IntenCity Hong Kong by Philipp Ohnesorge

INDEX

3 Index

147

The city of today - introduction

7 9 13

7 billion and counting We’re now seven billion The endless city

The Peoples Republic of China

17 20 21

The development in China Measuring growth Why the productivity boom

149 Overview 151 Site outline 153 Building pattern 155 Green pattern 157 Transportation network 159 Density 161 Reclamation 163 Terrain heights

The Pearl River Delta

25 31 33 - 47

Full speed ahead Shenzhens rapid growth Impressions from Pearl River Delta

Hong Kong

51 55 67 71 73 75 77

Brief introduction to Hong Kong Hong Kong’s past / Land reclamation High density - small footprint World’s most concentraded and vertical city Vertical expansion / Definition of ground in HK Multiple layers Kowloon Walled City

Traditional Housing: The Pang Uk Settlements

81 83

Tai O Village Pang Uk - Houses

The Hong Kong tower typology

Land reclamations

Shortage of buildable land

Visiting family Wong

105

Interview with Catherine Wong

109

Vertical and volumetric - Concluding the Hong Kong analyze

115 119 121 123 125 127 129

Isn’t there a better way? - Concluding the issues Erasing traditional structures Lack of living quality Lack of community spaces Shortage of buildable land Access to water Podium - tower typology

131 Hypothesis 133 Reference Projects and Concepts 134 Metabolism 135 Kyonori Kikutake 137 The Skyhouse 139 Arata Isozaki - Clusters in the Air 141 Herman Hertzberger - Centraal Beher 143 El Lissitzki - Cloud Iron 145 Constantin Nieuwenhuys - New Babylon

165

Project site

Basic design strategy

171 Applying of concept on site 173 Altering currnet building situation 175 Replacing Building with Park 177 Extension of Land and Park 179 Extended Park above Water-surface to create Continuum 181 Lower Levels: Programatic Topics - Sequence 183 Connection to Public Transportation Network 185 Grid 187 Cores / Supporting Structure 189 Artificial Landscape Platform 195 1st Platform Level 197 2nd Platform Level 199 3rd Platform Level 201 Apartment Boxes 203 Public Livingrooms 205 Public Balcony 207 Access to Water 209 Overview Rendering 211 Lower Level Rendering 213 Connection to City - Rendering 215

Plan Drawings

249 Section 253

Energy, Water, Light

257 259 261

Light and Shadow Sunlight Diagram Access to Light in Lower Levels

263

Porosity and access to natural daylight

265 Area plan 271 Phasing 275 Zoom-in 279 281 283 285 287 289 291 293 295 297 299 301 303

Apartment Layout Type I Facade Mockup Construction Principle - Section Plan Apartment Block - Type I Plan Apartment Block - Variation as Office Elevation Apartment Block - Type I Section Apartment Block - Type I Apartment Layout Type II Plan Apartment Block - Type II Duplex Apartment Principle Elevation Apartment Block - Type II Section Apartment Block - Type II Project Data

305

Model Photographs

323

List of References

1 billion + 100 million + 50 million + 25 million + 10 million + 1 million + < 1 million

Diag.001

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s changing urban population By 2005, 70 percent of the urban population lived in cities in developing countries. Expected to increase to 80 per cent by 2030, this share is more than double what it was in 1950.

Diag.002

average urban growth in percent (2000 - 2005) Afghanistan

Indonesia +4 +2

1950 1960

Iran

China

Russia

1970

Singapore Germany

-2

1980

1990

500

2000

300

2010

100

2020

20 urban population in mio.

2030 developing countries developed countries

Brasil

Mexico USA Japan

Thailand

Saudi Arabia Kuweit Hong Kong

Philippines

Bangladesh Vietnam India

Africa Asia Europe

Latin America North America

100%

the city of today.. is growing.

According to calculations by the United Nations in 2006, the worldwide urban population has reached 3.3 billion which means that more than half of the world population are living in cities then in rural areas. We can experience this trend since around 30 years since an unusual expansive form of urbanization and a rapid growth of cities worldwide has emerged. We can speak now of both the urbanization of the entire globe and the globalization of urbanism as a way of life. The urban-rural tipping-point was reached in 2006, however, is just one measure of a much more extensive, focused and accelerating urbanization process that has been spreading over the entire Earth’s surface for at least the past 30 years. The urbanization of the world has brought with it new terms to describe what were conventionally called cities and metropolitan regions. The term ‘world city’ emerged early in the 1960s to reflect the increasing global influences on urban life. In the early 1990s, the concept of the ‘global city’ began to be widely used for the most influential financial command centers of the global economy. More recently, the world’s largest agglomerations have taken on several additional descriptions. The term which is used most often is the ‘global city region’, defined as a new metropolitan form characterized by sprawling polycentric networks of urban centers clustered around one or more urban cores, as seen for example in the Pearl River Delta in southeast China with its growing cities which can be seen almost as one big mega city which forms and defines several centers like Guangzhou, Shenzhen and as its forerunner in terms of urbanization and development, Hong Kong.

The urban development in the Pearl River Delta is special in many ways. Due to its historical context, the situation emerged that Hong Kong, as the tipping point and entry gate to the whole region, even as a gate to whole China, developed in an extensive level since the 1970 while other cities in the region where just about to expand as Den Xiaoping introduced his policy of opening up to the western markets and started the “Great Leap Forward” This rapid expansion allowed prosperity and development to the cities, they began growing in an enormous pace. Shenzhen for example grew from about 30.000 inhabitants in the beginning of the 1980s to around 10.000.000 today. This development and growth lead to problems, due to the enormous need for living space and due to the high number of rural workers moving to the cities to find work in the many factories in the Pearl River Delta, the cities ‘explode’ and grew in an almost unplanned matter. Situations we can witness today in Guangzhou or Shenzhen are already on an much further developed level in Hong Kong. The urban development in terms of building density and use of land is one of the most extreme worldwide. The main goal for this project for me was to discover and to analyze the current situation in Hong Kong as a forerunner to the worlds growing mega cities. My proposal aims at reaction directly to the result of my investigation. By traveling to the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong I collected first hand information and was lucky to have opportunities to talk to many people with very different backgrounds. Based on this research I could draw a picture of the situation there today and develop a design proposal trying to tackle some main issues of modern living conditions in a mega city like Hong Kong. With this book i want to explain the process of my research work and the design definition that followed based on the collected information. 5

million cities

2006: 408 million cities legend urban agglomerations >

10,0 million

5,0

10,0 million

3,0

5,0 million

2,0

3,0 million

1,0

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7 billion and counting.. For the first time in human history, one half of the world’s population will be urban. In 2006 the United Nations stated that the historical change took place and the human race, which started out as collectors and hunters, will turn into an urban species. Humans retreat from the given nature and move into their own creation, the city. From ancient Rome, World’s first ‘million-city’ in 5 BC it took almost 1800 years till it got with London and Beijing some successors at a time when industrialization gave the ultimate start signal for rapid urbanization. Today well served and perfectly organized city agglomerations in Europe reached the point of saturation and are loosing out on urban population (e.g. Vienna -55.000 inh./year) while the most underdeveloped and congested South Asian and African cities still experience a demographic explosion. The developing countries are catching up fast with the western developed world and are now overtaking world dominant economies like the U.S or Europe. The biggest and fastest growing Country is still China with its massive growth rates over the past 30 years and developing speed that is still ungraspable if you haven’t witnessed it with you own eyes.

We’re now seven billion Seven billion people live on next Monday on the planet - and the End of growth is still a long way, says the new World Population Report of the UN. Poor countries fight hunger and poverty, while rich countries such as Germany grow old. Only twelve years it took to make another billion people around the world bring Only in 1999 the global population had exceeded the threshold of six billion. On Monday, the prognosis of the United Nations is the limit for the seventh Billion. Whether it will actually occur as white, of course, no one. The Census Bureau of the U.S. Government example assumes that the seventh billion until the end of March is probably reached in 2012. At 31 October would therefore still missing about 30 million. Equally good is possible that it already now more than seven billion there. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has Despite all, at 31 October set - suitable to the World Population Report 2011, the was published on Wednesday. It includes all the opportunities and problems to read that the explosive Population growth in recent decades brings. Humanity is growing accordingly, currently around 80 million per year, which corresponds roughly to the population of Germany. The UNFPA estimates that by mid-century and 9.3 billion by 2100 more than ten billion people will enter. “People are living longer and healthier lives” The uncertainties are large, however: The more one looks into the future, the larger gape the results of the UN scenarios apart. Could it be that the birth rate in the populous countries vary only slightly higher than expected, it could take place in 2050 9.3 and 10.6 billion people to give - and 2100 even 15 billion. A scenario with other Requirements states, however, that the world population already in 2045 with its 8.1 billion Zenith reached by 2100 and to nearly 6.2 billion shrinks. According to the UNFPA Asia by the year 2100 the most populous by far Remain continent. Today there live about 4.2 billion people, more than in any other Regions of the world together. Richest country’s population is currently China with 1.35 billion Residents in India with 1.24 billion. As early as 2025 but India is expected with 1.46 billion Residents because of the one-child policy in China are fed up front, while China expected to stagnate almost 1.39 billion. Global population growth is expected to lose but years to ride. In the sixties Years ago there was still more than two percent per year, today it is only slightly more than one percent. The new World Population Report also contains other very good news. Thus, the average life expectancy in the fifties had amounted only 48 years in first decade of the new millennium, they have reached 68 years. The number of children per Wife was in the same period fell from 6 to 2.5, the infant mortality from 133 to 46 per Decreased 1000th In addition, vaccination campaigns have the spread of childhood diseases greatly reduced. “People are living longer and healthier lives,” says former Nigerian Health Minister Babatunde Osotimehin and UNFPA chief.

Population growth in the wrong places These factors have also really positive to the rapid population growth the past decades contributed - and that often takes place in countries that it is really can not afford. “Interfere in some of the poorest countries with high birth rates to develop and strengthen poverty, “said UNFPA. A figure illustrates the dilemma: The population of Africa is, according to the UN forecast for Rise in 2100 of a billion today to 3.6 billion. Even in the low scenario The UN is 2.3 billion, even in high excess of five billion. In turn, the Asia Population according to forecasts by the middle of the century, a maximum of just more than five billion achieve and then slowly shrink. In Europe, the apex is already expected in 2025 with 740 million. There, so warn the United Nations, at risk, low birth rates, economic growth and Social systems. It gets even Germany felt. According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the was also released on Wednesday, the population of 2030, the limit is 80 Million less, 2060 will be only 65 to 70 million. The number of people over 80 -yearolds will increase nationwide by 2030 to almost 60 percent in Berlin and Brandenburg even almost double. “Aging in Germany falls well ahead overall,” it said. “By 2030, his half of the population older than 49 years.” UNFPA also Osotimehin chief warned of the consequences of the changing population structure. “Today, 893 million people older than 60,” he said. “In the middle of the century this figure to rise to 2.4 billion. “This would be tripling every asked what he could do for the elderly so that they continue to play an active role in society. Simultaneously are today but also 43 percent of people younger than 25 years old, in some countries even 60 percent. “Throughout my life, the world’s population has almost tripled,” Osotimehin said, who came in 1949 with the world. “We are seven billion people, with seven Billion opportunity. “

A planet seven billion people and it grows and grows and grows: In 2011 the world population has the Seven-Billion mark broken. In the coming decades, billions more added - and this despite the fact that mankind already consumes more resources than the earth can provide long-term. At 31 October 2011 was earthlings number 7.000.000.000 to the world - at least that proclaimed by the United Nations. Exactly, of course, no one knows whether the threshold has not been previously been achieved or it takes a little longer. However, the date is highly symbolic: The world population has taken a full twelve years, from six to seven billion To grow people.How many people on Earth live is ultimately of secondary importance. What really matters is their Consumption - and is already far too high. Researchers believe that humanity currently one and a half times as many resources claimed, as the earth holds. And the end of the story is far from being reached: by 2050 it is forecast by the Uno give some nine billion people by 2100 there could be ten billion. the largest growth will occur in Asia - just there, Soon, there are ten billion people on earth The world population is changing dramatically: According to a new forecast to be on it 31st October will give seven billion people in 90 years, even tens of billions. Africa and India lay too extreme, Germany and China, by contrast, almost halved. It threatens serious food shortages. Berlin - Africa is in the next 90 years before a dramatic increase in population, The number of people living in Europe is shrinking, however more and more. The findings of a new projection of the United Nations show that the German Foundation for World Population (DSW) on Tuesday presented in Berlin. The world population of nearly seven billion Therefore people will rise to 10.1 billion by 2100. Previously, the United Nations of 200 Million fewer people expected as a result of the dramatic population growth be increased poverty and higher food prices means fear. The population growth is taking place almost exclusively in developing countries, as said. In Africa alone will be the population at 1.02 billion expected by today almost 3.6 billion people in 2100 more than tripled. In Europe, however, Population decline: Life here is still 738 million people, it will be in 90 years expected to be only 674 million people, as is evident from the forecast. Germany 2100 will be under the same birth rates in spite of moderate immigration 38 Million people are less - half the population, almost. China was in 2100 even half a billion fewer people than today, said Deputy Director of the UN Population Division, Thomas Buettner. India, China will likely already in 2021 to overtake as the most populous country in the world.

By 2050 the world population is growing DSW forecast to more rapidly than previously thought. Currently living almost seven billion people on earth, so are Accordingly, 2050 will be 9.3 billion it already. The prognosis of the UN is to actually set a date: December 31 October 2011 to the Calculated that the seven billion mark for the first time be broken, as the Deputy Director of the UN Population Division, Thomas Buettner said. Though Buttner admitted, the date must be understood as a symbol for the continuous global Population growth noted. There was a statistical extrapolation, could accurately the day can not be determined. While it took 13 years to up to six billion world population of five increased, whether it was now only ten years time before they again increased by one billion is said Buettner. 1962, three billion people were counted. “The population is growing in the least developed countries of the world’s fastest, for example in Liberia, Niger and Uganda, “said Buettner. The UN projections are based on the Assumption of a declining fertility rate. This means that the average number of children fall per woman in developing countries by 2100 from 2.7 to 2.0 today - in the most least developed countries of 4.4 children to 2.1 children per woman. Despite this trend is the UN believes that at present the fastest 20 life-growing countries by the year 2100 approximately five times more people than today. “The fight against poverty is much more difficult,” said Buettner. The decrease in the number of children but is not guaranteed, said managing director of DSW Renate Baehr. “The fact is that family planning is in short supply in developing countries, and internationally that less money will be made available. “would be alone in developing countries Prevent 215 million women like to, but had no way to do so.

Endless City The UN-HABITAT report ‘State of World Cities 2008/09’ claims that the phenomenon of the so-called ‘Endless City’ could be one of the most significant challenges for the way people live and economies operate in the next 50 years. The biggest confrontations are not faced by the people who move to the cities voluntarily but by the ones that stay on the countryside and get caught and incorporated by the giant urban dough – the ‘Endless City’. There is no master plan or ‘project’. The ‘Endless City’ is the stochastic result of a myriad of minds and originates by people from all cultures. Planning becomes only evident at connections points between systems: e.g. dissimilar track gauges have to be bridged. The more the ‘Endless City’ expands, the higher our awareness about the till now unaffected parts. The Amazon, the tundra and the polar caps as well as world’s deserts get our unbroken attention since they embody our pre-urban past. All planning attempts are reduced to damage control. While the outskirts (developing world) see the ‘Endless City’ as a threat, the centers (developed world) see it as chance to streamline energy consumption, urban transport and cultural exchange. The principal author of the UN report, Eduardo López Moreno, states "that the world's largest 40 megalopolis cover a tiny fraction of the planets habitable surface with fewer than 18% of the world's population but account for 66% of all economic activity and about 85% of technological and scientific innovation" . The Endless city is spanning the entire northern hemisphere and consists of four major city centers: the saturated urban core of Europe, the future center of ‘Endless City’, Asia I&II and the saturated core of America. The urban centers in the south remain geographically isolated from this urban ring in the north but have the future advantage of close proximity to unique natural resorts and resources.

The endless city - Problems of urban sprawl As the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population is growin, people are continousily moving towards the cities. As mentioned before, after reaching the tipping point of more then 50% of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population now living in an urban context, the phenomenon on urban sprawl becomes more and more significant. The decline of the American suburb is a good example of the problems that a wide spread of the city into the surounding area causes. the distances towards the city center and the work places for most people are quite far, takes a long times and consumes a high amount of energy. The people have to move towards the city in order to reach their place of work on time and without spending major costs on transportation. With the rising fuel prices and an end of the oil age in sight, we need to reorganize our usage of land.

Diag.002

The American idea of the suburban city as living space in the green with long distances to the city and work environment, reached by a personal car on braod highways is outdated. It consumes way to much energy , time and other recourses. The globat trend of the dying suburbia and growing city centers is ongoing. In order to counter this developement we have to densify the urban centers to maximise the useage of space.

average urban growth in percent (2000 - 2005) Afghanistan +6 Indonesia +4 +2

Iran

China

Mexico USA Japan

Thailand

Saudi Arabia Kuweit Brasil Hong Kong

Philippines

Bangladesh Vietnam India

Russia

Singapore Germany

-2 0

100%

500 300 100

Africa Asia Europe

20 urban population in mio.

Latin America North America

photo by philipp ohnesorge

THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA 15

THE DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA In the less than 30 years since 1980, the number of urban citizens in China has increased by 400 million, and urbanization has risen from 19.4 per cent to 43.9 per cent in 2006. This makes the intense rate and immense speed of urbanization in China the country’s most impressive feature. The starting point for the politicization of Chinese society and economic institutions occurred in 1949 when the communist regime was established with ‘the rural besieging of the urban’, cities came to be regarded as the cradle of capitalism and were strictly controlled. In the 30 years that followed, development of cities stagnated. In 1980, the rate of Chinese urbanization, at 20 per cent, was less than half that of most developed countries. The reasons for the stagnation of the Chinese cities can be found in the replication of the Soviet model of the planned economy which lead to excessive targeted outputs of agrar goods and a strict regulation of the market and strict regulations on foreign trade. Scenes from “Last Train Home”, 2009 by Lixin Fan

This had initiated capital injections for China’s rapid industrialization, but had not been conducive to the healthy and sustainable development of agriculture and cities. China drew income mainly from agriculture and the acceleration of industrialization. In the 1950 - 1970s, a communist, counter-urbanization process forced millions of people to ether stay within the town they were born or to move from the cities to the countryside to fulfill the communist idea of an agricultural based country. In 1978, a new process of Chinese urbanization was started by Deng Xiaoping’s Open Door Policy, a process that was to accelerate in 1992. During the initial phase of the policy in the 1980s, the economic reformation was carried out in rural areas, and the nation explored economic growth through the model of the Planned Economy by establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in coastal cities which meant opening up the market to trade, communication and investment with the outside world. The development of the cities enabled China to transform from an manly agriculture based country to an industrial. The advantage of millions of cheap peasants, who are willing to work in factories for low wages created a boom in the production sector, mainly for foreign companies who used the cheap labor force to produce almost any kind of product in China. Soon the label “Made in China” was found an a growing number of goods all over the world. The former agricultural economy changed to a production and export economy, allowing the country to get richer, to develop its cities, infrastructure and industry. ‘Leaving the countryside for the city, and the village for the town’ caused the official administrative status of villages to shift and become more urbanized as they were assimilated into expanding cities’ urban territories, or as the result of returning migrant workers building town-like settlements. They became ‘big villages’ and then later upgraded to ‘township’ status, again increasing the total population of towns and cities. Flourishing village enterprises increased the number of urban people, as many enterprise managers had the opportunity to change their peasant status to citizen status. However, the core concept of urban development was to ‘control the scale of large cities, modest development of medium-size cities and active development of small cities’.

More than 200 million people have moved to major cities over the past 14 years. however, between 150 million and 300 million unregistered migrant workers, the so called ‘floating population’, remain unaccounted for in the urbanization process. This is the most outstanding characteristic of disruption in China’s urbanization process. The industrialization process, with low wages and poor welfare, is insufficient to maintain living standards for those on low incomes in the cities. With the restriction of permanent migration to the cities, migratory peasant workers become the primary labor force supporting urbanization, instead of its targeted population. As for this growing population living space was needed, the cities grew rapidly. There was a huge demand for cheap and effective living space. Millions of square meters of ever repeating housing towers arose in the cities, often way below acceptable living standards or even sustainable concepts to decrease the pollution of the environment. For most generations of peasant workers who had to move to the cities, this process of modernization and change of lifestyle went too fast. Often the young had to leave the villages in order to find work in the cities to support their families thousands of kilometers away. This unbalance in separating social classes tops in the every year mass movement during the Chinese New Year. (see still images below from the movie: “Last Train Home” by Lixin Fan) Especially in the Pearl River Delta the number of peasant workers who come here in order to find work and make money to support the education of their kid and to support their parents at home in the village is one of the highest in China. The Pearl River Delta became to most important area in China to produce electronic goods such as the iPhone or other high tech products. The proximity to Hong Kong, the hub to the western world, caused this region to flourish and the cities in the Pearl River Delta to grow rapidly.

eighties n in the

l revolutio

“Leaving

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- slogan

e industria during th launched

photo by philipp ohnesorge

China as fastest growing economy - Why Is China Growing So Fast?

Measuring Growth

In 1978, after years of state control of all productive assets, the government of China embarked on a major program of economic reform. In an effort to awaken a dormant economic giant, it encouraged the formation of rural enterprises and private businesses, liberalized foreign trade and investment, relaxed state control over some prices, and invested in industrial production and the education of its workforce. By nearly all accounts, the strategy has worked spectacularly. While pre-1978 China had seen annual growth of 6 percent a year (with some painful ups and downs along the way), post-1978 China saw average real growth of more than 9 percent a year with fewer and less painful ups and downs. In several peak years, the economy grew more than 13 percent. Per capita income has nearly quadrupled in the last 15 years, and a few analysts are even predicting that the Chinese economy will be larger than that of the United States in about 20 years. Such growth compares very favorably to that of the “Asian tigers”--Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan Province of China--which, as a group, had an average growth rate of 7-8 percent over the last 15 years.

Economists studying China face thorny theoretical and empirical issues, mostly deriving from the country’s years of central planning and strict government control of many industries, which tend to distort prices and misallocate resources. In addition, since the Chinese national accounting system differs from the systems used in most Western nations, it is difficult to derive internationally comparable data on the Chinese economy. Figures for Chinese economic growth consequently vary depending on how an analyst decides to account for them. Although economists have many ways of explaining--or modeling--economic growth, a common approach is the neoclassical framework, which describes how productive factors such as capital and labor combine to generate output and which offers analytical simplicity and a well-developed methodology. Although commonly applied to market economies, the neoclassical model has also been used to analyze command economies. It is an appropriate first step in looking at the Chinese economy and yields useful “benchmark” estimates for future research. The framework does, however, have some limitations in the Chinese context. Original data for the new IMF research came from material released from the State Statistical Bureau of China and other government agencies. Problematically, the component statistics used to compile the Chinese gross national product (GNP) have been kept only since 1978; before that, Chinese central planners worked under the concept of gross social output (GSO), which excluded many segments of the economy counted under GNP. Fortunately, China also compiled an intermediate output series called national income, which lies somewhere between GNP and GSO and is available from 1952 to 1993. After making appropriate adjustments to the national income statistics, including adjusting for indirect business taxes, these data can be used to analyze the sources of Chinese economic growth.

Curious about why China has done so well, an IMF research team recently examined the sources of that nation’s growth and arrived at a surprising conclusion. Although capital accumulation--the growth in the country’s stock of capital assets, such as new factories, manufacturing machinery, and communications systems--was important, as were the number of Chinese workers, a sharp, sustained increase in productivity (that is, increased worker efficiency) was the driving force behind the economic boom. During 1979-94 productivity gains accounted for more than 42 percent of China’s growth and by the early 1990s had overtaken capital as the most significant source of that growth. This marks a departure from the traditional view of development in which capital investment takes the lead. This jump in productivity originated in the economic reforms begun in 1978.

A Surprising Find Much previous research on economic development has suggested a significant role for capital investment in economic growth, and a sizable portion of China’s recent growth is in fact attributable to capital investment that has made the country more productive. In other words, new machinery, better technology, and more investment in infrastructure have helped to raise output. Yet, although the capital stock grew by nearly 7 percent a year over 197994, the capital-output ratio has hardly budged. In other words, despite a huge expenditure of capital, production of goods and services per unit of capital remained about the same. This pronounced lack of capital deepening suggests a constrained role for capital. The labor input--an abundant resource in China--also saw its relative weight in the economy decline. Thus, while capital formation alone accounted for over 65 percent of pre-1978 growth, with labor adding another 17 percent, together they accounted for only 58 percent of the post-1978 boom, a slide of almost 25 percentage points. Productivity increases made up the rest.

Why the Productivity Boom?

1950 worldwide population (in thousands)

1975 worldwide population (in thousands)

2000

worldwide population (in thousands)

2025

It turns out that it is higher productivity that has performed this newest economic miracle in Asia. Chinese productivity increased at an annual rate of 3.9 percent during 1979-94, compared with 1.1 percent during 1953-78. By the early 1990s, productivity’s share of output growth exceeded 50 percent, while the share contributed by capital formation fell below 33 percent. Such explosive growth in productivity is remarkable--the U.S. productivity growth rate averaged 0.4 percent during 1960-89--and enviable, since productivity-led growth is more likely to be sustained. Analysis of the pre- and post-1978 periods indicates that the market-oriented reforms undertaken by China were critical in creating this productivity boom. The reforms raised economic efficiency by introducing profit incentives to rural collective enterprises (which are owned by local government but are guided by market principles), family farms, small private businesses, and foreign investors and traders. They also freed many enterprises from constant intervention by state authorities. As a result, between 1978 and 1992, the output of state-owned enterprises declined from 56 percent of national output to 40 percent,while the share of collective enterprises rose from 42 to 50 percent and that of private businesses and joint ventures rose from 2 to 10 percent. The profit incentives appear to have had a further positive effect in the private capital market, as factory owners and small producers eager to increase profits (they could keep more of them) devoted more and more of their firms’ own revenues to improving business performance. China’s recent productivity performance is remarkable. By comparison, productivity growth for the Asian tigers hovered around 2 percent, sometimes slightly more, for the 1966-91 period. China’s rate of almost 4 percent simply puts it in a class by itself.

worldwide population (in thousands)

2050

Exactly how did China’s economic reforms work to boost productivity, especially in an economy still burdened by extensive government controls? In the important rural sector the story is particularly interesting. Prior to the 1978 reforms, nearly four in five Chinese worked in agriculture; by 1994, only one in two did. Reforms expanded property rights in the countryside and touched off a race to form small nonagricultural businesses in rural areas. Decollectivization and higher prices for agricultural products also led to more productive (family) farms and more efficient use of labor. Together these forces induced many workers to move out of agriculture. The resulting rapid growth of village enterprises has drawn tens of millions of people from traditional agriculture into higher-value-added manufacturing. Further, the post-1978 reforms granted greater autonomy to enterprise managers. They became more free to set their own production goals, sell some products in the private market at competitive prices, grant bonuses to good workers and fire bad ones, and retain some portion of the firm’s earnings for future investment. The reforms also gave greater room for private ownership of production, and these privately held businesses created jobs, developed much-wanted consumer products, earned important hard currency through foreign trade, paid state taxes, and gave the national economy a flexibility and resiliency that it did not have before. By welcoming foreign investment, China’s open-door policy has added power to the economic transformation. Cumulative foreign direct investment, negligible before 1978, reached nearly US$100 billion in 1994; annual inflows increased from less than 1 percent of total fixed investment in 1979 to 18 percent in 1994. This foreign money has built factories, created jobs, linked China to international markets, and led to important transfers of technology. These trends are especially apparent in the more than one dozen open coastal areas where foreign investors enjoy tax advantages. In addition, economic liberalization has boosted exports--which rose 19 percent a year during 1981-94. Strong export growth, in turn, appears to have fueled productivity growth in domestic industries. In one final area, price reform, the Chinese have proceeded cautiously, granting a fair amount of autonomy to producers of consumer goods and agricultural products but much less to other sectors. Several bouts of inflation have buffeted the Chinese economy in the past two decades, deterring the government from implementing full-scale price liberalization. High rates of growth also raise inflationary worries. Inflation may pose the single greatest threat to Chinese growth, though thus far it has been largely contained. China’s strong productivity growth, spurred by the 1978 market-oriented reforms, is the leading cause of China’s unprecedented economic performance. Despite significant obstacles relating to the measurement of economic variables in China, these findings hold up after various tests for robustness. As such, they offer an excellent jumping-off point for future research on the potential roles for productivity measures in other developing countries. (Zuliu Hu / Moshin S.Khan, Economic Issues No.8, International Monetary Fund) 21

Skyline of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, PRD, China

23 photo by philipp ohnesorge

THE PEARL RIVER DELTA

50km

FULL SPEED AHEAD

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) forms one of the biggest river deltas in the world, formed by three major rivers, the Xi Jiang (West River), Bei Jiang (North River), and Dong Jiang (East River). Until approximately around 1985, the PRD had been mainly dominated by farms and small rural villages, but after the economy was reformed and opened, a flood of investment turned it into the land’s economic powerhouse. The PRD’s startling growth was fuelled by foreign investment coming largely from Hong Kong manufacturers that moved their operations into the PRD. In 2003, Hong Kong companies employed 11 million workers in their PRD operations. As well as the delta itself, the term Pearl River Delta refers to the dense network of cities that covers nine prefectures of the province of Guangdong, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing, and the SARs (Special Administrative Region) of Hong Kong and Macau. The 2010/2011 State of the World Cities report, published by the United Nations Human Settlements Program, estimates the population of the delta region at 120 million people, it is rapidly urbanizing. The Pearl River Delta has become the world’s workshop and is a major manufacturing base for products such as electronic products (such as watches and clocks), toys, garments and textiles, plastic products, and a range of other goods. Much of this output is invested by foreign entities and is geared for the export market. The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone accounts for approximately one third of China’s trade value. Private-owned enterprises have developed quickly in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone and are playing an ever-growing role in the region’s economy, particularly after year 2000 when the development environment for private-owned enterprises has been greatly relaxed. Nearly five percent of the world’s goods were produced in the Greater Pearl River Delta in 2001, with a total export value of US$ 289 billion. Over 70,000 Hong Kong companies have their production factories there. 25

Zhaoqing 3.9 Mio.

Guangzhou 11.7 Mio.

Huizhou 3.9 Mio.

Dongguang 6.4 Mio.

Foshan 3.4 Mio.

Jiangmen 3.8 Mio. Zhongshan 2.4 Mio.

Shenzhen 8.9 Mio.

Hong Kong 7.1 Mio.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;One City Planâ&#x20AC;? announced by the Chinese government to combine the major cities in the Pearl River delta into one huge mega city.

Zhuhai + Macao 2.1 Mio.

This economic power house has a huge demand for working force, for mostly cheap labor for the rural areas of China. Those migrant workers come to the industrial centers like the PRD to find work, to support their families back home, to support their only child while she or he is eager to climb up the social letter for a brighter future. As the only way possible seemed forward, especially in urban planing. When we travel those cities today it becomes obvious that little care was taken to create sustainable residential areas in terms of spacial quality , the city planing was simply overwhelmed by the pace of development, by definition, it was an experiment. Deng Xiao Ping started it with his policy of open markets and prosperity for everyone. Today we can see for what price this progress happened. The Pearl River is one of the heaviest polluted rivers in the world, most residential areas seem rather like a slum then like a modern city. the sacrifices for the progress are tremendous. It seems that little care is taken about the urban sprawl, about intelligent urban planning. An indicator for this state of mind is the plan to form one big city out of the major urban conglomerations and cities as in fact, one mega city. Traveling there today we can see that this plan, even officially denied, became reality, the cities melted into each other, no rural areas are left between them. I was impressed by the enthusiasm the Chinese people still have about progress even the air is barely breathable and traffic is multiplying by around 1000 new cars every day in cities like Guangzhou. This development can be clearly seen as a boom region, and as i was traveling i saw these difficulties and issues already in another state in Hong Kong. Here the development seems at least 30 years ahead, will problems also around 30 years ahead of the developing cities in this area. I started to emphasis on this issue and found major problems on an secondary level. On first glance, Hong Kong seems almost perfect, bright, vibrant, hyper modern but looking a little closer, issues can be found that can be seen as future problems of many cities and growing societies. 26

Deng Xiaoping, the late leader of the Communist Party of China, during his landmark visit to Shenzhen SEZ in 1982. Here he is shown with other officials inspecting the new masterplan for Shenzhen that was to trigger rapid urbanisation for the next seven years.

from “The Great Leap Forward” Harvard Design School Project on the City with Rem Koolhaas, 2002 27

from “The Great Leap Forward” Harvard Design School Project on the City with Rem Koolhaas, 2002 29

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The City grew from 30.000 in 1980 to around 11.000.000 in 2010

Demographic development in Shenzhen 1979-2010

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Shenzhen is one of the fastest-growing cities in China, having leapt from fishing village to a global city in a matter of a couple of decades.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Massice sonstruction sites are spread all over the country, rising like giants they seem out of human scale.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

The impressive Civic Square in central Shenzhen represents the implementation and combination of traditional architectural elemets with the recent chinese bigness.

The rather â&#x20AC;&#x153;oldâ&#x20AC;? parts of Shenzhen are barely 30 years old. After the impressive boom on the City due to its declaration as Special Economic Zone the City rose from around 30.000 people to about 11.000.000 today. The number of actual inhabitants is probably higher as many migrant workers from rural areas come to Shenzhen to find work in the factories in the Pear River Delta. As Hong Kong can be seen as forerunner to the city development in this area, most factories are owned by Hong Kong based companies, taking advantage of the cheap labor force from the rural areas.

Shenzhen 1980

Shenzhen 2010

photo by philipp ohnesorge

The rapid growth in Shenzhen lead to extreme conditions. Buildings were built without an actual long term master plan, resulting in narrow streets, almost touching buildings and living conditions close to slum conditions.

40 photo by philipp ohnesorge

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Construction sites are present almost everywhere in China. Huge numbers of migrant workers come to the boom regions as the working conditions are still better here then back home in their village.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

One of the older parts of Shenzhen(build around 1985). The houses almost touch, barely and daylight comes through. 42

photo by philipp ohnesorge

>>The policy is not changed â&#x20AC;&#x153;assure and keep fair and justâ&#x20AC;?, protect the right of the signed people according to the contract.<<

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Facade of a housing block in an old part of Guangzhou. Even it seemed a bit woren out, the residential bulidings seems in an human scale and the community seemed vibrant and intact. 44

photo by philipp ohnesorge

A couple climbing up one of the many underground walkways in modern Guangzhou, blinded by a huge video screen showing commercials and music videos clips. 45

An old commercial street in Shenzhen where rather traditional merchant houses form the city fabric. On the lower floors shops are located and on the upper ones people have their apartments between numberous commercial signs. 46

photo by philipp ohnesorge

HONG KONG

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Hong Kong Island was first occupied by British forces in 1841, and then formally ceded from China under the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of the war. Hong Kong remained a crown colony of the United Kingdom until 1997 when it was returned to China. Hong Kong is known as one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading financial capitals also a major business and cultural hub.

Hong Kong is located at the tip of the Pearl River Delta and functions as the entry point to the whole area. It is an important logistic hug for all sorts of goods produced there and plays a major role as an financial center in Asia and the whole world. The development of Hong Kong started significantly some 30 - 40 years earlier then the surrounded Cities like Shenzhen or Guangzhou. In the beginning of the 1980s, Shenzhen was just a small town with around 30.000 inhabitants while Hong Kong was already a booming City with several million inhabitants. Today the surrounding cities in mainland China are catching up and overtook Hong Kong at least in terms of population. The buildable landmass in Hong Kong is very limited due to the extreme terrain. Since the beginning of Hong Kong as a British colony, land reclamation was used to tackle the issues of the rocky terrain which is very difficult to build on. Today this reclamations are reaching a level where the effort to create even land is getting extremely high, the costs in terms of money and environmental problems exceed the value of the new created land. Socially Hong Kong is facing major problems due to the extremely high costs for living space, the rents skyrocketed and cause serious financial obligations to the people, especially young families which earn too much to get access to subsidized apartments, but earn too little to effort an appropriate apartment in an near-center area of Hong Kong. A brief introduction to Hong Kong The city-state of Hong Kong was under British colonial ruel since 1841, in 1997 it was given back to Chinese control and was transfered into the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong. With a land mass of 1104 km2 and a population of around 7 million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Under the principle of “one country, two systems”, Hong Kong has a different political system from mainland China, Hong Kong’s independent judiciary functions under the common law framework. Ranking third on the international ladder of connectivity, even before cities like Tokyo and Paris, Chep Lak Kok Airport, which is one of the world’s largest and busiest, plays an important role. Most important, however, is Hong Kong’s position as an economic powerhouse, and a major logistics and knowledge centre - a member of an elite club of international finance centres, being the world’s third largest after New York and London.

Most of the constructed apartment buildings contain ever repeating floor plans stacked on top of each other, as high as possible. Those towers are extremely efficient but create only little comfort, they can be seen as livingmachines, just good enough to provide acceptable living spaces but are far from something like quality and sustainable dwellings. The sense for community gets lost in those high rise living blocks. The amount of people living in one buildings is so high that you barely meet or even know your neighbor. Living becomes anonymous and lonely, the living gets reduced to simple functioning in an ever growing city, where survival of the fittest is the daily routine in order to earn enough to survive and sustain the status of living.

Ladies Market in Mon Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. 52

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Old houses on Hong Kong Island, close to Kennedy Town, a region that will be intensly modernized and become a major boom region as the metro will be extended to link this part of the city with Central Hong Kong by only a few minutes traveling distance. 54

Hong Kong’s past Hong Kong has barely left its youth on a city age scale, the city is still not 170 years old, having grown from a small isolated military trading post on the north side of Hong Kong Island, just 2 km off the coast of China. Hong Kong consists of both mainland and islands, and has been dominated by Chinese culture for many centuries. Under most of the period of British colonial rule, it grew massively in population but modestly in area. Only once during those 156 years did it lose significant population, and that was during World War II under Japanese occupation. Immigrants have been mainly Chinese, and the place’s rapid growth was in part due to its growing importance as a centre of trade. Few places in the whole history of cities can match Hong Kong’s expansion during the years following Japanese occupation and in the years surrounding China’s communist revolution: from 1945 to 1951, the population grew by 210 per cent, from 0.65 million to 2.02 million, after which the city continued to grow by between one-half and one million people per five year period until the mid-1960s. Only in the early years of the twentyfirst century do we see this scale of growth matched in the massive rural to urban migration now underway in China.

Land reclamation Opportunities for city building were constrained as the landscape of Hong Kong is dominated by rock, steep hills, swamp and cliff coasts. At the time of British settlement, Hong Kong island, from which the metropolis grew, was famously referred to as a ‘barren rock’: it had an area of less than 80 km2 whose landform rose steeply from the surrounding sea, and was devoid of any resource to speak of.

Today surfaces reclaimed from the sea alone represents no less than 6 per cent of Hong Kong’s total land area: between 1887 and 2006, some 67 km2 of sea were converted into land. In short, it has built the equivalent of another Hong Kong Island but arguably more useful in its flatness. As Hong Kong consists basically of several large mountainous islands, only 30 per cent of the nation sufficiently flat to readily accommodate urban building: the result is extensive reclamation, particularly for city growth.

Street market squeezed between highrise buildings in central Hong Kong.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Even when the Colony extended towards Victoria Harbour to occupy a fragment of the Asian mainland, the territory remained small - just 1.070 km2 in all - mostly mountain but also with extensive swamp. It is an understatement to say that opportunities for city building were constrained. From the beginning of the British colony of Hong Kong, there has always been a government controlled programme of land construction through reclamation as a result from the lack of land to build the growing city.

View from Hong Kong Central towards Kowloon Bay. 56

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Shopping street in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Narrow street in central Hong Kong, close to Kennedy Town. Public transprt is motly covered by the old trams that still handle most parts of the public transport in this region. Even though this streets is only around 200 meter away from the coastline, by walking throught it, it is almost impossible to notice the nearness.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Residential Block in central Kowloon. 62

photo by philipp ohnesorge

The contrast between old and new, super modern high density city and the sea creates stunning views and adds a very special atmosphere to this place.

Residential towers on central Hong Kong Island, built around 1970, showing the density of the typical needle pin houses.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Narrow buildings on small footprints and multiple level terrain are a common sight in Hong Kong. The contrast between the new hyper blocks and the older residential buildings is significant even though the community and liveliness seems much more vibrant in those older residential parts.

High density - small footprint Hong Kong developed into a high density small-footprint city - with a population of 7 million on an urban land area of just 120 km2. This gives a concentration of people approaching 600 per hectare - without doubt, at the top of the city-wide average population density table in the world, and rivalled only by Mumbai and Dhaka. No matter where you may be standing in built Hong Kong, you are likely to be in or between the shadow of towers or other high buildings, yet remain only a few minutes walk to water or mountain (and forest) respectively, most probably both. This contrast and mix between intense urban areas and natural areas seems to create high quality living conditions. The reality is slightly different. The green areas are often on such steep and rocky ground that hte typical Hong Kong urban citizen doesnt go there, they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use and appreciate the quality of the natural areas nearby. The same with the sea, in most parts the quality of the seaside is completely ignored, there is no access or orientation towards the sea. I witnessed that in most parts of Hong Kong you can not access the seafront, as a pedestrian you are stuck in the system of pathways connecting one shopping mal with the other, creating a permanent flow of people and therefore customers for the commercial areas. Everything seems to be in high pace and optimized towards effectivity and sommercial benefit.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

500m

250m

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population density + connection across multiple scales = intensity

World’s most concentrated and vertical city Hong Kong’s extreme physical geography, the massiv inflow of population created the need to make extensively use of the buildable ground. As mentioned before, a large part of construction was build on reclamed land - as it is in some parts cheaper and easier to reclaim than to flaten the steep rocky cliffs. These circumstances limited the buildable land and made it very precious, very high valued. Among other phenomenons, this created the “needle pin buildings”, moslty apartment buildings on extreme small footprint and with very little space in between them, which are very typical for buildings on Hong Kong Island.

Due to the steep inclinations on Hong Kong Island, a massive outdoor escalator system is installed between the Central Metro Station and the so called ‘Mid Levels’, a elevated area on foot of the Peak, the famous mountain on HK island. This escalator system attracts many visitors throughout the year and along it several restaurants and bars opened and made it a famous dining and drinking destination. 71

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Another example of this verticality are the trams on Hong Kong Island, which are as well, small in footprint but build high. This is due to the fact that these trams need to turn very narrow curves but should have a large passenger capacity. First mooted in 1881, they still today play an important role in the public transport on the recamed areas of Hong Kong Island.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Vertical Expansion Vertical expansion and intensification are two processes that have dominated Hong Kong’s urban growth. Vertical expansion results in ever taller buildings, while intensification brings greater concentration of activities and modes of movement across more levels of the city. Vertical change is something readily apparent - essentially perpendicular extrusions forming new elements in the skyline. Intensification is less obvious, as it is a process concerning use, movement and often the incremental transformation of existing space: above all, it concerns multiple levels and volume. Definition of “ground” in Hong Kong

photo by philipp ohnesorge

With a shortage of natural land on which to build on, Hong Kong has engaged inreclamation from the earliest days of British settlement. Pouring sand into the sea is not, however, the only manner in which additional ground can be created,the definition of ground blurs in the context of three dimensional Hong Kong. The only even ground to build on is in fact the claimed land as the terrain of the archipelago of Hong Kong is a formation of steep hills and cliffs. It is common to happen that you enter one building on the “ground floor” but by exiting the building on the other side you find yourself on the 15th floor above a steep valley or cliff. The limited buildable land inspired from early on the Hong Kong people to stack functions, build on multiple levels, multiple usage of spaces. This phenomenon might just have been possible to happen in an Chinese cultural background as it is traditionally accepted to live in rather small spaces with many people, unlike in Europe were this kind of density is hardly imaginable and is a challenge for every visitor from a western culture background. 73

photo by philipp ohnesorge

Multiple Layers Elevated Pathways are a common sight in central Hong Kong, especially in the dense areas of Central And Kowloon. As the reclaimed, mostly flat ground level layer is ether packed with buildings or streets it makes it difficult to address space for pedestrian movement. The common solution in Hong Kong is to separate the layers of transportation into the vertical. This means that the ground layer is basically for vehicles and short distance pedestrian paths, then on top the transportation axes for rather long distance travel can be found. ether for vehicles, in form of elevated roadways or for pedestrians in form of elevated walking paths. The underground is obviously mostly for subway or underpasses. Yet the massive underground metro stations of eg. Central or TST spread out so far that they include massive underground shopping streets and create another layer for pedestrian walking. Further there are underground tunnels and underpasses for ether cars, trains or pedestrians. All in all this complex system provides an extensive usage of space in an three dimensional context to multiply the ground surface, multiply the possibilities of connections. The modern, dense city needs those optimized transportation layers in order to cope with the rising demand for connection and accessibility. In peak hours like the morning or around early evening, the necessity for those extensive transport ways is visible by the numerous pedestrians using those facilities mostly at the same time in order to get from or to work. This system is limited of course and needs to be adjusted permanently according to the development of the city and its necessary connections.

photo by philipp ohnesorge

As mentioned before, Hong Kong has a relatively long history in densifying the city in order to make maximum use of the given space. The example of the Kowloon Walled City showed an entity which worked pretty well even though it got demolished because of political and security reasons. The Chinese culture to live relatively close to each other plays a major role for this phenomenon to function. I see this as an example and archetype for the modern city, in terms of three dimensional usage of space. The circumstances and history of Hong Kong provide a fertile ground for developing and testing further usage of the three dimensional space, taking the given examples, historical tryouts and future needs as framework for a visionary impulse for the development and solutions in the rising metropolis cities in Asia and the whole world.

KOWLOON WALLED CITY

Kowloon Walled City The probably most extreme example of the intense usage of limited space in Hong Kong was the Kowloon Walled City, a block settlement with a population of 33.000 residents within an area of 0.03 km2. After a long period of eviction it was finally demolished in April 1994. Kowloon Walled City was not only a great example of three-dimensional movements but also of adaptability and intensive mixed use. The minimal spaces in the structure had no constantly transform. A dinner or tea shop would transform into bordello or mah-jong parlour and then into dormitory. The production table for noodle making would change for dinner and homework, and later on serve as bed for the whole unity, while a plastic toy factory would double as an illegal den for opium users. No room in Kowloon Walled City could afford to satisfy just one function. The rooms varied in size but even the smallest room would have had to satisfy many functions during a 24 hour period.

Kowloon Walled City housed 35.000 people on just 2.6 hectares It p rovided a complete range of urban services (power, water, heath services, schools, religious. employment, shop ping. etc) and had a truly 3D volumetric circulation.

“Here, prostitutes installed themselves on one side of the street, while a priest preached and handed out powdered milk to the poor on the other; social workers gave guidance, while drug addicts squatted under the stairs getting high; what were children’s games centres by day became strip show venues by night. It was a very complex place, difficult to generalise about, a place that seemed frightening but where most people continued to lead normal lives. A place just like the rest of Hong Kong.” 78

—Leung Ping Kwan, City of Darkness, p. 120

THE KOWLOON WALLED CITY WAS TH OF A HIGHLY DIVERSE AND DENSE SET DUE TO SLUM-LIKE LIVING CONDITIONS I

TRADITIONAL HOUSING: THE PANG UK SETTLEMENTS

Tai O - Village 82

Tai O is an example of the traditional communities of fisher folk who have built their houses on stilts above the tidal flats of Lantau Island for generations. These structures are interconnected, forming a tightly-knit community literally living on the water. As proximity to the sea as source for food and for transportation was necessary, buildings had to be placed close to the water front. Due to floodings and tidal changes in water height, the houses needed to be but in a certain height above the water surface. This construction principle in centuries old, it is the traditional way of creating artificial landscape, a principle that is culturally rooted and much older then the about 150 year old idea of gaining land by reclaiming it.

TAI O VILLAGE

This principle could be a way of extending the ground in Hong Kong with less effort, less damage to the sea eco system and with the advantage of additional quality to the artificial land by being above the water.

PANG UK- HOUSES SECTION

Terrace

Living space

Road

Living space

Living space Road

Passage

Terrrace Access to water

The Pang Uk - Houses are the traditional building type in the area of Hong Kong. They have been build on stilts close or above the sea level. By extending those stilts higher up, additional floors can be added. As it was the most efficient way, the platforms got extended by growing demand, with as littel space in between as possible. This created an alomst gapless platform with the houses on top, connected by multiple pathways and terraces. The transition between private and public space was often hard to tell as there were almost no gates or fences seperating public from private ground. Roof terraces with large outdoor spaces, protected by a dense layer of green or with overhanging roofs and offered well ventilated and shaded places. 85

THE HONG KONG TOWER TYPOLOGY

There is something otherworldly about residential tower blocks in Hong Kong. It is as though they have been pulled straight up out of the earth through a hole decided on beforehand. Their verticality is further enhanced by the articulated, almost flowe r-like floor plans. Instead of a contour that is filled in, individual houses are tacked onto a central core. Each apartment, each room even, thereby contributes to distorting the towerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s circumference, giving it a facade surface area double that of a rectangular tower. The volatile real estate market, the tremendous demand for housing and restricted availability of building sites seem to be at the bottom of this phenomenon, though t hese aspects in themselves fail to explain the specific form. One would expect the limited influence of construction costs on the total sum - land costs are many times greater - to yield a greater diversity. But the minor differences that there are between towers are veiled by the ubiquitous uptakes, airconditioning units (one for each room) and cage-like built-on appurtenances. The buildingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eventual form would appear to be a direct consequence of pumping up the legislation to a maximum and the fact that every room in a flat has to have at least one outside wall.

The building regulations of the Town Planning Department are of an uncomplicated nature and are premised on three aspects: plot ratio, site coverage and building height. Plot ratio is a measure of the admissible density on site, the maximum number of built-up square metres. Site coverage indicates the maximum percentage of land to be developed. These combine with the maximum building height to define the contours of the built development. A maximum number of houses per hectare (a normal unit of measurement in the Netherlands) is not given, resulting in very many small dwellings and efficient circulation spaces, one every square metre. The greatest permissible plot ratio for housing development in Hong Kong is 10, added to which is a maximum site coverage of 40% and a minimum building height of 61 metres. Given these figures, towers are the unavoidable outcome. The higher the density, the more slender the built development, the slogan would seem to be. For Hong Kong, almost inevitably, this leads to the extruded floor plans one invariably finds there. (from FARMAX by MVRDV, 1998)

= 91

vertical “cule de sac’s”

no access to water front

podium / tower - typology street grid green spaces

A typical Hong Kong tower and podium consisting of a town center (podium) and single stnad connections to isolated “tower neighbourhoods” above, in which floors are isloated from each other.

suboptimal access to green spaces

“Other than offering Western living standards, these structures do little to improve life in Asia. They don’t lead to urban renewal or innovation, nor do they encourage differentiation, flexibility or individual ideas.” Winy Maas, MVRDV

LAND RECLAMATIONS

BETWEEN 1887 AND 2006, SOME 67 KM2 OF SEA WERE CONVERTED INTO LAND “RECLAMATION SHOULD BE THE LAST RESORT” ROY TAM HOI-PONG, CHAIRMAN OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRESSURE GROUP GREEN SENSE 96

Shortage of buildable land The map on the left shows the areas of land reclamation in Hong Kong. The process of creating land by reclamation started about 150 years ago. Of all developed land, 35% are build on flat, reclamed land, as the original land mass of Hong Kong is mostly steep rocks and cliffs that make constructions difficult and expensive. The central region of HK is almost entirely build on reclamed land and reached a critical point where alternatives should be introduced.

This all leads to the necessity to further intensify the central areas of Hong Kong and to minimize urban sprawl, to not follow the examples of other cities in the growing Pear River Delta where urban sprawl leads to the loss of natural reservoirs and farm land.

Even thoug Hong Kong is not lacking land mass to further extend the city, the cities policy is to protect the green areas in the non-central regions as natural reservoirs. The city also needs those green spaces for collecting rain water to maintain the cities growing need for drinking water.

VISITING FAMILY WONG about the living conditions in Hong Kong, inter view and first hand information

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;I grew up in an abundant city which has great nature and landscape, but I seldom got the chance to expose to outdoor sports also partly because of the crowd and air pollution.â&#x20AC;?

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While visiting Hong Kong I had the opportunity to visit Catherine Wong, a 27 years old Hong Kong citizen. She invited me to her home to meet her family and see how living in Hong Kong actually lookes like. The information and insights i got from our conversations where essential for the development of a design proposal, especially the problems and issues for a Hong Kong born child influenced me. Most of the leasure time is spend in the shopping arcades due to the lack of sufficient public spaces and the disconnection to the surrounding nature. The dense urban settlemets are lacking natural air ventilation, the fumes of the cars and busses pollutes the air, the cooling effect of flowing air is blocked by huge high rise buildings. The huge number of people living in those blocks and the lack of community spaces causes an anonymization of the society, a trusted neighbourhood doesnt exsist in most parts, people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know and therefore donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t trust their neighbours. Playgrounds and sport fields are rare, playing outside is dangerous and not healthy for the kids. Spening time in front of the TV and indoors is common for Hong Kongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s children, they seem to grow up disconnected from nature as those massive housing blocks lock themselves up agains natural influences and context.

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“ I was born in Hong Kong and grew up in a government subsidized flat that situated at a 36 stories high-rise building with my family. Despite my bedroom is only 45 sq. ft, I considered myself a lucky one since I owned a space since I was 6 years old comparing to my friend who shares a 100 sq. ft. room with 3 of her siblings until she married.

When I was a child, I used to spend my weekend at shopping mall & spend hours on TV every day because both of my parents have to work hard to pay the flat. And it could be dangerous to go out alone as a kid despite the crime rate in HK is very low, we have so many cars & people everywhere. Therefore, I grew up in an abundant city

which has great nature and landscape, but I seldom got the chance to expose to outdoor sports also partly because of the crowd and air pollution. Meanwhile, to many of the Hong Kong

people, or in general Chinese, “own a flat” is a lifetime goal although the flats in HK are extremely expensive & small. We strive to buy one no matter how hard we have to work and the costs that we have to pay. I also had this dream when I was young. Yet, when I realized how much I have to give up in return of it. I have a new perspective of life. I want to be creative in my life instead of being a robot. I am still keen on having my own flat probably in a later stage of my life. However, if I have a kid, my new perspective of a “home sweet home” is to create them a nice neighborhood or a space outside the apartment that help them to develop and to enrich their life experience. Hong Kong is such a fascinated city. It is renowned for high efficiency, convenient, food & shopping paradise, international and diversified place. With an improved quality of life, it would definitely be one of the best cities in the world to live with.” from an interview with Catherine Wong, Mai 2012

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I was a child, I used to spend my weekend at shopping mall & spend hours on TV every day..â&#x20AC;?

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VERTICAL AND VOLUMETRIC CONCLUDING THE HONG KONG ANALYZE

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Vertical and Volumetric Hong Kong is often held as a model of laissez-jaire economics, and much of the official rhetoric that has emerged from the place since its 1841 foundation reinforces this image. Our enquiry suggests that this is but half the style in the urban context: in practice there has been a semi-autocratic government carefully observing trends, often in extreme circumstances, and following with deliberate intervention to enforce control around established trends and channel their potentials. Hong Kong governments have waited, watched and reinforced the forces that have shaped the city’s physical growth, building forms and modes of movement within their tiny territory of rugged landforms, against a backcloth of usually rapid population growth and volatile regional politics. Within this context, it has been government as much as ‘God’ that has created land for city building, and it has been government that has codified and shaped the building forms upon that land - into a succession of dense street-based, and later varied vertical and volumetric forms. Further, it has been government that has controlled, franchised and sometimes owned the companies that have enabled the people of Hong Kong to dwell in their high-density forrns and move about them in the geat variety of public transport that has come to run on, under and over Hong Kong land and water. The result is a small footprint city that has not always been tall but always dense -indeed very dense. The main characteriistics that have emerged in Hong Kong are unusual in today’s urban wold, and togehter extremely rare. They are: • extreme verticality across most of the city in a world that has generally favoured urban spread • extensive volumetric development when most places have been reluctant to abandon natural ground as the primary plane of reference for city-building. Further the small and irregular footprint, usually squeezed between water and rocky heights, means that few amongst its stacked inhabitants live far from the basic elements of earth, water, wood or stone, occasionally fire, and other natural elements.

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These extreme conditions, forms and relationships have become the essence of Hong Kong and offer a view on a special set of urban phenomena that includes the vertical and volumetric organizarion of space, highly intensive mix of activities, the lack of community spaces and the shortage of land.

In the later part of the twentieth century the rather small scale building structure in Hong Kong got more and more replaced by massive podium and tower typologies with greater seperation of functions and movements at the expense of the previous all-sorts mix.

Prior to the arrival of the Brirish in Hong Kong, evidence suggests at least 6,000 years of human habitation with only modest interference to the landform. It took little more than one-and-a-half centuries to transformation from ‘barren rock’ and colonial outpost to urban system that is home’ to over seven million residents and host to more than four times that number of visitors each year. To enable such expansion on its relatively tiny territory, one of the most consistent themes in the city’s expansion has been the constant creation of flat land for building and the stacking and squeezing of all manner of activities and links upon it. We usually think of reclamation as solid displacing sea or swamp, and Hong Kong has expanded in this way more than most cities, with artificial land now exceeding the land area of the original island colony.

Residential towers reached to greater heights (from thirty to over seventy storeys), management exerted tighter control. and shopping became more of a big box experience.

No less artificial has been the massive reshaping of the landform itself. For instance, whatever happened to the great mound once occupied by Kowloon Walled City? The masive transofrmation of land and ground is culturally rooted in Hong Kong as for centuries the farmers reshaped their land in order to make agruculture possible, for example creating terrasses for rice fields.

And in other contexts, there has been a tendency to remove or extend hills or build flat platforms for the placement of religious and official structures: temples, ancestral halls, watch buildings all stand on raised or cut flat ground. Accordingly, modern Hong Kong has built massive structres that offer multiple platforms for activities confined mostly to the ground in other places: for instance the extensive ‘layered grounds’ for warehousing, factories, wharves, transport interchanges, horse stabling, etc, often served by spiralling roads, plus other forms that have facilitated vertical and volumetric functioning.

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Hong Kong Central - Second Ground This shows the area of Central across which one can walk at a second or more ground levels. The red line shows the path of the Mid-Levels Escalators as a largely above-ground extension to the hills.

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Increasingly, dwellings came to occupy identical floor plates in individual and conjoined slabs or, more likely, towers standing beside and above the big-boxes, which are themselves layered with shopping, eating, health and other services and form a new type of city centers. Given the extreme density and proximity of residential towers and commercial boxes, it is all too easy to assume such developments as exemplars of urban intensity. The towers are vertical culs-de-sac, organizationally the stacked equivalent of a Modernist residential neighborhood often with a single cluster of lifts to connect with the Centre below, which is zoned level by level to take several categories of use but not dwellings. I witnessed myself by walking through Hong Kong to take photographs, Hong Kong’s forests of towers can have their visual drama. They can also offer easier management by way of large land parcels and simple stacks of units. These vertical high rise blocks are in fact very efficient in terms of usage of space, density and -which might be the strongest argument for the developers, in being cost effective and highly efficient in the cost vs. outcome calculation. But as elements of urban structure they have the inbuilt weakness that each is a culde-sac, which means, by definition, minimal connection. Another word for the term cul-de-sac could be dead-end. Which implements the term of at the end of the road (in this case, the tower) there it is literally dead or lifeless because of missing connections and an only one dimensional movement. Hence the taller and slimmer the towers, the more uses and functions are stretched apart, the more problematic the city becomes. The overwhelming implications are that concentrated vertical developments cry out for three-dimensional multi-directional connection, and permeable and legible volumes. Thus the vertical rising from a single ground plane is transformed into the volumetric served by multiple grounds and connections. For all my criticisms of recent podia and towers typologies, Hong Kong’s extreme landforms, rapid growth and meeting of Eastern and Western cultures have produced an urban setting and lifestyle that is both more volumetric and vertical than any other city.

On the Central district’s elevated walkway network, it is now possible to walk eastwest for 1.3 km and almost as far north-south. This is a substantial area across which the public can eat, shop or promenade without descent to ‘real’ ground. Further, this is just one of three walkway clusters that line up almost end- to-end along some 3 km of old Victoria’s waterfront. through the districts of Central, Admiralty and Wan Chai. Ironically, all hover not over ‘real’ but artificial land: it is therefore three cases of double reclamation - from both air and water. The new upper and lower grounds are connected via steps, ramps, escalators and lifts, with the upper levels running at points into the hill-slopes immediately behind the original shoreline. And there is an extensive third layer: underground, to serve three stations. This is the fast expanding pattern of Hong Kong’s waterfronts. Hong Kong remains the quintessential compact metropolis and a prime example of an IntenCity. ln a world preoccupied by issues of sustainability, discussion turns increasingly towards morphological solutions and hybrid buildings. Hong Kong’s compact components and concentrated functions and movement formed an example of an forerunner and example of the modern super dense city. Problems and issues evolving here can be seen as example for other rising metropolises in Asia and all over the world. The Hong Kong issues bring together some of the vertical characteristics of central New York and Chicago with the volumetric tendencies experienced in many parts of Tokyo and other large Japanese cities, to present an unusual vertical - volumetric combination with a multi - modal and multi - directional transport system that is secondto-none. lt is necessary to develop model approaches and regulations that will bring more mixed activity and three dimensional multi-directional movement, greater integration between towers and podium, more connection between podia, more links between towers, greater landscape integration between podia and landform, and a far better meeting of city and nature. At a purely pragmatic level, Anthony Wood (2003) suggested that a city of connected towers is also a safer city, for in an emergency it is a simple fact that there are alternative routes for escape. There is a strong case for experimenting with super - density in this place. Such experimentation is not only good for Hong Kong but is also relevant to other world cities where urban intensification is on the agenda. My exposition here establishes Hong Kong as providing some of the most fertile grounds for super densities and design experimentation. 113

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ISN’T THERE A BETTER WAY? CONCLUDING THE ISSUES

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This traditional Lilong houses in Shanghai are past already, they got demolished in 2011. 116

For centuries, the fabric of East Asian cities has been formed by urban villages that are built up of small scale, informal, often ‘light’ architecture, like the Hutongs in Beijing or the Pang Uk Houses of the Tai-O village. These small communities form intense, socially connected communities where social exchange and a strong community are maintained. Driven by the extreme development in China, those village-type communities are disappearing. In all bigger cities throughout China, old structures get removed for the sake of providing buildable land for dense high rise residential blocks to house the rising number of incoming migrant workers and rising middle class. Due to its special historical background, this development started some 30 - 50 yeas earlier in Hong Kong, so the current city layout is much further developed and in an “after boom” state which unveils the problems that other developing cities in Asia and all over the world might be facing. This extreme development over the last 50 years, combined with the very rocky and steep terrain formed a city which is unique in many ways. The shortage of buildable terrain made extreme measures necessary in order to build even on the steepest peace of land. This shortage also requested an extreme performance of those buildings, the typical Hong Kong high rise building has an extremely small footprint, is built as high and as close as possible with very little “leisure space” which could be used by the inhabitants for community activities or as green spaces. These new developed urban blocks are very far from the traditional way of living and provide very little diversity, recreational spaces and places for interaction. The residents become anonymised . Could it be possible to create an alternative to the ever repeating podium and tower typologies? Hong Kong has an overall span of 733km of coastline with just 1,054 square kilometers of land mass, could we open the city towards the water and create access to it? Could we enhance its importance for transportation, especially for the daily commuters? Could we use the principles of the traditional villages in a modern way to create more livable urban villages in a rather horizontal expansion instead of building non human scale high rise cule-de-sac’s? Homes could be combined with small-scale offices and workspaces. In contrast to the blocks, this new village type might enable an architecture based on individual expression and identity. Each apartment should have a gradient transition between the inside and outside, between private semi-public and public spaces. It should provide spaces for green spaces, for light, for views, for interaction, private spaces, open spaces, in short: diversity in terms of spacial conditions. Such a development requires a radically different approach in the design as it would need to be rather horizontal than vertical, rather shifting in density then the ever high performance architecture like the podium-tower blocks. It would need large spaces for parks and recreational activities, for access to water, for the supporting functions of such an urban village or city within the city. To provide those different programs and spaces, layering is necessary, in a way that it still provides enough sunlight and contextual connections as each function requires.

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Example Shanghai: Old Structures get demolished to make space for urban residential blocks. 118

ERASING TRADITIONAL STRUCTURES: VILLAGE - TYPE COMMUNITIES ARE DISSAPEARING.

Throughout Asia, small scale settlements and urban villages have formed the fabric cities for centuries. They were reacting to the terrain and surrounding nature and depending on its local conditions and culture, took shape in diverse ways.

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LACK OF LIVING QUALITY: HYPER EFFICIENT RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS ARE OPTIMIZED TO SQUEEZE OUT THE MOST PROFIT PER SQUAREMETER. High rise residential blocks are being sold as the new reality to millions of people across Asia. Despite its promise of a bright future, these hyper efficient blocks fail to answer Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever-growing need for space. As the only typology offered, the block has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, causing numberous problems in the social life of its residents as they provide efficient living spae but lack other important basics need for a sociaety to function in an sustainable manner.

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A sport field is a rare sight in Hong Kong. This example is located on Hong Kong Island and belongs to a school, it is not public.

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LACK OF COMMUNITY SPACES: DUE TO THE HIGH PERFORMANCE RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS, NON PROFIT SPACES FOR COMMUNITY USES ARE REDUCED TO A MINIMUM As Cathring Wong stated, the local people in Hong Kong mostly spend their spare time in shopping malls or at home watching TV. Shopping malls are the only public spaces that fullfill to a certain degree the needs and wishs for the residents to come together and spend time in public. Still this can only be a compromise as the malls are again anonymous commercial spaces which are detached form the immediate neighbourhood of the apartments. Also there is a lack of secure and accessible green spaces for children to play outside.

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SHORTAGE OF BUILDABLE LAND: LAND RECLAMATIONS REACHED CRITICAL LEVEL

Most of the landmass of todays Hong Kong has been reclamed over the past 150 years. This method of creating buildable land has reached an extend where environmental problems and costs hardly justify the even further extension of actual ground into the sea. Looking back in the history of Hong Kong, a traditional way of building in the extreme terrain in this area is to build at and on the water on stills, the so called Pang Uk - Villages. This construction principle has huge potential to solve the land reclamation issue with a compromise between the extension of the landmass and leaving the water eco system as untouched as possible.

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ACCESS TO WATER: HONG KONG IS SURROUNDED BY WATER, STILL ACCESS AND VIEWS ARE RARE While walking through Hong Kong one can seldomly experience the nearness to the waterfront. Only in very rare locations, views and access to the sea are provided. In most cases people can not experience the water in any case, especially not the open public.

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PODIUM - TOWER TYPOLOGY: NOT CONNECTED DEAD - ENDS The podium - tower typology creates the typical Hong Kong small footprint - high density urban condition that is lacking of connectivity, interaction and circulation.

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HYPOTHESIS HONG KONG REACHED A CRITICAL POINT, THE HONG KONG TOWER TYPOLOGY IS OUTDATED. A COMEBACK OF THE URBAN VILLAGE, A CITY WITHIN THE CITY, COMBINING THE ADVANTAGES OF URBAN LIVE, ROOTED WITH TRADITIONAL TYPOLOGIES TRANSFERRED INTO MODERN HONG KONG, IS NECESSARY. THE TRADITIONAL BUILDING PRINCIPLE OF STILTS IN THE WATER CAN PROVIDE A NEW SYSTEM TO PROVIDE LAND WITH THE ADVANTAGE OF MINIMIZING THE IMPACT ON THE SHORE LINE AND SEA ECO SYSTEM. IT CAN BE USED AS VERTICAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN VARIOUS LAYERS OF FUNCTIONS. MY PROPOSAL AIMS TO APPLY THIS APPROACH IN AN PROCESS ORIENTED DESIGN METHOD ON AN ACTUAL SITE IN CENTRAL HONG KONG.

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REFERENCE PROJECTS AND CONCEPTS

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Metabolism n the late 1950s, a small group of young Japanese architects and designers joined forces under the title â&#x20AC;&#x153;Metabolismâ&#x20AC;?. Their vision for cities of the future inhabited by a mass society were characterized by large scale, flexible and expandable structures that evoked the processes of organic growth. In their view, the traditional laws of fixed form and function were obsolete. Metabolism arose in post-World War II Japan, and much of the work produced by the movement is concerned with housing issues.

Domino House

The idea of multiplying artificial surface has been a huge inspiration for my project. On the follwing pages I want to introduce some of the most significant projects and their background.

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The idea of artificial landscape has been tested and developed in several projects and conceptual ideas during the 20th century. Escpecially during the postmodern movement those ideas have been articulated due to the development of reinforced conrete and the Domino House by Le Corbusier in 1914.

Kiyonori Kikutake

(1928 - 2011)

Kikutakes revolutionary ideas manifested into masterplans are currently being displayed at the ‘tectonic visions between land and sea’ exhibition in gund hall at the harvard school of design, after having been shown in the ‘metabolism: city of the future’ exposition at the mori art museum in tokyo. upon his many works, some of the keystone projects displayed are the ‘marine city’ (1958), ‘aquapolis’ (1975), the ‘skyhouse’ (1958), and the ‘miyakonojo civic hall’ (1966). To understand how far the impact of his ideas rippled across the world it is important to have an understanding of the movement and the era in which he resided, and led. conceived at the 1960 world design conference in tokyo, metabolism was a japanese-originating response to post world-war issues in urbanism in a country that now found itself with the necessity to re-build homes and cities, specifically confronting matters in density and functionality.

Marine City (1958) Kikutake’s ‘marine city’ was one of the first major players in the movement, defining a new radical idea of creating a floating metropolis in the ocean; self sustainable, flexible, clean and safe, earthquake-proof, impervious to flooding and away from urban sprawl on the main land. The project is based around steel rings, measuring over two miles in diameter, on which towers would sit holding 1250 magnetized living units that could be easily replaced without causing any damage to the structure. The circular foundations would float on bottle-like forms boasting rich aquaculture farming. A surely radical idea for his time, breaking all traditional conventions and addressing issues important even today, sustainability, modularity and alternative living concepts.

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Axonometric, elevation and section of ocean pylons for the Marine City

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The Skyhouse

(1958)

The next important facet in this movement was the construction of his own residence in Tokyo: ‘The Skyhouse.’ Perched on four piers 21 feet in the air, the ten square-meter flexible floor plan encompasses his new ‘movinette’ system of portable furniture pieces to accommodate one of his most important design principles: Architecture’s need to adapt to change. The open space accommodates virtually any variation in rooms, including the addition of a suspended children’s room with ladder entry, sun room, living room, kitchen and bath that constantly change positions.

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Arata Isozaki - Clusters in the air

(1960-1962)

Isozaki’s advice to young aspiring architects, “Leading architects of the 21st century need to be able to look beyond what architects can normally do or think of…What I can tell from my experience of working in this profession for the past fifty years is that the world will change beyond our anticipation. For instance, people in the 1960s predicted that the world would become completely digitalized, like today, but we still could not imagine it. It is not a revolution but a paradigm shift. Those who can foresee the coming changes become leaders. If you just follow the trends, you become short-sighted.” Isozaki’s proposal for a new kind of housing envisioned to be built above the existing city. The old and new blocks are connected by ‘joint cores’ – huge cylindrical ‘trunks’ which also accommodate public transportation. There vertical cores are built on randomly selected empty lots which support the units of housing along its ‘branches’. The system is inspired by traditional Japanese wooden architecture, especially the bracketing system employed in projects such as the Great South Gate of Todai-ji in Nara.

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Centraal Beheer - Herman Hertzberger

(1967-1972)

“The idea...is that of a building as a sort of settlement, consisting of a larger number of equal spatial units, like so many islands strung together. These spatial units constitute the basic building blocks; they are comparatively small and can accommodate the different programme components (or ‘functions’), because their dimensions as well as their form and spatial organization are geared to that purpose. They are therefore polyvalent... “The basic requirements of an office building may well be simple enough in principle, but it was this need for adaptability that led to the complexity of the commission. Constant changes occur within the organization, thereby requiring frequent adjustments to the size of the different departments. The building must be capable of accommodating these internal forces, while the building as a whole must continue to function in every respect and at all times.”

The left shows the interior situation within the Centraal Beher building. Even the building volumes are relatively close to each other, they create some kind of tension between them, indirect light floats in, it is open and well lit while still dense and compact, a situation I intend to create as well.

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Horizontal Skyscrapers - Cloud Iron - El Lissitzky (1923) In 1923–1925, El Lissitzky proposed and developed the idea of horizontal skyscrapers (Wolkenbügel, “cloud-irons”). A series of eight such structures was intended to mark the major intersections of the Boulevard Ring in Moscow. Each Wolkenbügel was a flat three-story, 180-meter-wide L-shaped slab raised 50 meters above street level. It rested on three pylons (10×16×50 meters each), placed on three different street corners. One pylon extended underground, doubling as the staircase into a proposed subway station; two others provided shelter for ground-level tram stations. Lissitzky argued that as long as humans cannot fly, moving horizontally is natural and moving vertically is not. Thus, where there is not sufficient land for construction, a new plane created in the air at medium altitude should be preferred to an American-style tower. These buildings, according to Lissitzky, also provided superior insulation and ventilation for their inhabitants. Lissitzky, aware of severe mismatch between his ideas and the existing urban landscape, experimented with different configurations of the horizontal surface and height-to-width ratios so that the structure appeared balanced visually (“spatial balance is in the contrast of vertical and horizontal tensions”). The raised platform was shaped in a way that each of its four facets looked distinctly different. Each tower faced the Kremlin with the same facet, providing a pointing arrow to pedestrians on the streets. All eight buildings were planned identically, so Lissitzky proposed colorcoding them for easier orientation.

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New Babyon - Constant Nieuwenhuys

(1956-1974)

In 1956, the Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys started working on a visionary architectural proposal for a future society; he didn’t stop for almost twenty years. Having been a co-founder of the Cobra group of artists in the late forties, he abandoned painting in 1953 to concentrate on the question of “construction”. He became a founding member of the Situationist International in 1957 and played a central role in their experiments until his resignation in 1960. New Babylon, as his project would eventually be called, is a situationist city intended as a polemical provocation. New Babylon was elaborated in an endless series of models, sketches, etchings, lithographs, collages, architectural drawings, and photocollages, as well as in manifestos, essays, lectures, and films. New Babylon is a form of propaganda that critiques conventional social structures. New Babylon envisages a society of total automation in which the need to work is replaced with a nomadic life of creative play, in which traditional architecture has disintegrated along with the social institutions that it propped up. A vast network of enormous multilevel interior spaces propagates to eventually cover the planet. These interconnected “sectors” float above the ground on tall columns. While vehicular traffic rushes underneath and air traffic lands on the roof, the inhabitants drift by foot through the huge labyrinthine interiors, endlessly reconstructing the atmospheres of the spaces. Every aspect of the environment can be be controlled and reconfigured spontaneously. Social life becomes architectural play. Architecture becomes a flickering display of interacting desires. Constant always saw New Babylon as a realizable project, which provoked intense debates at schools of architecture and fine arts about the future role of the architect. Constant insisted that the traditional arts would be displaced by a collective form of creativity. He positioned his project at the threshold of the end of art and architecture. Yet it had a major influence on the work of subsequent generations of architects. It was published widely in the international press in the 1960s and Constant quickly attained a prominent position in the world of experimental architecture. But this influence would eventually be forgotten; the project has not been displayed since Constant stopped working on it in 1974.

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PROJECT SITE

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The site is located on central Hong Kong Island in one of the densest areas with a long tradition of land reclamation and alteration of terrain. The main transportation route in this area is the Route 4 Artery with heavy traffic, located directly at the shoreline, cutting of access and views to the water. Access to the waterfront is in general very rare in Hong Kong, the chosen site turned out to be one of the most extreme examples of these conditions.

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SITE OUTLINE

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AS-BUILT PLAN / BUILDING PATTERN

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GREEN SPACES / PARKS

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TRANSPORTATION NETWORK

FERRY TERMINAL TSIM SHA TSUI

FERRY TERMINAL HONG KONG ISLAND

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FERRY TERMINAL HUNG HOM

MTR

FORTRESS HILL

FERRY TERMINAL WAN CHAI

TIN HAU

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DENSITY

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RECLAMATIONS

reclamed land

original land

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TERRAIN HEIGHTS

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BASIC DESIGN STRATEGY

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Following my research in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, interviews with different people, journalistic journeys to survey the area, discussions with professors and architects from Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Vienna i defined a design strategy to propose a solution to the issues mentioned before. My goal was to design in an process oriented manner, means that i strictly follow the consequences from evolving issues. I see this strategy as an utopia, as a theoretic approach to the discovered issues and as an experiment.

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ARTIFICIAL GROUND To tackle the shortage of land, artificial ground on and above the water should be created

STRUCTURAL GRID Inspired by traditional regional construction principles, the artificial ground is supported by a grid of piles

X Hong Kong in mainly built on artificial ground, it has a 150 year history of altering the landscape due to the rough terrain in this area. This made buildable land from early days on very precious and triggered and creative use of surface and space.

The piles shall function in multiple ways, as structural elements, for circulation and for technical supply. The distance of the grid (X) is defined by the ideal distance between cores, to ensure a balance between porosity for sunlight exposure and air, and density.

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HORIZONTAL LAYERING Multiple layers are added with diverse functions according to sun exposure, accesibility and proximity

Horizontal, hirachical layering of functions according to each functions needs. Levels of sun exposure, accesibiliy, views, etc. are parameters that define each position and spacial context

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INTERCONNECTIONS/COMMUNITY SPACES/ GREEN SPACES Proximity to recreational and community spaces via conecting paths and platforms

Interconnecting platforms and paths are added to create spaces for public use. They function as connections and paths to allow circulation and access. Green is addes as much as sunlight and space allows. Foliage is used as natural shading and cooling of air.

FLEXIBLE APARTMENT LAYOUT Above the strucutral cores the apartment boxes are stacked, interconnected by the “public livingrooms”

PRIVATE GARDEN/ TERRACE

PUBLIC SPACE

Moveable shading panels APT.

APT.

SEMI PUBLIC SPACE

APT.

Structural core with elevator and bathroom unit Studio-Type Apartments

ACCESS LEVEL

The building heights should be relatively low, allowing vibrnat circulation and proximity to terraces, public spaces and green areas.

Terraces

Concept of gradual transition between inside and outside 169

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APPLYANCE OF CONCEPT ON SITE

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altering current building situation

building demolished

creating corridor to access water front

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replacing building with park By removing the old building in the Watson Road and replacing it with a Park, a view corridor is created to connect the Electric Road with the sea. The park adds value to the surrounding buildings relaxes the tight urban fabric in this area.

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extension of land and park

extension of park

extension of land

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extending park above watersurface to create continuum

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i 5m

lkin

a ew

ta dis

north direction

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lower levels: programmatic topics - sequence

SHOPS KIOSKS RESTAURANT / CAFE

RETAIL

CINEMAS

green connection path / underground parking

TRANSITION FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT / CAFE

MARINA

ENTRANCE HALL

TRANSITION CONCERT HALL

park / open space / stage

CAFES EXHIBITION SPACE

CULTURE

SMALL CONCERT HALL

education / conference / playground / sports

SHOPS

TRANSITION

CLASS ROOMS CAFETERIA LECTURE HALLS OPEN SPACE

EDUCATION/CONFERENCE/ PUBLIC EVENTS

marina / access to water

OFFICES

TRANSITION

OPEN AIR GREEN / EVENT SPACE

PARK / OPEN SPACE / EVENT SPACE

SHOPS / RESTAURANTS / CAFES

TRANSITION

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cultural facilities / concert hall / exhibition spaces

retail spaces / market + cinema

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connection to public transport network

FERRY

By simpliy extending the underground level at the entrance to the site horizontally towards the sea, the artificial surface transforms from underground to ground to over ground / above sea - level. TRAM FERRY MTR

The underground level at Electric Road connects with an tunnel towards the Fortress Hill metro station and ensures an easy and quick access to and from the Fortress Hill MTR station. It also connects to the Tram Line Happy Valley - Shau Kei Wan. On the seaside it connects with the extended Star Ferry service which already connects Kowloon with several destinations on Hong Kong Island.

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BUS

MTR FORTRESS HILL

TRAM PEDESTRIAN PATH 183

grid The grid is defined by the minimum distance acceptable for the desired living quality and the maximum distance between the apartments blocks to still create a high level of density.

30 3

defining core apartments

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grid to organize spaces and structure

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cores / supporting structure The traditional element of the pillar is used in an extended way, as structural element and with its internal elevator and stairway, for circulation.

cores 6x6m upper floors On the apartment floors the core functions as entrance to the units by elevator and for two bathrooms.

cores 6x6m lower floors

On the lower floors the core functions as vertical circulation with a lift and the fire escape stairs.

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structural cores

as supporting structure and for circulation

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artificial landscape platform The idea of creating a park within the city is extended towards the sea and lifted above it. The main access to the apartment boxes it throught this elevated park, so every inhabitant is living in a park. The artificial levels are multiplied with diverse functions to intensify the usage of created space.

acces from green platform

community space sunken playground

public green space access paths

sunken garden sunken sport facility

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artificial landscape platform LAWN

VIEWING PLATFORM

PLAYGROUND

SUNKEN PLAY GROUND 190

ESCALATOR

PLAYGROUND

SITTING

LAWN LAWN

SUNKEN SPORT FIELD

SKATE PLAYGROUND

SITTING

WATER PLAY SUNKEN GARDEN

LAWN ESCALATOR

LAWN

RESTAURANT

ESCALATOR PLAYGROUND

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ESCALATOR

SUNKEN SPORT FIELD VIEWING PLATFORM PLAYGROUND

PLAYGROUND

VIEWING PLATFORM

PLAYGRO

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ESCALATOR PLAYGROUND

ESCALATOR PUBLIC SPACE WATERFRONT

RESTAURANT

OUND CYCLING + WALKING PATH

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1st Platfrom Level underground parking

open space

water park open-air stage floating stage garden multi function space

education platform

marina

access to water boat arrival / departure views towards water arrival lobby cafes

kindergarten school lecture rooms playground multi-function hall medical center

culture platform

concert / multifunction hall lecture halls exhibition spaces cafes shops 194

market platform shops cafes restaurants views to water cinema

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2nd Platfrom Level

open space water park open-air stage floating stage

education platform kindergarten school lecture rooms playground multi-function hall medical center

market platform

culture platform

concert / multifunction hall lecture halls exhibition spaces cafes shops 196

shops cafes restaurants cinema

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3rd Platfrom Level access from MTR tunnel

open space water park open-air stage floating stage

education platform

marina

access to water boat arrival / departure

kindergarten school lecture rooms playground multi-function hall medical center

market platform

culture platform

concert / multifunction hall lecture halls exhibition spaces cafes shops

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shops cafes restaurants

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apartment boxes The apartment boxes are arranged on the grid, centered on the cores. Their size is decreasing towards the center of the project, the laguna. This allows the boxes to balance between density and porosity, access to light and protection from the sun, community creating intensity and openness towards the view and landscape.

creating laguna for water access

density gradient towards center/laguna

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SUSPENDED CATWALK

EVENT SPACE

LIBRARY

READING ROOM

VIEWING PLATFORM

PLAYGROUND LOUNGE

LOUNGE

PLAYGROUND

GARDEN

EVENT SPACE

READING ROOM

LOUNGE

PLAYGROUND

LIBRARY

GYM

EVENT SPACE

GARDEN

Connecting semi-public spaces as “resident’s livingrooms”

TEA ROOM

EVENT SPACE

TEA ROOM

HAIR SALON

VIEWING PLATFORM POOL

EVENT SPACE

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Their functions will be eg. playgrounds, terraces, cafes, libraries, cinemas, pools, etc. These platforms also function as interconnections between the residential blocks to allow multiple paths to reach the apartments. They are spaces for the inhabitants to come together and strengthen the community. Different to the community spaces in the lower levels, these ones are private or rather semiprivate, only for the people living here. The triggering idea behind it is to create spaces with diverse qualities and level of privacy as another factor to add to the “intensifying of space” concept.

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public balcony The stacked platforms open up towards the magnificent views towards the city. They create open public spaces for people to come together and enjoy the space. The successful example of the IFC Mall public terrace was the example of this space as there are way to little possibilities for the public to access spaces like this.

restaurant viewing platforms

viewing platforms terrace outdoor exhibition space 204

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Access to water Multiple access points to the water allow the public to use the water as transport way and as an element to enhance recreational effects as people can enjoy the quality a place next to the sea offers.Floating platforms can move with the waters tidal movement and allows minimum distance between the platform deck and the water surface, other then the flood protection walls at the coast which need a minimum height of 2 meters above average tidal height of the water.

water access marina

floating modules

access to water floating stage pier floating public space ...

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This image shows the spacial connections between the sea, the platforms and the apartment boxes above. The differenciation between open and closed spaces and the gradiational transition between inside and outside played an important role in the drsign process, challenging the meaning of surface and ground. 211

The created park in the gap beween the exsisting city fabric eases the dense city layout, adding value for the neighbouring blocks and creating a visual connection between the Electric Road and the sea.

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PLAN DRAWINGS

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CLASS ROOM

CAFE

LECTURE ROOM

CLASS ROOM

OFFICE

CAFETERIA SPACE

CONCERT HALL CAFE

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

CLASS ROOM CLASS ROOM

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

OFFICE CANTEEN

LECTURE ROOM

GARDEN

RESTAURANT SPACE

PUBLIC BALCONY

CLASS ROOM

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

GALERIE

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

RESTAURANT SPACE SHOP

SHOP

CLASS ROOM

SHOP

CAFE SHOP

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

SHOP

CLASS ROOM

SHOP

SHOP SHOP

SHOP

MARINA FLOATING PLATFORMS

FLOATING PLATFORMS

OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

MARINA

RESTAURANT

MARINA

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT FLOATING PLATFORMS

CINEMA

SHOP

MARINA RESTAURANT

RESTAURANT SPACE

SHOP

SHOP CINEMA

PARKING GARAGE

40m

217

Plan View Level 1

SHOP

LECTURE ROOM

CONCERT HALL

LECTURE ROOM

RESTAURANT SPACE

PUBLIC BALCONY

GALERIE RESTAURANT SPACE SHOP

SHOP

CAFE SHOP

218

SHOP

SHOP SHOP

SHOP

CLASS ROOM

OFFICE

CAFETERIA SPACE CAFE

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

CLASS ROOM CLASS ROOM

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

OFFICE CANTEEN

GARDEN CLASS ROOM

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

CLASS ROOM

SHOP

219

Plan View Level 1 // zoom in

CLASS ROOM

CAFE

FLOATING PLATFORMS

MARINA

CIN

SHOP

RESTAURANT SPACE

SHOP

CIN SHOP

220

MARINA FLOATING PLATFORMS

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT

MARINA

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT FLOATING PLATFORMS

MARINA RESTAURANT

NEMA

221

Plan View Level 1 // zoom in

NEMA

OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

222

EXHIBITION SPACE

LECTURE ROOM

CAFE

CLASS ROOM

OFFICE

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

CLASS ROOM CLASS ROOM

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

EXHIBITION SPACE LECTURE ROOM

CLASS ROOM

CAFETERIA SPACE

CONCERT HALL

PUBLIC BALCONY

CLASS ROOM

OFFICE CANTEEN

EXHIBITION SPACE SHOP

GARDEN CLASS ROOM

GALERIE

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM SHOP

SHOP

CLASS ROOM

SHOP SHOP

SHOP

CAFE

SHOP

CLASS ROOM

SHOP

RESTAURANT

SHOP

FLOATING PLATFORMS

CAFE

MARINA SHOP

SHOP

MARINA OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

FLOATING PLATFORM

CAFE

RESTAURANT

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT FLOATING PLATFORMS

SHOP

RESTAURANT SPACE

CAFE

SHOP

SHOP RESTAURANT

RESTAURANT SPACE

PASSAGE

ENTRANCE

SHOP CAFE

SHOP

PARKING GARAGE

40m

223

Plan View Level 2

PUBLIC BALCONY

LECTURE ROOM

CONCERT HALL

PUBLIC BALCONY

LECTURE ROOM

EXHIBITION SPACE

GALERIE

SHOP

CAFE

224

SHOP

SHOP SHOP

SHOP

CAFE

CLASS ROOM

CAFETERIA SPACE

OFFICE

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

CLASS ROOM CLASS ROOM

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

EXHIBITION SPACE

OFFICE

OFFICE CANTEEN

SHOP

GARDEN CLASS ROOM MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

HOP

CLASS ROOM

SHOP

CLASS ROOM

225

Plan View Level 2 // zoom in

EXHIBITION SPACE

SHOP

CAFE

FLOA PLAT

CAFE

SHOP

RESTAURANT SPACE

CAFE

RESTAURANT SPACE

SHOP CAFE SHOP

226

SHOP

RESTAURANT

HOP

SHOP

FLOATING PLATFORMS MARINA

SHOP

HOP

MARINA OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

ATING TFORM

RESTAURANT

FLOATING PLATFORMS

SHOP

SHOP RESTAURANT

PASSAGE

ENTRANCE SHOP

PUBLIC BALCONY

SHOP

227

Plan View Level 2 // zoom in

RESTAURANT

228

PUBLIC BALCONY EXHIBITION ROOM OPEN EXHIBITION

CAFE

CONCERT HALL

PUBLIC BALCONY

OPEN EXHIBITION

CAFE

CLASS ROOM

PUBLIC SQUARE

OPEN EXHIBITION MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

CAFE SHOP

CAFE

RESTAURANT

SHOP

SUNKEN GARDEN

SHOP

GALERY

OPEN SPACE PUBLIC SPACE

CAFE

SHOP

PUBLIC SQUARE

PUBLIC SPACE

CAFE

SPORT FILED

SHOP

SHOP SHOP

SHOP

SITTING AREA CAFE

RESTAURANT SHOP

FLOATING PLATFORMS

SHOP SPORT FILED

MARINA

SHOP

CAFE

MARINA OPEN PUBLIC SPACE SHOP

SHOP

RESTAURANT

SHOP FLOATING PLATFORMS

SHOP

RESTAURANT SHOP

SHOP CAFE

FLOATING PLATFORMS

SHOP

RESTAURANT

COMMERCIAL

40m

ENTRANCE PARKING GARAGE

UNDERGROUND CONNECTION TO MTR STATION

229

Plan View Level 3

SHOP

PUBLIC BALCON EXHIBITION ROOM

OPEN EXHIBIT

CAFE

CONCERT HALL

PUBLIC BALCONY

SHOP

CAFE

RESTAURANT

SHOP

GALERY

OPEN SPACE PUBLIC SPACE

CAFE

SPORT FILED

PUBLIC SPACE

CAFE

230 SITTING AREA

SHOP

TION

OPEN EXHIBITION

CAFE

CLASS ROOM

MULTI PURPOSE ROOM

CAFE

SHOP

PUBLIC SQUARE

SUNKEN GARDEN

SHOP SHOP

SHOP

231 SHOP

Plan View Level 3 // zoom in

PUBLIC SQUARE

OPEN EXHIBITION

CAFE

SHOP SPORT FILED

SHOP

RESTAURANT

SHOP

232

SHOP

SHOP CAFE

CAFE

SHOP

RESTAURANT SHOP

FLOATING PLATFORMS MARINA

SHOP MARINA

OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

RESTAURANT

SHOP FLOATING PLATFORMS SHOP

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT

233

Plan View Level 3 // zoom in

RESTAURANT SHOP

234

EXHIBITION EXHIBITION

EXHIBITION CONCERT HALL

SHOP

SUNKEN GARDEN

SHOP

CAFE ESCALATOR OPEN AREA

SHOP

SPORT FIELD

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS MARINA ESCALATOR

MARINA APT.

OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

FLOATING PLATFORMS

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT

40m

235

Plan View Level 4

ESCALATOR

EXHIBITION

EXH

CONCERT HALL

SHOP

CAFE

OPEN AREA

SHOP

236

SPORT FIELD

SHOP

HIBITION

SUNKEN GARDEN

ESCALATOR

237

Plan View Level 4 // zoom in

EXHIBITION

ESCA

238

FLOATING PLATFORMS MARINA MARINA APT.

OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

FLOATING PLATFORMS

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT

ESCALATOR

239

Plan View Level 4 // zoom in

ALATOR

APT.

240

VIEWING PLATFORM

PLAYGROUND

GARDEN

EVENT SPACE

READING ROOM

LOUNGE

ESCALATOR

LIBRARY

PLAYGROUND

APT.

EVENT SPACE

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS MARINA ESCALATOR

MARINA OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS

EVENT SPACE

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT

TEA ROOM

ESCALATOR

HAIR SALON ESCALATOR

VIEWING PLATFORM POOL

40m

241

Plan View Level 5

EVENT SPACE

PLAYGROUND

LOUNGE

242

READING ROOM

GARDEN

EVENT SPACE

LIBRARY

ESCALATOR

PLAYGROUND

APT.

243

Plan View Level 5 // zoom in

VIEWING PLATFORM

EVENT SPACE

TEA ROOM

ESCALATOR

HAIR SALON

VIEWING PLATFORM

EVENT SPACE

244

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS MARINA MARINA OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS

APT.

FLOATING PLATFORMS

RESTAURANT

ESCALATOR

POOL

245

Plan View Level 5 // zoom in

ESCALATOR

246

247

248

SECTION

249

APARTMENT TYPES COMMUNITY ROOMS COMMERCIAL SPACES EDUCATIONAL SPACES COMMUNITY SPACES

250

Section 1:500

251

252

ENERGY/WATER/LIGHT

253

Energy / Water Concept Wind plays an important role in environmentlal design. Due to the buldings location on the water, away from the heated up streets, the average temerature on the open see is 2-3 degrees lower. This saves the energy efford for cooling and ventilation.

Due to the location above the water, it can be used for cooling the building. Sunlight can be used to produce electricity and to heat up water. The waster water pipes will be connected to the sewage system of the city.

Waste management

Energy management

Water management

HIG H

efficient space planing

254

efficient building mass

detailing

implementing efficient systems

renewable energy Recycling

Energy recovery

sewage

Disposage recycling

Reuse Disposalconcept

Reduce

reduce consumption

efficient distribution

alternative sources

PHOTOVOLTAICS

SOLAR HEAT PANELS

HOT WATER

SEA WATER COOLING

HIGH INSULATION ARCHITECTURE

DUE TO LOCATION ON WATER: WELL VENTILATED

WASTE WATER

SEA WATER COOLING

ADDITIONAL ELECTRICITY FROM CITY NETWORK

CONNECTED TO CITY SEWAGE SYSTEM

HEAT PUMP

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256

LIGHT AND SHADOW

257

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Sunlight diagram Due to its location on the earth, Hong Kong has throughout the year a very steep sun angle. From the apartmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s north-south orientation, an eastwest axis results accordingly, creating a light corridor that reaches every apartment with at least indirect light, assuring a minimum access to natural daylight.

259

260

Access to light in lower levels The distribution of holes in the circulation surface is depending on the distance to the edge. Therefore, the further away from the edge, the bigger the opening is to allow a certain of light into the lower levels. This logic continues further down in the low floors. Naturaly the low floors will not as light flooded as the upper ones, according to this, functions are located depending on they necessity to daylight. For example a cinema can be but in a complete shadowed area with no access to daylight while a playground should have access to at least indirect sunlight.

Distribution of holes in the circulation surface, depending on the distance to the edge.

261

Porosity and access to natural daylight In Hong Kong, direct daylight is usualy avoided due to its intensity and heat. Therefore a system to create shade and to control the indirect light to reach certain areas of the building is introduced. The concept is to allow indirect daylight to reach deep into the lower levels. This is not always possible of course, depending on the amount of light, functions are located according to their need of light. Some functions depend on daylight, some donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. This syste,m can be used as a design tool to create a horizontal order of functions depending on theur access to light.

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264

AREA PLAN

265

266

267

268

269

Phasing The coincept implements the possibility of phasing, to extend the concept and apply it on other locations in Hong Kong. They could be interconnected by an extensive ferry system and therefore trigger the useage of the water surface.

270

271

272

273

274

ZOOM IN

275

276

277

Apartment Type1 Apartment Type2

278

279

Facade Mockup

Glass Facade of Apartments

Shading Panels

Private Balcony

280

281

Construction Principle Section - Zoom In

The zoom-in shows a more detailed view of the construction principle and materiality of the building. As a systematic section it doenst show a particular situation of the designed building, it shows the construction principle.

Elevator Apartments

Access Level

Public Balcony

Floating Platform 6x6m Core 282

283

Plan - Apartment Block

The Apartmetns are strictly north-south oriented but are designed to maximise flexibility. Their open layout with sliding doors allows an individual setup, ether as a one room studio or with up to 3 seperated rooms, for children, as a home office or as a shared apartment. Each apartment has a private outdoor spacethat is directly connected to the apartment. The sahding is provided by the moveable shading panels that allow individual positioning and therefore dosage of sun getting through. The fire escape is provided by an outdoor staircase that extends to the topfloor with its roof terrace. Inside the core the bathrooms and the elevator is located.

Home Office Bedroom

Dining Area Open Pantry Bathroom Living Room

Private Terrace Vertical Garden Moveable Shading Panels

1/200 284

285

Plan - Apartment Block - Office The plan layout of the apartment towers allows flexible useage, for example also as office or atelier or studio. This functional layout is changeable and can be altered according to the actual need.

Desks

Pantry Open Pantry Bathroom

Meeting space

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287

Roof Terrace

Elevation - Apartment Block

Moveable Shading Panels

Entrance to Circulation Core

1/200 288

289

Roof Terrace

Section - Apartment Block

Communiy Livingrooms Fire Escape Stair

Apartments

Private Outdoor Space

1/200 290

Access Level

291

Apartment Type3 Apartment Type4

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Plan - Small Apartment Block The Apartmetns in the smaller blocks are designed as douplex with a spiral stair and a small gallery. They are rather vertival oriented as the conceptual idea is to create an extremely open and high seiling living space. The roof provides an open and sun exposed terrace while the moveable shading panels allow the dosage of light coming in. Bedroom

Pantry Bathroom

Dining Room Moveable Shading Panels

1/200 294

295

Duplex apartments This graphic shows the duplex layout of the apartments, connected via a spiral stair, each with a private outdoor terrace and the shared roof terrace.

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297

Elevation - Small Apartment Block

Roof Terrace

Moveable Shading Panels

1/200 298

299

Section - Small Apartment Block

Roof Terrace

Duplex Apartments

1/200

300

301

Project Data

302

Apartments Type I = 500 Units (can also function as office space)

75 m2 =

37.500 m2

Apartments Type II

30 Units

100 m2 =

3.000 m2 = 40.500 m2

Circulation Platform

40.000 m2

Lower Platforms

100.000 m2 = 140.000 m2

180.500 m2

total Apartments

total Platforms total

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304

MODEL PHOTOGRAPHS

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307

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315

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List of references 4, 6-7 Le monde diplomatique - Atlas of globalization 9 Der Spiegel, 26th October 2011 11 Der Spiegel, 30th Decemeber 2011 12-13 Mark Magazine (#29, 2010) 16-17, 20-21 The Chinese Dream: A Society Under Construction, by Neville Mars und Adrian Hornsby von 010 Uitgeverij (1. Januar 2013) 24 www.openstreetmap.org 27-29 Great Leap Forward: Harvard Design School Project on the City, by Chuihua Judy Chung, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas und Sze Tsung Leong von Taschen Verlag (12. Januar 2002) 31, 36, www.wikipedia.com 50 www.opnestreetmap.org 51, 67, 71, 73, 75 The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric (Planning, History and Environment Series) by Thomas Kvan, Barrie Shelton und Justyna Karakiewicz (18. Februar 2011) 77, 78 www.wikipedia.org 80 www.openstreetmap.org 87 MVRDV: Farmax: Excursions on Density MVRDV by Jacob Van Rijs, Winy Maas und Richard Koek von 010 Uitgeverij (31. Januar 2006) 94 www.wikipedia.com 109-111, 115 The Vertical Village: Individual, Informal, Intense von Jennifer Sigler von Nai Publ (29. Februar 2012) 133 www.maps.google.com 134 http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/art-history-le-corbusiers 135-139 Project Japan. Metabolism Talks: An Oral History of Metabolism by Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Taschen Verlag (28. September 2011) 140-141 http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Central_Beheer.html 142-143 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Lissitzky, http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/el-lissitzky/iron-in-clouds-for-strastnoy-boulevard-1925 144-145 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Babylon_(Constant_Nieuwenhuys), http://www.notbored.org/new-babylon.html 149 www.google.com/streetview 150-163 Hong Kong Map Service

all photographs by Philipp Ohnesorge, if not stated differently

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January 2013 www.philippohnesorge.com mail@philippohnesorge.com