Studio Florian Schätz | ACAU+ Hong Kong

S t u d io Florian Sc hätz

National University of Singapore

Wor ks h op a t Asian Coalition of Architecture and Urbanism (ACAU)

A C A U R E P O R T

對唔住 唔該! 多謝 2017

Ed i t o rs

Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Ng Sze Wee Florian Schätz

C on tr ib utor s

Astrid Mayadinta Florian Schätz Kate Lim Wei Rong Kenny Chen Han Teng Khoo Zonghan Brian Lin Lei Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Ng Sze Wee Seri Binte Sapari Shawn Tan Lip Song Zuliandi Azli

Studio Florian Schätz | Hong Kong Report ISBN: 978-981-11-4660-2 © Florian Schätz, Assistant Prof. © 2017 Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment.

National University of Singapore © Text and images by Individual Contributors Department of Architecture School of Design & Environment National University of Singapore 4 Architecture Drive Singapore 117566 T: +65 6516 3567 E: akiflo@nus.edu.sg W: www.arch.nus.edu.sg All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanic means, including information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. All opinions in the book are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of National University of Singapore.

Concept: Florian Schätz Design: Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Ng Sze Wee Unless otherwise indicated, all sketches, models and computer generated image by Studio Florian Schätz

Studio Florian Schätz A st rid M ayad int a K at e L im We i Rong K e nny C he n H an Te ng K hoo Zonghan B rian L in L e i Nat alie C he u ng A i We n Ng S z e We e S e ri B int e S ap ari S haw n Tan L ip S ong Zu liand i A z li

Since 2005, the Asian Coalition of Architecture and Urbanism (ACAU) workshop has enhanced the understanding of architectural and urban issues in Asian cities and foster ties amongst leading academic institutions.

Through an insightful study of the processes and consequences of rapid urbanisation, by analysing the spatial distribution of urban spaces, reactivation and development of the urban wastelands. The workshop participants aims to produce a visual reflection on diverse and up-to-date issues within a fast growing city.

With a focus on the topographical, economic dynamics of the city, participants of the workshop were tasked to analyze a particular urban plot within a 5 – 10 ha perimeter, primarily looking at the slopes of Hong Kong Island. The one week workshop includes a series of lectures, hikes and visits to the M+ construction site, the Wetland Park and Lau Fau Shan Fish farm in the New Territories and this creates a concerted basis on environmental and social sustainability for the future South East Asian Cities.

The institutions that participated in the workshop includes the University of Malaya, University of Hong Kong, the University of Seoul and the National University of Singapore.

National University of Singapore A/Prof Florian Schätz, Architekt ETH ACAU+ 2017

Prologue: Massmotopia, Sticks and Slopes

urban planning landscape over the last 50 years, intensifying and transforming the earlier ideas of

Economically one of the most powerful finance

Le Corbusier and Alison and Peter Smithson into an

centres in the world, Hong Kong is facing the

urban form of subtropical brutalism. Mass-housing

challenges of verticality. Its population of 7.3 million

projects constructed using prefab concrete slabs

people, spread over more than 150 islands with a

aimed to catalyse social organisation.

land mass of 1104 km2, makes the city one of the world’s most densely populated places.

North Point Estate, built in 1957 and demolished in 2003, was among the first of these low-cost

Economic success and geographical context make

housing projects on Victoria Harbour. The single-

Hong Kong one of the world’s most expensive cities.

loaded corridor housing schemes allowed low-

With the highest real estate prices, it also ranks

income workers to sustain self-contained flats with

among the countries with the lowest birth rates.

community spaces, clinics, coffee shops and stores

Hong Kong is competing with Singapore for livability,

located on the ground level. Meanwhile, each unit

trade and wealth in emerging Asia and ranks in the

in the tower blocks offered harbour views. Despite

Mercer 2017 Quality of Living index in 71st place.

a generally overall successful planning directive,

The Special Administrative Region of the People’s

some projects thrown out of joint turned into urban

Republic of China’s primary drawbacks are the

anarchy. Kowloon Walled City, an overcrowded urban

high cost of living, recent social uncertainty and the

phenomenon of spatial complexity, poverty and

quality of the environment.

crime, known as the “dark city”, was demolished in 1994 under the rigorous approach of the government

The city evolved vertically, setting an example of

to uplift Hong Kong’s housing quality.

efficiency, town planning and vertical infrastructure, with

massive

land

reclamation

and

land-

The economic boom of the Pearl River Delta, Hong

intensification, yet its geopolitical position, urban

Kong’s transfer of sovereignty and its excellent

planning restrictions, scarcity of land and steep

position as a trading and finance hub, led to a rising

topography paired with intensified urban conditions

population and an increasingly high demand for

have brought the city to distress. Hong Kong is a city

real estate. Buildable space is rare, and the city

of density and speed.

keeps growing up the steep slopes of Hong Kong Island or further into the sea via reclaimed land in

Geological factors largely dominated Hong Kong’s

Kowloon. Where land reclamation ends, limited by

early urban development during Chinese, Japanese

the boundaries of the up to 25m deep sea as well

and British governance. Located with a deep seaport

as the degree of landslide susceptibility, the demand

at the far end of the Silk Road, the city is one of the

for more real estate activates the evolution of new

most important gateways to mainland China.

urban forms.

Mediocre, monotonous, podium tower housing

Lack of land, optimisation of land rights and

developments

negotiating with various building codes has led to a

have

dominated

Hong

Kong’s

unique phenomenon of high-rise urban typologies:

the Western Side of Hong Kong Island. The city of

pencil towers, coffin apartments and micro-units.

deaths on Pok Fu Lam Road offers an epic panoramic

Flats are as small as 16m2 and house up to 50,000

view towards the ocean over a giant, downwards-

people per km2. Lack of space forces people to

stepping field of memorial stones.

activate the streetscape as a gigantic urban living room between slender and elegant high-rise

These, and other themes, make Slopes and Sticks

apartment sticks.

a visual essay on vicinity, edges and form. Studio Florian Schätz observes, analyses and documents

Towers with only 40m2, 60m2 or sometimes 150m2

urban

phenomena

as

the

poetic

hypothesis,

floor plates accessible through an entrance lobby

conjecture, and labour of imagination. As part of

and a lift represent the urban form of high land

the Asian Coalition of Architecture and Urbanism,

values. Their limit is the affordability of the middle

11 students of the National University of Singapore

class. The average citizen can only afford to purchase

discovered the images of Hong Kong through the

3m2 per year; meanwhile, the housing prices reach

perspective of drawing. In the process of urban

up to 20 times the average annual income. The

distillation, large 2x2m drawings allow the vertical

result is a city in which the urban flaneur goes

flaneur to lose himself and to find meaning in

vertical, up and down, around the block, to discover

modernism and the capitalism of a packed, yet

mixed-use of commercial spaces, entertainment

single, city. Hong Kong becomes the ghost in an

and lifestyle, paired with temples of brands, work

urban shell, in itself.

and consumption. The lack of public space activates urban living in an industrial wasteland, like the hipster Instagram Pier.

Central to Hong Kong Island is a dense vertical labyrinth that is breaking down public-private spatial relationships. Public spaces, retail spaces and rental spaces create a matrix of slopes, escalator and walkway systems. Shopping malls, transport hubs and public parks grow as concrete lichen in a three-dimensional conglomeration of inverted urban motopia to vertical pedestopia.

In a city where buildable space is rare, even death finds no peace in consumed real estate. The city’s last available burial space allows the remains to rest for only six years before they are relocated to the columbarium. New burial grounds are only for temporary rent in the terraced vertical cemetery on

National University of Singapore A/Prof Florian Schätz, Architekt ETH ACAU+ 2017

“Harried pace of life,” Scream the buses and taxis Alongside fast cars.

Faces in a crowd Dodge one another in kind; There’s a train to catch.

But stop here and look: A tree stands tall, wise, ageless; A witness to change.

Mountains and forests Watch roads snake through tall buildings In still bemusement.

Small spaces condense The lives and dreams of millions Into bright visions.

Everything in sight Moves to an unseen rhythm: Like controlled chaos.

This is not heaven; Even the locals know that.

No. This is Hong Kong.

- Chris Chan, 陳家桐

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Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg Shot on Fujifilm Industrial 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on FujiColor 200 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg Shot on Fujifilm Natura 1600 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg Shot on Fujifilm Natura 1600 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg Shot on Fujifilm Natura 1600 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on FujiColor 200 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg Shot on Fujifilm Natura 1600 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg Shot on Fujifilm Natura 1600 35mm

Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F Half-frame Shot on Kodak Professional Portra 400 35mm

Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F Half-frame Shot on Fujicolor Industrial 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on Fujicolor 200 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Pen EED Shot on Kodak ColorPlus 200 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on Fujicolor 200 35mm

Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F Half-frame Shot on Fujifilm Superia Premium 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg Shot on Fujifilm Natura 1600 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Pen EED Shot on Kodak ColorPlus 200 35mm

Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F Half-frame Shot on Kodak Professional Portra 400 35mm

Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F Half-frame Shot on Kodak Professional Portra 400 35mm

Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on FujiColor 200 35mm

Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Muhammad Zuliandi Bin Abdul Azli Canon EOS 300

Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F Half-frame Shot on Kodak Professional Portra 400 35mm

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Pen EED Shot on Kodak ColorPlus 200 35mm

Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Muhammad Zuliandi Bin Abdul Azli Canon EOS 300

Photograph by Muhammad Zuliandi Bin Abdul Azli Canon EOS 300

Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Pen EED Shot on Kodak ColorPlus 200 35mm

Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700 Shot on AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400 35mm

nature

\

city T he I nv isible Wall

by Kh o o Z o n g h a n B r i a n & Na ta lie C h e ung A i We n

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The Invisible Wall

Development Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen-F

53

This unintentional division has come to define Hong Kong in a number of ways. For one, the city has always been the main focus of Hong Kong, due to the strength of its economy and its image as an international hub. Nature on the other hand is put in the backdrop of the skyline as a quiet accompaniment to framing the more exciting and bustling city life and culture; the urban form being more recognisable in general, from tourism marketing to photo essays of the dense tower blocks, for better or worse. Nature in the case of Hong Kong has taken on a sort of tourist value, where sites like Yan Chau Tong Marine Park or Hong Kong Wetlands Park and even the Hong Kong Park are seen more like checklists of the necessary representations of nature within a global city.

While green areas like Hong Kong park sit within the buildings, there is this subtle visible boundary of which nature is cordoned into a specified area while buildings and roads wrap around them. However, as it is usually the case, nature will always find its way in a continuously growing man made world. Here between the tall buildings and mess of pipes it continues to take root, growing off water leaked from condensers and tiny cracks in the wall. At the same time not everything is unintentional. Potted plants line the walkways and makeshift gardens sprout from the roof.

This disconnect has not turned nature away completely, but rather has transformed nature into merely a kind of backdrop to the larger working of the city. It is seen as a solution to the problems to a city, without one needing to actively search for the problem of the city itself.

Here in the higher elevations, nature takes on a semi-mythical form through real estate marketing, extolling the powers of clean air and forested views to anyone who is willing to pay premium to escape the notorious Chinese city pollution. The higher up the mountains, the more luxurious it gets. Through this, the

boundaries of the city itself become clear.

The central Hong Kong is where livelihood is made; it is noisy and bustling with activity, where people traverse between the canyons of buildings. It sits on the most buildable topography, and hence results in the most dense urban fabric. Above that is the MidLevels, its popularity birthed from the development of the Mid-Levels escalator in 1993; and its benefits emphasized by the real estate industry. Here, occupants have the best of both worlds, nature surrounding the home, and the exciting city just an escalator ride away. To top it off is Victoria Peak, locally known as The Peak; the moniker in reference more to the high-value residential land and public parks than the mountain itself. Sited in the mountains far from the division between city and nature, the premium price paid allows one to escape from the sub tropical climate of Hong Kong, into a more temperate one of comfort, which sits on the highest point of Hong Kong.

In the case of Hong Kong, what is being sold with nature is the escape from the blight of the city; the air pollution, traffic and noise, a quick fix to a perennial problem which a city brings as long as it remains the way it is. It is a commodity with appeal, albeit one that at the moment is still mostly seen as a visual pleasure, and for some a better quality of life.

For not only the more well-to-do workers and expatriates, but the tourist as well - all for the cost of a cab ride and $50 HKD for the fresh air and view from atop The Peak Observatory.

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Crown Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen-F

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In-between Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen-F

building

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般含道 \ 31 Bonham Road

tree

干德道 \ 37 Conduit Road

寶城大廈 \ 23 Po Shan Road

building

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維園道 \ 8 Park Road

tree

羅便臣道 \ 115 Robinson Road

盧吉道 \ Lugard Road

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Stalking boundaries Panorama by Khoo Zonghan Brian & Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Nikon D7000

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DENSE-CITY

by K hoo Zonghan B rian

Amongst the heavily built up urban landscape of Hong Kong consisting of high rise residential buildings and a multitude of glass skyscrapers, the Pok Fu Lam Cemetery is a highly contrasting form in the urban landscape in the way it wraps the slopes, terracing across a vast plot of land.

For a country in which land is maxed in value, the cemeteries, especially the traditional burial plots, stand as a testament against time and economic pressure. Sited in the hills between Pok Fu Lam Road and Victoria Road, the cemetery puts little effort to blend in with the surrounding nature; apart from the few trees which are scattered across the

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place, almost all of the cemetery sits on concrete terraces which lead up to the Chinese Christian church situated at the peak. Built in 1882, it was originally sat at the higher contours of the hill, and over the years, slowly expanded downwards and beyond Victoria Road, taking the form of some kind of ethereal amphitheatre1. While this was the only cemetery we managed to visit, there are also many other cemeteries situated across Hong Kong with this unique, albeit heavy handed human-centric form, like the Chai Wan Cemetery and Tseung Kwan O Cemetery, making them stand out amongst the mostly vertically inclined Hong Kong cityscape.

Like how life and death are inseparable forces, the architecture of living and dying also hold a similar relationship in terms of space and density in Hong Kong. In both cases, spaces for one to call home are short in supply. An apartment in Hong Kong can cost an average of $1,380 USD per square foot2, with such a high price creating a demand for tiny spaces, also known as coffin homes, which can measure just 4’ x 6’. These spaces are created through the subdivision of apartment spaces, with some 24 coffin homes possibly squeezed out from an apartment measuring 538 feet, hence the namesake.

On the other side, with the 1970s ban on building new cemeteries, Hong Kong has ran out of space to house the dead. Just like the cost of apartment spaces, burial plots and even columbarium niches don’t come cheap, with private burial plots costing more than homes in some cases. In one example, a private plot in the Lung Shan Temple in Fanling district at about 0.04 square metres in size positioned auspiciously costs around $230,313 1 http://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/06/the-terraced-cemetery-of-pok-fu-lam.html 2 http://www.businessinsider.sg/hong-kong-coffin-homes-housing-crisis-2017-6/?r=US&IR=T

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Last Stop Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F

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USD. Compared to a luxury home in Hong Kong which costs $19,370 USD per square metre, housing for the dead is much more expensive3.

Ironically, unlike the living, the habits of the dead are a lot harder to change, with efforts to promote a more efficient and less space intensive burials like scattering of ashes into the sea and at allocated columbaria gardens failing due to deep set cultural norms4. In a strange way, the cemeteries defiantly stands against Hong Kong’s property market as well, where high rises are built to maximise profits, with a more valuable square footage, scoffing at the value of air rights in a much less efficient use of space.

Like the city’s penchant for building upwards, the terrain (combined with a host of strange regulations) of Hong Kong also had a part to play in the architectural adaptations of the mostly Chinese burial customs in Hong

Kong. For Hong Kong Chinese, the need for a niche for the dead despite the limitations of space lies behind the basic factor of being able to point out the final resting place of the deceased, be it in bones or ashes5. Added to the fact that in the Chinese belief, one should be buried in the ground to find peace6, it is easy to see how the traditional methods which take up space; burying and storing, have been hard to replace. Even increasing the number of columbaria has been met with opposition by people, due to the traffic and pollution from paper offerings during Ching Ming and Chung Yeung, coupled with the traditional Chinese aversion to places of death, with worries of decreasing the land value around.

As a result, the existence of these unique urban landscapes are hard to replace, despite Hong Kong’s ever changing nature, due to the limited amount of space.

3 http://www.reuters.com/article/hongkong-death-idUSL3N0IC2D020140603

5 http://www.cultus.hk/cemetery_lecture/wilson.pdf

4 http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/hk-running-out-of-spaces-for-the-dead

6 https://apnews.com/91789dbfa0c9497caf58d556be2e4284/crowded-hong-kong-dead-find-no-space-rest-peace

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Scaling Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F

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Midway Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F

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The changing urban landscape also has had a profound impact on the way death operates in the city. In the past, due to the cultural negativity towards death, neighbours in an apartment did not like the idea of coffins passing by their floors, lest the bumping on the walls of the narrow corridors, due to the bulkiness of wooden coffins then, liken to the death knocking on their doors. As a result, the practice of building a bamboo scaffolding outside the building such that the coffin could be brought down through the windows became a solution to an odd problem. However, as the buildings got taller, the custom has disappeared due to various reasons; the greatly increasing heights of buildings that such scaffoldings were too expensive at those heights, and the changes to the architectural language of the city, from glass in verandahs and balconies, making it difficult for coffins to fit through windows. Increasing urban traffic is also a problem with the installation of scaffolds. These days, the process of transporting the dead is much less conspicuous, with the use of woven containers or stretchers, allowing easy passage through the narrow and twisting hallways of buildings, death coming as quietly as it goes.

The cemeteries remain one of the most distinct landscapes of Hong Kong, and behind the silent and weathered concrete terrace is a cultural tradition of death and burial which continues to adapt its rituals to help their tangible forms defy the changing urban landscape of Hong Kong. It is, in a way, constantly engaging the city itself in a balance of life and death, space and density, and the modern property market.

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Topography of the Underworld Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Olympus Pen F

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Death is forever Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Nikon D7000

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NATURE-MADE CITY b y Nat alie C he u ng A i We n

As a first timer in Hong Kong, sitting on the bus towards Hong Kong Island and seeing the rolling green mountains surrounding the city, one could assume that he or she would be stepping into a green metropolis comparable to places like Singapore, where the city centre is weaved with trees, and maybe, all those photos of dense residential were just selective views of part of the city. Green in Hong Kong however, stops at the boundaries between city and the mountains.

The places where people live and work in – from the high-rise housing estate of Tseung Kwan O, to the shopping malls of Causeway Bay and the

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office towers of Central – are anything but green.

If anything, the greenery implemented in various buildings are merely visual features, with the smattering of potted foliage and planters scattered sparingly. Hong Kong is extremely concrete in fact. The lack of nature in the city itself has built up a severe disconnect with the wild side of Hong Kong, compounded as the city grew larger, with a perspective of the dangers which nature might bring being blown out of proportion - in one case, residents fearing that the planting of trees would help spread bird flu and dengue.

With approximately 7,197 people per square kilometre1, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world. Due to the natural terrain on which it sits, mostly mountainous and hilly, the city has no choice but to make use of all the flat land it can get, both natural and reclaimed.

As a result Hong Kong’s urban spaces are densely packed with concrete and asphalt, with nature taking a back seat in the allocation of space. 50% of Hong Kong consists solely of roads and parking facilities; all this excluding high-rise buildings.

While wild nature may have been kept in the backyard of the city, there is another form of nature which takes root, and that is of “man-made” nature, a kind of nature which involves nature’s methods of adaptation combined with human ingenuity to help the city function on such a difficult terrain.

A good example is the use of Wall Trees within the city. Wall Trees - generally Chinese Banyans - have been found on top of large masonry retaining walls with its roots carving into its fissures and cracks.

1 April 2015, https://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/docs/population.pdf.

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City Parasite Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Omg

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In the midst of Hong Kong’s urban growth, it became necessary to cut into the slopes of the hills to create more usable space. This included space for the building of roads as well, and most of the 1,200 Wall Trees2 were actually part of the solution proposed by the British government in the 19th and 20th century to strengthen the integrity of its vertical retaining walls, despite the common belief that the trees had taken root by themselves.

To give true credit, the idea of growing trees directly into walls originated from Guangdong Masonry workers in the 1800’s. With the trunk base situated within the confines of the walls, its spreading roots help stabilize the soil, soak up and transpirate large amounts of water accumulated behind terraces finally alleviating pressure on the stone-work. Together the root strength of the trees with the development of 1,700 masonry retaining walls lessened the likelihood of slope failure throughout the Western and Central parts of Hong Kong, making it possible for the city’s existence within such hilly terrains.

2 Jim, C.Y (2012). Study on Stonewall Trees: Maintenance Approach for the Six Stonewall Trees on Slope no. 11SW-A/R577, Bonham Road. Highways Department Government of the HKSAR. Retrieved from http://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/central/ doc/2012_2015/tc/dc_meetings_doc/935120150827_File1_ReportText_WallTreeSurveyText_20130108R2.pdf.

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Wall Sandwich Photograph by Khoo Zonghan Brian Nikon D7000

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Held tight in our roots A city growing fast Learning to let go Smog, fog, all things bad Nervous anticipation What will become of us

Stonewall trees denote a special if not unique urban ecological endowment of Hong Kong. Very few places in the world have so many stone retaining walls concentrated in a relatively small area, and with so many trees of sizeable biomass and high landscape quality to dwell on them.

They represent the product of a difficult terrain working in tandem with human labour and ingenuity in creating a city literally from scratch. At the same time, due to the naturally long lifespan of trees, it is no wonder people grow attached to them as well, in some cases even mourning the loss of some trees from felling. In a way, as the trees are felled, memories of the surrounding

places within people die with them.

Beyond landscaping and ecological effects, there is a much more intangible quality by having nature in the city.

Despite that, the cracks between nature and city shows itself through falling Wall Trees as the city forces them to grow within smaller confines and continues to push its boundaries further into the hills, requiring them to have more excessive maintenance.

There is only that much nature can do when a city continuously extends its boundaries beyond its natural reach.

Even in “man-made� nature, a kind of balance still has to exist between concrete and earth.

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Base Structures Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Pen E-P5

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Guests Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Pen E-P5

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Pests Photograph by Natalie Cheung Ai Wen Olympus Pen E-P5

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10 by 10 Hong Kong The Not-so-Invisible Walls Looking through the gaps Nothing like I’ve ever seen Time to Instagram

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10 by 10 Hong Kong City-scape Cage Air Con water drips Cockroaches running amidst Get me out of here

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350

半山

300

區

250

200

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10 by 10 Hong Kong Nature Rates Mosquitoes and Rain Expatriates and Maids How much have I paid?

STICKS ON SLOPES A rt ific ially Nat u ral M orp hology o f H ong K ong

by L in Le i & Z u lia n d i A z l i

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Sticks on Slopes

Natural Peak of Hong Kong Mainland Territory Photograph by Zuliandi Azli Canon E0S 300

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In Utopia, Thomas More described the discovery of a newfoundland by explorers.

This land was embellished by the efficacies of a hyper perfect socio-political system set within the geography of the territory.1 While his oeuvre was charged with satire in the form of underlying commentary towards the society and inner workings of this new territory, the notion of discovery and critical naivety of the explorer remains paramount in laying down the groundwork for the rest of the book.

In many ways our being in Hong Kong could be akin to these explorers More had described in his book. Confronted by the uncertainty of what’s to come, we were devoid of any expectations about this place. Indeed, we were new to this territory, a group of tourists of sorts, only able to pass judgement through our naïve gaze. On the one hand, the experience to be had was visceral - a sheer excess of visual, olfactory and aural sensations. Each day, we are presented a relentless number of ways to experience the territory. Yet, a foreground is not without its background. In this case, the background was clear and constantly omnipresent. With that, we begin to point towards the landscape as a point of departure of our reading of this territory. A landscape, within a single gesture, immensely artificial yet natural at the same time.

The Coastline 02 July 2017 5:45am: Flight TR 2058 SIN-HK begins landing maneuver above the South China Sea towards Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA).

5:55am: Framed against the airplane windowsill, a first glimpse of natural landscape; in the form of mountains.

6:00am: As plane gets close to the landing tarmac, first signs of artificial/built environment appears in the form of the

1

airport terminal and the coastal pencil tower development near to the airport.

6:30am: Breakfast at HKIA; a relatively hermetic glass box lending no signs nor indication of the landscape or urbanity to come.

7:30am: Chasing after the Hong Kong University (HKU) bound bus at the nearby bus terminal. This was also the first encounter of the island on foot.

8:30am: Enroute to HKU, the bus leaves behind the island behind for another. The airport too was an infrastructural island within this particular territory.

8:45am: Bus crosses an iconic bridge as it heads toward Hong Kong island. A recurring theme was emerging: islands as mountains and vice versa.

9:00am: First signs of artificial slopes in the form of steep streets, we have officially left behind the coastline.

Central 02 July 2017 10:00am: The streets began to narrow and get steeper.

Long gone were the visual pleasures of vast expanses and vistas offered by the highway from the airport en route to Hong Kong Island.

10:10am: The streets now read like intentional networks. The immense compression in space from the open territory to one that was seemingly, claustrophobic.

10:20am: Arrival at Kennedy Town Station, the official MTR for HKU. The station itself seemed arbitrary, largely overshadowed by the neighbouring mid rise buildings.

More, Thomas, and H.V.S Odgen. Utopia. Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949.

Sticks on Slopes

Back Alley of High End Shopping Strip, Central Photograph by Zuliandi Azli Canon E0S 300

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10:30am: Central on foot. The sound from the luggage rollers seemed to alter its frequency at odd intervals. The paving beneath was uneven, irregular and ever changing. Even then, this soon became insignificant as the aural senses began to register sounds from the streetscape and beyond.

10:35am: A butcher chops some meat.

The Peak 03 July 2017 4:30pm: Meeting with Florian at Hong Kong University Department of Architecture 5:00pm: Negotiating through several flight of staircases before jumping into a taxi towards the Victoria Peak.

10:37am: An old couple yells at each other.

10:39am: The leaking of air conditioning unit from above.

10:40am: Lady Ho Tung Hall. Time for a quick nap.

5:30pm: Taxi leaves behind main Mid Levels and drive toward upper mid levels. The vehicle begins to meander through windy roads flanked by steep concreted surfaces on one side and mid rise luxury apartments on the other. The occasional tree pops out through these concreted surfaces that act as a preventive measure of soil erosion and landslides.

Mid Levels 02 July 2017

6:00pm: Peeled behind an array of trees, the fabric of the city blankets across mid-levels and central, proliferating towards the coastline.

1:00pm: Mid Levels for lunch.

1:10pm: MTR from Kennedy Town towards Central 1:30pm: Exit on Pedder Street, Central Station, the main axis towards mid-levels. After a 5 minute walk, an impressive steel structure emerges from the street.

1:45pm: A series of escalators reveals itself in between an array of urban blocks.

1:55pm: The relief of the escalator, surprisingly gentle. Its orientation, never quite straightforward - a series of overlapping planes that intersect each other. Staircases at littered around strategic points interfacing the city back down on the street level.

2:10pm: At the very top of the series of escalators.

6:15pm: Arrival at a non-descript taxi drop off point underground, no signs or indication of the outside landscape in here.

6:20pm: Escalator upwards into main galleria of the Victoria Peak. Confronted by two ways of going upwards, one of which was discovered to be the side facing the natural and seemingly untouched Southern side of Hong Kong Island, the other, facing the Northern side littered with pencil towers, mid-rise buildings and the occasional urban blocks against the natural terrain.

6:30pm: The view of Hong Kong Island seemed to present itself from every angle. Alas, reaching the very top of the gallery, only to be a dismal ticketed zone with a limited view, littered with photographers with chicken toys enticing tourists for photo-ops.

7:00pm: Time for dinner.

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Sticks on Slopes

THE OTHER HONG KONG

b y Zu l ia n d i Az li

In Mathematics, multiples are defined by numbers that can be divided from a greater whole. These numbers while different, share a similar trait in which all of integers can be directly divisible and therefore, create a parts to whole relationship. On the other side, Deleuze offers a varying concept of multiplicity, suggesting the many domains in which concepts can and could occur. In blatant rejection of pure singularity, Deleuzian thinking lends an argument for the reading of artifacts or occurrences through a series of possible outcomes that may or may not have any relationship to each other, nor its origin.

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At first encounter, Hong Kong seemed immense. Its vast landscape, tall towers. Deeper within the fabric of the city, any previous judgement of scale begins to dissolve. The street narrows, spaces, pocketed.

The schizophrenic nature of the territory and the many ways to perceive it is made clear from the onset. The reading of Hong Kong could never be through a singular lens. The notion of multiplicity, via all of its perceivable forms, run deep; through its morphology, culture and society.

Maids of Mongkok Mongkok, an area affectionately known for its markets and bustling commercial activity, Defined by islands of commercial zones, set within bands of urban blocks, the area of Mongkok constantly receives flocking locals and tourists alike. Along the eastern part of the station, there lies a bridge connecting the MTR Station of Mongkok East, Mongkok Street Markets and Mongkok station. It functions as a infrastructure to expedite circulation, providing shelter to those on foot, away from the elements of the weather and the bustle of the streetscape beneath. The bridge also negotiates between the complex setbacks of buildings that make it possible for navigating through the complex urban composition in the area.

By weekdays, the bridge predominantly serves its main function. By weekend, especially on Sundays, the bridge is reactivated as a gathering spot of sorts, providing a strip of makeshift picnic spots for domestic helpers and foreign workers, of which, a largely Indonesian population. Within a matter of hours, the six meter wide walkway is programed on its flanks, with mats laid out in quick succession as the maids make quick work of the space transforming it into what could possibly Hong Kong’s longest picnic that day.

Sticks on Slopes

Indonesia in Hong Kong Photograph by Zuliandi Azli Canon E0S 300

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Mongkok Bridge Photograph by Zuliandi Azli Canon E0S 300

Sticks on Slopes

Sundays are days off for the domestic helper population. The gathering along the bridge begins early. As early as 8am humble numbers begin to turn up, setting up the bridge. At 10am, the bridge is rocking at full force.

Companions catch up and connect, commerce takes place. For a few hours, that bridge in Hong Kong could be mistaken for a walkway in Jakarta. The multi functional bridge is testament to one of the many instances in which the layers of Hong Kong can unfold.

Within a singular gesture, the infrastructure demonstrates multiplicity both in its programmatic & spatial implications, while acting as a physical allegory to the social composition of the city itself.

The territory is far from a terra nullius, rather, quite the opposite - an all man’s land. An unabashedly proud free for all economic hub, The cacophony of culture and clash of society

is deeply ingrained within the collective memory of inhabitants. While each individual would have his or her interpretation of what the territory means to them, the only constant within the territory is the lack of it. In a land where diversity thrives on many fronts, perhaps, its singular image is best understood as a collage of multiplicities. The trick lies within the rejection of believing that the image Hong Kong can be cornered or be pinholed into a sweeping finite judgement; it is neither this nor that, rather, it is everything.

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New York, Indonesia & Hong Kong Photograph by Zuliandi Azli Canon E0S 300

Sticks on Slopes

SHORT STORIES OF HONG KONG

by Lin Le i

Greeneries While we are on the cab to the top of the peak on the first day of the ACAU workshop, the breathtaking view struck us as at one side of the peak is very peaceful and fill up with greeneries while the other side is the densely packed with pencil towers. However we only notice this view when we are at the peak. The experience on top of the peak is very different from the busy city life in the city center High-Density Pencil Towers We went to peak on the first day of the workshop, we can see the pencil tower are densely pack next to each other. But the most obvious feature looking from the peak down is the pencil tower and the ocean. If the soil of Hong Kong is the cream of the cake then the pencil tower will be the candle. And these candles seem to be cascading down to the ocean. These make us curious of what is the new typography of Hong Kong. Is it just the terrain or the natural terrain and the man-made buildings?

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Mid-Level Escalators The midlevel’s of Hong Kong is especially very steep therefore it is very difficult to walk everywhere. This Mid-level Escalator runs through the busy and heavily populated area of Hong Kong Island. It is a distinctive experience, we stated going up in the escalators looking around at the small shops, allays and the people. The Escalators divided to sections, so we can get off them, walk around go into shops, restaurants, galleries, and go back to another section.

Air-Conditioning Hazard Squeezing through the sheltered pedestrian walkway next to the vehicular road, it feels like it’s raining all day long. The air-conditioned units in Hong Kong are densely installed next to each other due to high-density living. It is a unique feature in Hong Kong as when we walked in the central area, the buildings are so close to one another that we can only see a glimpse of the sky through the threshold between buildings.

Stairs of Hong Kong University The narrow and long staircases leading up the University overwhelm me. As Hong Kong University is located on the slopes and there are various entrances to the university. In addition the university is located along the midlevel so the experience of walking up the hills is very tedious.

Even though the soft-scape (plants) makes the hard-scape (staircase) look softer, the stairs is still not use by the students. In general the lift that is located around the campus is still more convenient for the students.

Alleys in Hong Kong While exploring Hong Kong, we saw many narrow alley lanes that are filled with small night market stalls. In such a densely populated country the narrow space offered by these small alleys also become important part of the locals life. These narrow alleys puts on a pause to the fast-moving lifestyles that the locals adopted. At night, it is astonishing to see how the local strive to make a living in the alley. Lastly,it also becomes a pause to the city.

Sticks on Slopes

Greeneries Photograph by Lin Lei iPhone 7

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High Density Pencil Towers Photograph by Lin Lei iPhone 7

Sticks on Slopes

Mid Level Escalators Photograph by Lin Lei iPhone 7

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Dirty Air-Conditioning Units Photograph by Lin Lei iPhone 7

Sticks on Slopes

Stairs of Hong Kong University Photograph by Lin Lei iPhone 7

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Alleys in Hong Kong Photograph by Lin Lei iPhone 7

Sticks on Slopes

你看！棍棒！ Slope! Sticks!

棍棒！ Sticks!

快點，讓我們拍一張照片照!片 Quick, let’s take a selfie!

..棍棒..

...More sticks...

視圖更好從這裡..

The view is betterfrom here..

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從巨大的屏幕看？

View from the huge screen?

你看!

Slopes!

你看！棍棒！ Slope! Sticks!

高峰是垃圾..

The peak was rubbish..

你看!

More slopes!

In The Belly Of The Beast Ove r H ill A nd U nd e r H ill

by Ka te L im We i R o ng & Ng S z e Wee

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In The Belly Of The Beast

[Chungking Express: 47:53] As Tony Leung’s Cop 663 gaze out of his apartment right adjacent to the midlevel escalator, his then girlfriend, an air stewardess played by Valerie Chow peeked at him playfully through the acrylic balustrades of the escalator - close enough to see each other, moving apart steadily.

[Chungking Express: 48:17] Proposed in 1987 and constructed in 1993, the Mid - Level Escalator consists of 18 individual escalators to expedite the travel down the slope to Queen’s Road Central - the nexus where the Mass Transit Railway station of Hong Kong station is, onto the flatter, reclaimed terrain of the International Financial Centre (IFC) district, which has their own network of elevated walkways connecting the multitude of office towers in the area.

20 minutes. The estimated travelling time to and fro between Conduit Road and Queen’s Road Central: across 800 metres and approximately 135 metres in elevation. The escalator, independent of the topographical context it sits on, weaves through narrow streets, over traffic and bus lanes, allowing pedestrians to arrive at their intended destination swiftly.

The escalator joins seamlessly into an overhead bridge over Robinsons Road, which opens up into the atrium of a condominium.

The bridge leads to another series of smaller footpath which connects to the road level, where one could catch a 16 seater bus. Along Mosque Junction, it latches itself onto the side entrance of a supermarket located on the slope above.

When the streets seem too narrow to elevate the escalator above ground, the escalator sits on the slope, taking up half (if not more) of the already narrow street, and most definitely affecting the business of the bars

and restaurants blocked by its unforgiving trajectory.

Taking a walk through the Mid - Level Escalator allows one to obtain a sample of every part of Central at an accelerated pace; a glimpse of life in a shoebox apartment through the translucent polycarbonate panels along the escalator (put in place due to the close proximity of the escalator and the windows of these intensely private living spaces within these adjacent buildings).Behind the yellowed panels, blurry images of the office lady in her active wear walking briskly to her gym from the IFC after work, the expatriates enjoying a slow day in the café beside the escalator and the quiet Mid - Level neighborhood of the upper middle class with domestic workers holding the hands of their employers’ child, walking them home from school.

Juxtaposed against the amalgamation of planes, elevated walkways and sloping streets, the Mid - Level Escalator is an independent two-way street in the air that is at the same time distinct from the ground plane yet latches at various points and connects to the older urban fabric. This organic entity provides alternative routes for pedestrians to fast travel to their destinations, although it is merely a part of an extended network of elevated walkways that connects the buildings of Hong Kong.

The escalator snakes through the dense urban blocks, its presence felt as a shelter when it soars over wider pedestrian streets, revealing itself to pedestrians temporarily as it passes overhead across a road. Its effectiveness felt intensely when one walks up the slope under its belly, jostling through the crowd to get to the next traffic light, while pedestrians above transits smoothly from one urban block to the next. But like a dragon, one could never see it in its entire glory – only parts of it.

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Needle Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

Deep Roots Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

In The Belly Of The Beast

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Many Meetings Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

In The Belly Of The Beast

‘Three Miles up, Three Miles down!’

by K at e L im We i Rong

Day in day out we trudge through the slope Up and up we go, it was hard to cope.

The blistering sun mock us.

All we did was fuss.

But nothing can be done, oh nope!

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Hong Kong is well known for its hilly terrain.

Approximately, 60% of the total land area of Hong Kong is made up of natural hillside. In the 70s, there have been a few fatal incidents caused by landslides, a result of a combination of factors; a lack of governmental control, man made failures and natural forces1. The Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) of the Civil Engineering and Development Department was set up specially to manage slopes, countering and taming the slopes are their forte. On records, there are currently 60,000 slopes registered2. Each slope has it’s own unique identity card, to monitor and maintain it’s integrity.

Slopes have became part of the daily life of the locals in Hong Kong. But to the untrained tourist, Hong Kong can be challenging to maneuver around.

Conventional mapping tools (e.g. Google Maps) will suggest a route it thinks is the shortest distance to get from point A to B. However, the best suggested route on your navigational application may require you to climb up a 30-45 degree slope which would render you breathless by the time you reach your destination. What would make that journey more arduous, is if there are heavy baggages to carry with you. (True story) The Hong Kong map can be visualized as draping a conventional two dimensional map on a undulating terrain. The distorted two dimensional topographic tapestry forms a misleading impression of distances. What appears to be close by maybe as near as a steep slope away.

The urban environment is often in conflict with the slope; steep and thick retaining walls border up the slopes in a bid to contain them. This is especially prominent on Hong Kong island where hilly terrains weave through out the topography. Roads nearer to the peak of the topography, where the hilliness are more pronounced, tend to follow along the contours.

These roads are windier than compared to the grid like roads nearing leveled grounds of reclaimed lands.

The grid like plan of roads nearing the coast climb up the terrain and evolves to merge with the curve like plan of road nearing to the hill, this overlap creates a distinctive circulation.

Hkss.cedd.gov.hk. (2017). 40th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Slope Safety System. [online] Available at: http://hkss.cedd.gov.hk/hkss/eng/Anniversary40/ index.aspx [Accessed 11 Aug. 2017].

1

1823.gov.hk. (2017). How many natural and man-made slopes in Hong Kong?

How does the government deal with the slopes with potential danger?. [online] Available at: http://www.1823.gov.hk/eng/FAQ/101004/index.shtm [Accessed 11 Aug. 2017].

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In The Belly Of The Beast

Ain’t No Mountain Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

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Provisions Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Minolta X-700

In The Belly Of The Beast

Daily Commute Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Sony Alpha NEX-7

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A number of buildings and retail shops on the Hong Kong island are built atop slopes because of the hilly terrain, creating a visually stimulating and engaging terraced landscape. The distinctive typology of the pencil towers, towering tall slender building with minimum footprint, are born out of such constraints; they anchor well to minimal land. Pile foundations type are often used by residential buildings on slopes, as it complements the nature of the slopes.3 These lean buildings can be seen punctuating the skies of Hong Kong from any possible pockets of space.

In the grainy morning light, stores are being steadily set up along the slope, ready to start the day anew.

Store owners places customized crates strategically below their shop units to secure them on the slope to create a leveled plane. Laborer pushes carts of heavy cardboard boxes up the slopes, skillfully maneuvering around the junctions of uneven road which they have passed by many a time.

The improvisation to counter the inclination are some ways the locals have to come up with to manage the slopes. To live in Hong Kong means to become at harmony with the slopes, striking a balance within which nature and urban can co-exist.

LAU, C. (2006). Construction Technology for High Rise Buildings in Hong Kong. [online] University of Southern Queensland Faculty of Engineering and Surveying. Available at: https://eprints.usq.edu.au/2502/1/LAU_ChiHing_2006.pdf [Accessed 12 Aug. 2017].

3

In The Belly Of The Beast

The Valley Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Sony Alpha NEX-7

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Concrete Hills Photograph by Kate Lim Wei Rong Sony Alpha NEX-7

In The Belly Of The Beast

‘Hi - Ho Silver!’

b y Ng S z e We e

Arriving in Hong Kong, it is not hard to feel both a sense of familiarity and confusion at the same time, which is because, like Singapore, Hong Kong is a highly dense and compact city, the train and bus network is not unlike what we have in the Lion City. These modes of transportation around the city however, grew gradually; put in place by different entities but exists to compliment existing infrastructure to allow one to traverse this manic city more effectively.

Although the geographical constraints between both cities are inherently different

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Singapore, an island state that did not have much land to begin with versus Hong Kong, an amalgamation of islands forming the Special Administrative Regions of China has about 3.8 times Singapore’s landmass. It would be good to note that most of those landmasses are topographically challenging and costly to build on- the evidence: less than 25% of Hong Kong’s landmasses are developed.

Despite the natural topographical challenges, Hong Kong’s figure ground has traditionally followed the topography, creating winding, steep streets and pedestrian walkways, reminiscent of the streets in San Francisco.

In Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook, the writers illustrated the multi-tiered nature of the city; its buildings, different modes of transport systems and how these elements come together in concert to help one get from one end of the city to another. It would perhaps be more accurate to describe Hong Kong not just as a city built on slopes but as a city that has carved planes into these slopes in its urban planning endeavors.

Navigating Hong Kong would seem like an impossibly messy task to a foreigner, but to someone who is familiar with the city, there are endless permutations of ways to get from point A to point B- only if you know where to transit, which escalators to take and which lifts to get into. The MTR stations and overhead passes connecting buildings creates secondary layers of street levels of which one could exploit to avoid being slowed down on the vehicle-dominated street level. (Except maybe on Sundays)

In The Belly Of The Beast

Beyond the Forest Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

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Escalators, elevators, overhead passes and underpasses are the manifestations of the urgency boiling in the gut of the city, eager to get to their destination, vexed in being delayed by a tourist stopping in the middle of their path to photograph streets packed with other tourists. These tools that help enable Hong Kong city dwellers navigate the city in a three dimensional way, is a combination of premeditated sequence and on-the-feet decision of knowing what alternative routes one could take should the ideal route be ineffective.

The observation here is that - Hong Kong’s street level is dominated by vehicular traffic, its sidewalks for pedestrians are precariously narrow; by closing off vehicular traffic to a segment of the city would allow a temporary piazza to emerge (albeit temporarily) over the course of a few hours - pedestrians would spill onto the road to enjoy temporary freedom from the narrow walkways that they share with storefronts and the perennial dripping of water from the air condition units (or spit from the residents above).

The planes that are created as a result of the need to build on slopes would then manifest themselves as pockets of green spaces between apartment blocks, or as a slightly wider pedestrian pathways as streets that are entirely pedestrianized during the weekend thus allowing cultural activities, street performance and art festivals to flourish.

However, it might be interesting to note that due the effectiveness of these alternative networks, it meant that Hong Kong’s ground plane are more or less obliterated, rendering the city into multiple planes that are connected by a multitude of vertical connections at many points; creating a city without ground.

In The Belly Of The Beast

Over Hill Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

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Under Hill Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

In The Belly Of The Beast

Currahee Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

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Bridge Over Photograph by Ng Sze Wee Nikkormat FT-2

03 ARTBOARDARTBOARD 01 In The Belly Of The Beast

ARTBOARD 04

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ARTBOARDARTBOARD 05 10

RD 09 TBOARD 09

THE SLOPING CITY H ong K ong S lop e s and Re c lamat ion

by L u h Astr i d M aya d i n t a & S e r i B i nt e Sa p a r i

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The Sloping City

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Hong Kong City Photograph by Astrid Mayadinta Fujifilm X-A2

How slopes and skyscrapers co-exist and creating a gentle gradient on a section cut across Hong Kong. Building on slopes eventually slowed down after years due to the overwhelming cost and reclaiming land towards the harbour was the only option. It was the cheaper alternative to cater to the needs of the ever growing population. As it starts to expand towards the harbour between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, the harbour which serves as a transportation route for trading, tourist, locals start to become narrower.

A vertical city turns out to be the most effective solution for an urban condition where there is an increasing number of population and limitation on the buildable land area. It is predicted that the city will keep on growing

horizontally towards its territorial waters when it reaches the maximum height of vertical growth.

However, with the population that keeps on growing and reclamation would seem to be the only solution, where and when does it stop?

Despite so many role reclamations has played in the development of Hong Kong, it is necessary to also consider looking through all the possible damage that it does to the city. Environmental issues have become the greatest challenge that Hong Kong needs to face. The consequences would be very serious since it involves habitat loss for some species.

Balance is a big key point in Hong Kong development. It is how to provide the demand of land and to save the environment.

The Sloping City

HONG KONG EXPERIENCE 01

by S e ri B int e S ap ari

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A city of full of concrete skyscrapers that conceal what lies on the rooftop, interior, and even alleys. It has been ranked one of the top city that has a high number of skyscrapers being built which continues to encompass the most densest urban area; the central business districts in Hong Kong Island (Central, Western and Wan Chai). Apart from that, it comprises one of the densely populated areas in Hong Kong besides the Kowloon Walled City which has been demolished since 1994. It was demolished due to the poor living condition such as sanitation, overcrowding which leads to small alleys and small living spaces in order to cater to the needs of the population within the walled city. Additionally, the crime rates which kept increasing within. However, traits of the Kowloon Walled City still could be seen throughout Hong Kong. The idea of how some districts are built enclaving certain public spaces or even another smaller building due to how close the buildings are built. From exterior to interior the traits still lies. The interior spaces still remain small despite the practice to build more buildings on reclaimed land to cater to the population needs and to have a better living condition. Locals had to extort to minimal and convertible furnishes or even expanding their own “territories� to the corridor of their houses.

The Sloping City

Hong Kong Alley Photograph by Seri Binte Sapari Fujifilm X-A2

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Instead of preserving old buildings, Hong Kong focuses more on building new developments in order to facilitate quicker redevelopment of the city. It is believed to provide better living conditions for the locals if new buildings and surrounding are developed. Preservation only applies to buildings that have historical and architectural value towards the economy.

However, despite its planning towards better living conditions, it seems that lack of space and overcrowding is an issue.

When one is walking down the street of Hong Kong, it always seems crowded no matter what time of the day it is. Even though each street has different names and in a different district, it still seems similar due to the continuity of the building heights and facade which overlook the street. One thing is observed is that the facade of each building remains monotonous.

With just normal looking windows and the infamous air conditioner compressor hanging which caused “rain� problems when one is walking on the streets. Each individual

eventually feels small as they walk along the street and feeling intimidated by the buildings.

Being on the ground level is like looking at a one-point perspective drawing, not much is unveiled about the city except always being surrounded by passer-by, cars, motorbike, bus and the list could go on.

When climbing up or even going up the hill, structures holding up the skyscrapers and hidden alley or even shops starts to unravel.

That is the beauty of Hongkong. No matter which narrow street you turned to or which mountain is hiked, there is always something unexpected appearing at the end. One thing for certain, there will always be a way out when one is lost. No matter on which level you are at, there are always connections between the buildings. Be it underground, ground, above ground or even from rooftop to another. And amazingly, MTR is always conveniently located.

Traveling from one point to another point in Hong Kong is fuss free. The infrastructure is so well resolved.

The Sloping City

HONG KONG EXPERIENCE 02

by L u h A st rid M ayad int a

How can a city function on different levels?

Interrelated of skyscrapers, involving underpasses, footbridges, and sidewalks, construct Hong Kong as a city that built on slopes and creates a unique city experience for people, especially for those who usually operate on ground level. The question is, how did a city grow on such an unusual piece of land?

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Because of the unlikely condition of the land to be built, Hong Kong claimed most of its territorial waters up to 6 km in distance, which means only less than 25% of Hong Kong island is built up. The reason for reclamation is clear that it is much cheaper to reclaim land than to build on an extreme slope. Building on a slope needs to deal with landslide, a very common problem especially in a subtropical city with quite a heavy rainfall and high humidity that usually causes the soil to be softer, therefore unable to be built on. However the reclamation is quite successful as they could maximize the buildable land. It could be seen that pathways and sidewalks in Hong Kong are different along the coastline, where it is flatter.

On the other hand, Hong Kong has not only grown horizontally but also vertically, where narrow and tall buildings started to stand on the sloping ground. This experience is not only happening on the neighborhood scale but rather a metropolitan scale. A specific strategy of skyscraper design has been applied to most of the towers in Hong Kong, where there is podium which separates almost all towers into two parts, the lower part as public spaces and the upper part as residential.

The Sloping City

Hong Kong Experience Traveling in Hong Kong involves a lot of elevators, escalators or travelators since the public spaces need to be optimized. These travel devices are needed to help pedestrians move across places much easier. With the integration of underpasses and footbridges that connect MTR stations, shopping districts and places of interest, it turns out that Hong Kong is considered a successful experiment of vertical urban development.

Apart from that, this may cause Hong Kong to lose its sense of belonging since the boundary of an urban role is hard to define.

The relationship between public and private space is rather ambiguous, resulting in no clear differences between workplace, recreation area, and living place. Another outcome how the inhabitants tend to claim their spaces on their own can be seen through how some rooftops and alleys are defined by

the placement of personal belonging on the unused spaces, which is considered as one of the disadvantages of a vertical city with such high density.

The future prediction of the city growth, however, may be accomplished by further expanding the city towards its territorial waters when it has reached the maximum height for vertical growth. The pattern has already seen with having the middle area left as water catchment whereas the edge of the island started to show some new developments. Hong Kong has proved that high-density city with a small buildable land area is possible. The immense scale of skyscrapers compared to the land area has gained fascination to various observer from different interest, that despite many challenges, it is possible to cater the growing population.

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Hong Kong Busy Intersection Photograph by Astrid Mayadinta Fujifilm X-A2

The Sloping City

10 by 10 Hong Kong Neighborhood A version of a “walled city� by how close up a buildings are built and yet having various programmes instilled in the neighbourhood

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10 by 10 Hong Kong In Between Land and Water Land reclamation has been proven to increase productivity for the inhabitants by providing more space to cater their everyday activity

THE SKELETON AND SKIN Ove rc oming T he C omp le x Ve rt ic alit y of H ong K ong

by Ke n n y C h e n Ha n Teng & S h aw n Ta n L i p So n g

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The Skeleton and Skin

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Journeying through Hong Kong Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

A carefully-crafted skeleton embroidery weaving through the impressive landscape of pixelated living shells. This perspective of a layered ecosystem of Hong Kong is what this project seeks to explore, identifying the disorienting sequences of such connectivity networks through a labyrinth of street spaces, staircases, escalators and elevators, with the superimposition of the slender elevator cores puncturing through these horizontal circulatory planes. Here in this city without ground, the inhabitants and the flow of its people become anonymous entities weaving through the complex layers of Hong Kong.

In this city where tens of thousands of registered slopes co-exist with urban architecture to be overcome with hard engineering, escalators, stairs and elevators

are infrastructures commonly employed by architects and planners to facilitate and make more accessible the traversing of this three-dimensional space without ground.

More than just facilitating flows of human traffic and activities, the specific technicalities and mechanics of each of the different types results in a distinct urban form unique to the Hong Kong city, one which negotiates between economic realities and strict building codes amidst the slope regulations.

Advertisement billboards along the building skins of this city lined the streets, adding an element of liveliness. Yet what separates the activities inside each building block and these billboards is a wall of monotonous faรงade often characterized by the grilled

The Skeleton and Skin

Three-dimensional Hong Kong Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

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openings, air-conditioner units and the maze of piping and ductwork that runs through from top to bottom. Overhead bridges, staircases and escalators intersect through these slender towers at the lower levels as facilitators of movement of its people.

Here, the skeleton of the city acts like the nervous system of Hong Kong which includes the many podiums within the ground floors of each urban block and the underground platforms of the MTR (the horizontal planes).

The traverse between each of the vertical towers is done through the elevators and staircases. En-route from one point to another within the city, a typical Hong Kong dweller negotiates between the different horizontal planes of the city with the aid of staircases, escalators and elevators. At the different junctures on this journey, one will find himself at the ground level of a building yet viewing across the roofscape of another. In other words, negotiating through this city without ground entails overcoming the complex verticality of Hong Kong.

The product of this study is illustrated through a photo collage of the paths undertaken by us on an average day at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), from getting around the Faculty of Architecture to having lunch along Queen’s Road West, getting back to the place of residence at Lady Ho Tung Hall and back to HKU; the necessary negotiations across the different levels of the urbanscape. The medium of circulation system is also identified together with numerical figures of plus and minuses illustrating the ups and downs of the urban grounds in which one negotiates along this journey. A 2 by 2 metre sectional drawing of the city from an axonometric perspective highlights this densely complicated multitiered ‘grounds’ of the city with the many facilitating circulatory systems such as the staircases, escalators and elevators connecting and puncturing through these layers against the sloped topography of the city.

Hong Kong is forced to make the best out of its pre-existing limited land in co-existence with the growing population density. The linear clustering typology which results is not the outcome of what is to be specifically designed for the city, but rather what makes this whole three-dimensional layered ecosystem work.

Zooming out to the perspective of the human eye, this closely knitted skeleton-and-skin relationship has created an impressive Hong Kong landscape, it is what defines it, and perhaps what makes it a unique identity of Hong Kong urbanism.

The Skeleton and Skin

THE SKELETON: A CHOREOGRAPHED CHAOS

by K e nny C he n H an Te ng

A Three-Dimensional Landscape Seemingly messy and chaotic at first sight, Hong Kong is the built manifesto of extreme density in a three-dimensional skeleton-and-skin network. High density and natural slopes negotiates between the urban orders and processes that define this city of high performance architecture, no less the dayto-day highly efficient work process culture of its inhabitants.

Controversial and unsustainable land reclamation together with strict building codes and slope

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regulatory controls provokes the need for this city without ground to expand upwards. As a result, the typology of slender pencil-like apartment buildings work well along with various external pressures (historical, economical and legal considerations) of the city. They shout its strong physical presence in this impressive landscape of vertical ‘sticks’ puncturing through the skeletal labyrinth of street spaces, staircases, escalators and elevators at different levels of horizontal planes (podiums, landings, corridors, decks, etc.), blurring the spatial definitions of private and public.

The absence of figure-ground relationships in this discontinuously labyrinthine and compacted city creates a conflictual balance between the formal and informal exhibits of ‘sticks’ (elevator cores) and ductwork-like circulation ‘plateaus’, played out as the underlying layered skeletal system of the city, distinguishing itself away from the monotonous facades. From this perspective, the complex inescapable experience of the ‘skeleton’ and the compacted unidentifiable skins of Hong Kong now becomes a form of choreographed chaos that is unique to keep Hong Kong running.

Approaching the city from its ‘skeleton’ entails looking at these ‘sticks’ and ‘plateaus’ from a utilitarian perspective. Like our human body, they establish easy connections within the entire ecosystem network through disorienting sequences of corridors, footbridges connecting between skins, and the stairs and elevators which provide movement between and through three-dimensional spaces within.

“Anonymity within the Labyrinth” and “Intersecting ‘Sticks’ and ‘Plateaus’” are superimposition results of photographs on Hong Kong’s urban elements as

The Skeleton and Skin

Anonymity within the Labyrinth Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

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Intersecting ‘Sticks’ and ‘Plateaus’ Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

The Skeleton and Skin

a visual impression of the city’s threedimensional landscape of skeleton and skin.

Staging the Temporal Permanence within Negotiating through the labyrinths of the city, the individual is treated to an exhibition of temporary bamboo scaffoldings and the pixelated living shells of the ‘skin’ while traversing through the ‘skeleton’ structures.

In between the ‘skins’ often resides the back lanes and side lanes as punctuations along the commute. Just like how these bamboo scaffolding

serve as temporary fixtures to facilitate the building of permanent architectural structure, the back lanes also serve as informal spaces for temporary activities to occur, such as storage of plants, equipment or furniture, within this thoroughfare for navigation. On the contrary, these back lanes are also the important permanent punctuations within Hong Kong’s labyrinth matrix.

“Temporal Permanence within the ‘Skeleton’” identifies one of the many back lanes and staircases in which every Hong Kong dweller negotiates through on a typical day, against the backdrop of temporary scaffolding and permanent building skins.

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Temporal Permanence within the ‘Skeleton’ Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

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Connecting Planes, Passaging through Time Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

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Hong Kong’s Ups and Downs Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

The Skeleton and Skin

Choreography of the anonymous Diving into the spatial practices of Hong Kong dwellers within this discontinuously connected skeleton network, the individual in the crowd becomes an anonymous subject separated from the adjacent context. While they are like mere packets moving across this choreographed chaos, they are also the lifeline support of one another. For without the existence of either, this choreographed chaos is nothing but a skeleton structure bounded by forms and edges. It is also this anonymity of the inhabitants – the flow of the people which makes the three-dimensional nature of such an experience apparent. While the many pencil towers in punctuations are merely discrete spatial entities that cannot be laterally traversed, they become integral to the journeys across spaces as they intersect with the horizontal ‘plateaus’ at the lower levels through podiums, footbridges and escalators. The skeleton network of Hong Kong is thus most interconnected at the lower levels – a public display of repetition in the verticality. These networks of connectivity

provide distinctions between circulation and program, serving as sites for complex spatial practices to occur in contrast to the sense of homogeneity in the vertical skins of the city.

The three-dimensional interpenetrations between the vertical and the horizontal conditions the way that the people navigate between the different spaces, and the uses of these spaces within and in between the planned and unplanned spaces, such as the weekly gathering territories carved out by the Filipino domestic workers on Sundays, or the overwhelming commercial brands for consumption. As ‘smoothly connected’ as it seems, this web of suspended streets within the verticalized spaces features discontinuities that brings the individual in and out of the skeleton network throughout the course of the navigation. Yet on this whole journey only the program (surrounding retail) shines bright within the skeleton network, for what happens behind the gleaming skins of skyscrapers or “caged” facades of the apartment buildings are unknown to the individual in this seemingly inescapable choreography of Hong Kong.

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Pixelated Living Shells and Horizontal ‘Plateaus’ Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

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Just Squeezing Through Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

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Higher Ground, Lower Ground, No Ground Photograph by Kenny Chen Han Teng iPhone 6

The Skeleton and Skin

THE SKIN

by S haw n Tan L ip S ong

Think of Hong Kong and the first image that comes to mind would either be the ubiquitous cantonese cuisine and street food or -of more relevance to students of architecture and urbanism- it’s almost unimaginable density that has come to characterise Hong Kong as a city.

Although only 24% of Hong Kong’s total land area has been built up, it is one of the world’s densest cities at 6690 people per sqkm. Being mostly made up of slopes and unsuitable terrain, buildable land is scarce and the resultant urban form is that of slender pencil towers rising up from the ground.

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From afar, Hong Kong resembles a literal concrete jungle where the sheer proximity of the buildings create a dense mass of concrete and glass and serve as a backdrop for the more prominent buildings to rise above. With Floor plates stacked atop of each other and supported by circulation cores, the slender vertical volumes are further accentuated by the facades that wrap the volumes emphasising their monolithic qualities.

On the street, these concrete monoliths not only dwarf the observer but in some areas block out swathes of the sky overhead. From the ground however, these singular volumes are not all that insulated from their adjacent buildings with link bridges criss crossing overhead and underground passageways connecting the buildings to the subway. But perhaps the most interesting feature of this city is not immediately apparent and could probably only be experienced by one trying to navigate through the city on foot. Buildings built at different elevations (on a slope) connect different floors of different buildings forming a complex maze of both vertical and horizontal circulation as one tries to navigate through the building; One moment finding himself/herself exiting the 7th floor of a building whilst only to enter into the ground floor of another in the next.

This realisation dawned on me as I was trying to find my way around the Hong Kong University campus. Built on a steep slope and made up of various separate buildings built over different times, getting around campus meant moving through, around and into several different elevations and building volumes before finally arriving at my destination. The confusion is also compounded by the lack of a reference datum or ‘ground’ labelling of different floors on elevator buttons (eg. 1, G, LG, LG2 etc.).

The Skeleton and Skin

Cliff Overlooking Wall of Towers Photograph by Shawn Tan Lip Song Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

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Slope and Circulation Devices Photograph by Shawn Tan Lip Song Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

The Skeleton and Skin

Having to constantly exit and re-enter the same elevator to check whether I was going in the right direction further added to the frustrations of navigating.

However, as we became familiar with the routes others used to navigate the campus, large floor plates or plateaus which connected to multiple buildings soon allowed us our bearings and navigating the distinct buildings on campus became less of a hassle.

This complex internal relationship between the vertical and the horizontal forms juxtaposed against the agglomeration of skyscrapers forms the basis for our exploration and representation of Hong Kong. A city

where glass skins of buildings wrap around vertically stacked floor plates emphasising their verticality whilst a complex maze of interconnected plateaus and vertical circulation devices remain hidden and serve to traverse Hong Kong’s challenging sloping topography.

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The Descent Photograph by Shawn Tan Lip Song Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

The Skeleton and Skin

Linkages Photograph by Shawn Tan Lip Song Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

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Staircases Run Along Building Facades Photograph by Shawn Tan Lip Song Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

The Skeleton and Skin

10 by 10 The absence of figure-ground relationships in this discontinuously labyrinthine and compacted city creates a conflictual balance between the formal and informal exhibits of ‘sticks’ (elevator cores) and ductwork-like circulation ‘plateaus’, played out as the underlying layered skeletal system of the city, distinguishing itself away from the monotonous facades. The complex inescapable experience of the ‘skeleton’ shouts its strong physical presence in Hong Kong’s impressive landscape of compact pixelated skins like a choreographed chaos.

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10 by 10 The sheer proximity of the buildings create a dense mass of concrete and glass and serve as a backdrop for the more prominent buildings to rise above.

With Floor plates stacked atop of each other and supported by circulation cores, the slender vertical volumes are further accentuated by the facades that wrap the volumes emphasising their monolithic qualities. Buildings built at different elevations (on a slope) connect different floors of different buildings forming a complex maze of both vertical and horizontal circulation.

The Skeleton and Skin Drawn by Kenny Chen Han Teng & Shawn Tan Lip Song

The Sloping City Drawn by Astrid Mayadinta & Seri Sapari

In the Belly of the Beast Drawn by Kate Lim Wei Rong & Ng Sze Wee

Sticks on Slopes Drawn by Lin Lei & Zuliandi Azli

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We would also like to thank the individuals below in providing valuable advice during the workshop Thomas Tsang University of Hong Kong Bill Kwok Wing On, Hong Kong Mark Kwok Lau Fau Shan Fish Farm, Hong Kong Geraldin Borio Hong Kong Polytechnic University Sanki Choe University of Seoul, Korea Marc Brossa University of Seoul, Korea

Mauris posuereId ma nus re,

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