the Hong Kong Condition and the residential tower, could not be truer. Although the towers could be seen as akin to the universal notions of modernity, attaining to a global style, they have rather developed as a result of conditions specific to Hong Kong and should be seen as a product of specific place between East and West. The architecture of the Hong Kong residential tower is truly modern by definition “…all buildings of the modern period regardless of their ideological basis, or an architecture conscious of its own modernity and striving for change”35. Yet it does not manifest itself as a western version

Figure 11 ‘High-rise’ living in London Government funded scheme Image Source; http://www.corbisimages.com/ Search#mlt=42-19864771&mla=19864771

of modernity, the Hong Kong tower is a result of specific variables. It can be argued that what has been achieved is not universally ubiquitous but, nonetheless, global in respect to it’s aesthetic. Multiple modernities exist worldwide, each individual to their economic, political, social, local and cultural context, and are neither a Western nor European construct, but one that relies on the hybridisation of the global within the local, in order to create a distinctive architecture that develops independently within it’s localised context as a result of unique conditions and, in this case, the Hong Kong residential tower developing as a direct product of the Hong Kong Condition.

Endnotes

Oommen, T. K. ‘Modernity in an age of Globalisation’ in Elizer Ben-Rafael and Yitzhak Sternberg (Eds.), Comparing Modernities: Pluralism Versus Homogeneity, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 151

Statistics taken from New Geography, World Urban Areas Population and Densty: a 2012 Update, available online at http://www.newgeography.com/ content/002808-world-urban-areas-population-and-density-a-2012-update (accessed on 26 December 2012)

Hazel Clark, ‘Back to the Future, or Forward? Hong Kong Design, Image, and Branding’, Design Issues, Vol. 25, No. 3, Design in a Global Context (2009), p. 17s

Selina Ching Chan (1998), ‘Politicizing Tradition: The Identity of Indigenous Inhabitants in Hong Kong’, Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 42

Eisenstadt, S.N. (2000) ‘Multiple Modernities’, Daedalus, Vol. 129, No. 1, p.2

Russell, Peter H.; O’Brien, David M. (2001). Judicial Independence in the Age of Democracy: Critical Perspectives from around the World. University of Virginia Press. p. 306 7

Max Webber, The Religion of China, Confucianism and Taoism, The Free Press, 1951, p. 229-32

Robinson, Thomas W. & Lin, Zhiling, ‘The Chinese and their future: Beijing, Taipei,

and Hong Kong’ (AEI Press, Washington, D.C, 1994) p. 133

United Nations Statistics Division, 2012, available online at http://data.un.org/ Search.aspx?q=hong+kong, Accessed 29 December 2012 10

Selina Ching Chan (1998), ‘Politicizing Tradition: The Identity of Indigenous Inhabitants in Hong Kong’, Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 1, p. 51

Eisenstadt, S.N. (2000) ‘Multiple Modernities’, Daedalus, Vol. 129, No. 1, p.1

Enright, M. J., Scott, E. E., Dodwell, D. (Eds) The Hong Kong Advantage, New York, Oxford University Press, (1997)

p. 248

United Nations Annual Report, 2012 available online at http://data.un.org/

Search.aspx?q=hong+kong, Accessed on 29 December 2012

Data derived from Google.com via accessible Public Data

United Nations Annual Report, 2012 available online at http://data.un.org/ Search.aspx?q=hong+kong Accessed on 29 December 2012 16

Statistics taken from Hong Kong Municipality available online at http://www.gov. hk/en/residents/, (last updated in May 2012)

Planning Department, The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Objectives and Functions of Residential Density Guidelines, available online at http://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/tech_doc/hkpsg/full/ch2/ch2_text.htm#2 - Accessed 02 January 2013

Statistics taken from the United Nations Hong Kong Statistics Report 2007, available online at http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx?crName=China/HongKong - Accessed 30 December 2012 19

Statistics taken from www.turnerconstruction.com (accessed 30 December 2012) 21

Kanglei Wang, South China Morning Post, ‘Marching to the beat of different drummers’, Saturday, 28 January, 2012 22

Edward Farrelly, South China Morning Post, ‘Wrong thinking on the future of Kai Tak’, Wednesday, 31 October, 2012

Immanuel Wallerstein, , “World-systems Analysis” In World System History, ed. George Modelski, in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford (2004)

In a polemic way one might say that globalisation is an amalgamation of massconsumer and cultural industries, financial flows, the Internet and capital markets - something that is influential on an international level

Hazel Clark, ‘Back to the Future, or Forward? Hong Kong Design, Image, and Branding’, Design Issues, Vol. 25, No. 3, Design in a Global Context (2009), p. 15

“Post-colonial” needs qualification; for Hong Kong did not achieve independence, as did other former colonies, but was “reunited” with a China from which it had become increasingly separated, culturally and politically, during the twentieth century. Ackbar Abbas also points out that, for Hong Kong, colonialism “is less an explanatory term than a term that needs explaining.” See Ackbar Abbas, Hong Kong Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, (1997) 27

Prakash, V. ‘Epilogue: Third World Modernism, or Just Modernism: towards a cosmopolitan reading of modernism’ in D. Lu (ed), Third World Modernism, (Routledge, New York 2010), p. 266

Berman, M. All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity, (Simon and Schuster, New York 1982), p. 15

Eisenstadt, S.N and Shluchter, W. ‘Introduction: Paths to Early Modernities- A comparative view’, Daedalus, Vol. 127, No. 3, (1998) p. 5

S. N. Eisenstadt, Studies of Modernization and Sociological Theory, History and Theory, Vol. 13, No. 3 (1974) pp. 225

Prakash, V. (2010) ‘Epilogue: Third World Modernism, or Just Modernism: towards a cosmopolitan reading of modernism’ in D. Lu (ed), Third World Modernism, Routledge, New York, p. 262

Charles Jencks, (2007) ‘Critical Modernism’ Wiley Academy, Great Britain, p. 232

Hosagrahar, J. (2005) Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and

Urbanism, Routledge, New York, p. 2 35

Alan Colquhoun, Modern Architecture, Oxford University Press (2002), p. 9

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Figures (images) Sourced and taken by Anahita Chouhan unless otherwise stated