narri tive

5:30 am

The cell phone vibrates Steve awake. He reaches for it and scrambles out of bed. After switching off the alarms, he opens the fridge and grabs a frozen slice of bread straight into the toaster. There’s no need to defrost it first.

It will only take slightly longer to cook than fresh bread. After that, he puts a capsule in the coffee machine and goes for the rest of the morning routine and eventually gets his breakfast, has maybe two minutes to breathe, and then flies out the door.

6:30 am

A day usually started with the Holy Hour, including readings and Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. Steve not the parish priest, so he joined the Holy Hour as a participant.

The day’s activity begins as the sun gets higher in the sky. Plants and trees feast on the rays of the sun. Late risers miss the beauty of the sunrise. Steve thinks it is a rare joy to be awakened at dawn with the love of God, enjoying the breezes and singing of birds while self-reflecting.

8:00 am He is appointed to lead a mass in a nearby secondary school. John, an assistant priest, joined him and departed shortly after the Holy Hour. Fortunately, Steve already got his material ready the night after he acknowledged his appointment.

The Gospel proclamation doesn’t change, but our approach to loving our neighbours does. It begins with understanding their cultural background and present reality. While the diversity of God’s people is vast (young, old, rich, poor, Asian, Hmong, Nigerian), let’s look at how the church responded and still responds to the specific needs of local community

One of life’s great joys for Steve is that no two days are the same. A priest’s day focused on regular prayer and the Mass, but otherwise can be filled with whatever ministries and events happen to be going on. Here is what one typical day might look like for a priest

10:00 am

He takes his precious time for some office work, including catching up on e-mails and phone calls.

12:00 pm

Each priest leads three participants for lunch, including deacons and assistant priests, a joint midday prayer, group discussion, and lunch afterward.

1:00 pm

Routines Pastoral Staff meeting, Steve joins debate and discussions, usually comes up with a few outcomes, and updates future schedules and labour arrangements.

3:00 pm

Prepare for faith formation sessions, homily, and meetings by using references from the library. Sometimes he will find inspiration by looking at outside scenery or roaming around the garden when the weather is not that hot.

4:00 pm

Afternoon break for the rectory, grab a cup of coffee. If the day is not that occupied, Steve will exercise by running around Kowloon walled park.

5:00 pm

Evening Prayer in chapel helps Steve thanks God for the day’s blessings and ask for God’s forgiveness of his sins and protection during the night.

5:30 pm

For Dinner, it is also a time to socialize with other pastors and priests. On regular days, the meal tends to be simple and elegant.

7:00 pm

Bible Study for discussion and study of the upcoming Sunday Gospel reading. It is open to the public each Wednesday.

10:00 pm

Finally, Individual night prayer and Retire for the night.

Kowloon Walled City (1972 Dec)

Mei Tung Estate Glossary Stores (closed down)

Frontage stores were benefited from the local communities & Kowloon walled city

Kowloon Walled City

Cluster

Create pedestrians accessible alleys,yards like river generated communities

Kowloon Walled City Park (Present)

The Group

Is formed of 2 Priests, 5 Priest Assistants & 13 Deacons in a Lutheran Church

Present Huge Renovated Kowloon walled City Park A place for temporary leisure

Design Approach

AsThe site is seperated by leveling difference and huge ramp and stairs in between, it is quite hard for surrounding pedestrians accessing nearby places, the temple, public estates and the orginal public toilet are seperated.

To increase the interaction between local communities and their willingness to access the church, adding easier paths and welcoming space would help.

strategies

Building skin is custom designed. It is all labored and crafted by the hands of the many workers with mixture of projected earth, cement, and fibers. Matching the textures and colors of typical Beirut buildings.

The Windows are recessed and the walls are very thick, the recessed thickness worked as a passive sun shading devices, it also created a scnery of battle field with buildings full of bullet holes, as the openings are deep, a very strong shadows is casted resulting in a high contrast with the cladding.