FUTURE \ ADAPTATIONS

My MArch thesis uses Los Angele’s Chinatown in the United States as a case study to examine how to culturally reinterpret Chinatowns when juxtaposed with its physical socio-cultural decline in the greater host society. Both quantitative and qualitative research was done on site to substantiate the possibility of retaining L.A. Chinatown in-line with overall metropolitan development by transposing the conventional horizontal enclave settlement pattern into a densely-compacted vertical tower encapsulating Chinatown. A new building typology called “Super Tong” is presently proposed, serving to agglomerate Chinese benevolent associations and Tongs into one high-rise tower sitting in the heart of the existing Chinatown zoned for commercial use.