Content Preface ------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------3 Case Study ------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------5 Tsuen Wan Complex Analysis Methodology ---------------------------------------------------------------7 Intervention Methodology ---------------------------------------------------------9 Station Prototype Analysis Methodology --------------------------------------------------------------15 Sketches Public Spaces Dismantling & Stitching ----------------------------------------21 Concourse Dismantling & Stitching --------------------------------------------33 Design Intervention The Testing Ground ------------------------------------------------------------------41 Stitching on-site -----------------------------------------------------------------------43 Generation of Inhabitable Skins -------------------------------------------------49 Masterplanning of Inhabitable Skins -------------------------------------------51 Inhabiting one Moment ------------------------------------------------------------53 Perspective: soft and hard skins -------------------------------------------------55 Panel and Model Photos ----------------------------------------------------------63 Afterwords -------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------73 Acknowledgement ------------------------- ----------------------------------------75 Bibliography ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------------76
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MTR - The Unstitching Stitch
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Preface MTR has been one of the major infrastructures of the city of Hong Kong. Dating back since 1970s, when the first line of Tsuen Wan was built, new lines have been planned and constructed to form a web connecting through urban areas of Hong Kong. Up till recent, three new lines are still under construction and 2 new lines are being proposed. The system seems to be continuously evolving and extending together with the development of Hong Kong. It is nowadays more than merely a mass transit system, but a driver of urbanization throughout the whole city. However, if study in a zoom-in scale, this vibrant connector appears more as a barrier with its setting out of layers of boundaries when situates in the urban context. With the government land policy, the MTR Company has the right of developing the plot of land along the track line. This even encourages the privatise of this public facility spatially, socially and culturally.
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the existing conditions
MTR - The Urban Connector
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Case Study
Even for those stations that morphs into a city complex, such as the Tsuen Wan station (which is employed as case study in this thesis), the introduction of shopping mall, communal facilities (eg. Schools, community centre), residential blocks as well as a public podium garden does not helps to open up this public space of highest rate of human circulation in conjunction with the surrounding. Rather, it strengthens the concentric boundaries of this mega-fabric attaching to the city. Its alignment with other private-owned complexes reflects the vague role of this urbaniser in the city socially.
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Tsuen Wan Station Complex
Tsuen Wan Nolli Map 6
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The Tsuen Wan Station Complex is dismantled in this exploded axonometric drawing. Colour coding is assign to various programmes such as station, retail, communal facilities, residential and greenery. It is shown that vertical layering of programmes are clusterised within rigid envelops, Public access is regulated within contained spaces.
Here in this thesis, DISMANTLING is employed as a methodology to analyse the complexity in each model of study, which is then followed by the STITCHING as the action of intervention.
Analysis Methodology
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MTR, the infrastructural system, does not really facilitate the connection within the urban context of its existence, or not providing any public spaces for the local community due to the layers of barriers.
Dismantling Tsuen Wan Station
Intervention Methodology
The programmed elements dismantled from the Tsuen Wan Station Complex are stitched back together in different organisations. Various possibilities of connection of programmes throughout the lot as well as the connection to the surrounding city fabrics are investigated. Public spaces are evolved around these programmes. However, the concealing boundaries are reorganized rather than broken down. Barriers still exist and stay rigid.
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In this stitching, programmes are arranged as terraces up the slope, with retail in the middle while communal facilities at 2 ends. These terraces open up series of public landscape.
Programme Mass Stitching
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Intervention Methodology In this stitching, programmes are arranged in a series which inscribe courtyard spaces that contain residential towers as well as public squares.
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In this stitching, retail are meandering across the site, which disects the land into different public grounds. Communal Facilities are placed within these public spaces.
Programme Mass Stitching
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Intervention Methodology In this stitching, retail and communal facilities are arranged in two seperated stripes which crossover each other, interweaven to form complexity in public spaces.
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In this stitching, all programmes are arranged as cluster, with the open landscape as the stitching element, which is also the public spaces. Concourse is flipped perpendicular to tracks as the connector.
Programme Mass Stitching
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Analysis Methodology
The stitching experiment with the station complex components does not challenge the inherent boundaries of the MTR Station to a full extends. However connecting elements reaching out to the surrounding context, as well as spaces which inhabited with addon programmes are found to be possible within the station massing through the previous investigation. Therefore, station prototypes are further dismantled in searching of the possible stitching elements.
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Further Dismantling MTR Station
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Analysis Methodology
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Further Dismantling MTR Station
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Analysis Methodology
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Further Dismantling MTR Station
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In order to further challenge the inherent boundaries of a station, a list of public space precedents are employed to:
After further dismantling the station, it is found that CONCOURSE has been the sole connector to the surrounding context. It is also the only interface that additional programmes, which is mainly small retials at the moment, can be introduced, or inhabited within the station.
PTOGRAMME Dismantling & Stitching
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With this surreal imagination process, soft and hard edges are identified which could be manipulated to define different types and functions of public spaces, within the concourse scenerio.
Secondly, be stitched or superimposed with the concourse elements.
Firstly be broken down into features, circulation and various types of edge conditions;
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From the dismantling of public spaces and stitching them with station scenerio. Edges conditions are found to be significant in creating public spaces. As concourse is found to be the solely connecting organ to the surrounding. It is therefore further dismantled until the elements of vertical circulation system are found to be the key of manipulating the rigid boundaries, as it breakthrough the seperation of level, adaptable in various orientation. Simply by flipping it inside out, the vertical circulation would become a inhabitable skin with the programmed space housed within.
Dismantling Concourse - to restitch it as an Inhabitable Skin
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Testing Ground of the Thesis Wong Chuk Hang, the MTR site that is undergoing construction is chosen to be the testing ground of my thesis. That site has 2 important forces: one is the confronting landscape and industrial frontages; the other one is the strong forces of sport fields as well as leisure facilities such as the Marina Club which are aligned in a diagonal route across the site.
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Site Forces in Wong Chuk Hang
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Testing with model
Physically stitching the stripes on and into the site with the testing model.
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The folding of the skins across the site is driven by the two site forces. Physical modeling is employed as a method to investigate the planning of the interweaving stripes of skin within the site, responding to the landscape as well as stretching out to the surrounding fabric. The inhabitable skins adopt the landscape formation to negotiate with the confronting landscape and industrial frontages, with programmes that responding to the connection of communal character of the site
Stitching the Inhabitable Skin on Site
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Testing with model
planning the folding of the inhabitable skin perpendicular to the track
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Folding in response to the site forces. Rather than just Positive Folds, Negative Folds into the ground (sunken) are also introduced.
Stitching the Inhabitable Skin on Site
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Testing with model
Thickening some parts of the Inhabitable Skin with slabs in order to contain certain programmes within.
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By shifting the sunken stripe with the positive stripe, a continuous stitch going beneath or above ground interweavens through the whole site in a zigzag pattern.
Stitching the Inhabitable Skin on Site
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Formation of the Stitches
Adding & Rotating Slabs on the Folds
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Thickening the Stitches
Wrapping with Continuous Skins
Final Homogeneous Inhabitable Skin
Generation of the Inhabitable Skin
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The Inhabitable skin derived from the concourse tried to ambulate the landscape, creating soft and hard spatial condition for various programmes such as sport ground, local shops, and performance venue to be situated. Skins open up to be terraces, adapting multi-purpose functions such as theatre, parks and booths of flee market for local business; contract as partitions, containing fixed programmes such as retail shops and library. Concourse is developed into an infrastructural skin which connects within the urban fabrics spatially, socially and culturally.
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Hard & Soft Skins vs Programme Flexibility 54
Inhabitable Skin
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The stepping of the inhabitable skin is the key to the habitability of programmes. When the Skin is being stretched out, terraces are created. When the Skin contract within a small spans, spatial dividers or partitions appear. Depending on the way of twisting of each layer of the inhabitable skin, indoor spaces are inscribed while outdoor spaces are being stretched out. By designing how the ring of each layer of the inhabitable skin is formed, programmed spaces or partitions; or even terraces or building facades, can be intersected with one another in an ambiguous progression. The skin thus provides a new reading to the public spaces. Different edge conditions induced as many as ways of inhabitation as possible.
Intersection of Inner and Outer Skin
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Inhabitable Skin When the layers of the skin twist above the ground, positive building mass emerges as the positive stitches across the site. When these stitches touch the ground, the interface between the platform and public spaces appears. However, rather than stitching through the site as positive masses, the layers of inhabitable skins also twist down below the ground as the subtraction of sunken plazas. These negative stitches stitch underground back to the interface of the positive stitches.
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Negative and Positive Skins Around the Track As a result, the tracks are hybridly interweaven around by the networks of layers of Inhabitable Skins. By then, concourse is highly manipulated to be the skins, which are the infrastructure within the site, as well as connection to the adjacent urban fabrics. It is an infrastructure that embeded with public spaces and public programmes. As a view from the tracks, happenings can be revealed everywhere without any rigid barrier. 58
Inhabitable Skin
The skin would twist inside , and with the differentiation of the stretching and the contraction of its horizontal span, hard and soft skins are created. In the Hard and Semi-hard Skin Scenerio, the more stretching out skin would provide leveling to differentiate different programme zone, it could also facilate the internal circulation across diferent levels. For those more contracted skins, it cut through the internal spaces as a spatial divider, partitioning more controlled spaces for fixed programmes such as shops, restaurants or library.
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Hard and Semi-hard Skins
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Inhabitable Skin
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In the Soft Skin Scenerio, The Skin Stretched out horizontally as terraces, or even platforms for various programmes to inhabit. Without rigid partition, while circulation and activities can freely occupy this open space. It can be platforms for booths of flee market of local business; indoor theratre or ampitheatre for performance; exhibition venue; banquest space... Inhabitable Skin therefore break down the rigid boundaries of station, by manipulation of vertical circulation system of concourse into series of programme-embodied circulating platforms. This open up the station, or using the connector councourse to challenge the definition of public spaces, or the role of MTR as an urban driver, a public connector within the urban context.
Soft Skin with Flexible Programmed Space
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Presentation Set-up
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Site Model
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Site Model - from Sport Ground
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Site Model - Landscape Negotiation
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1:200 Sectional Model
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Hard (fixed) Programmed Skins
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1:200 Sectional Model
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Soft (flexible) Programmed Skins
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1:200 Sectional Model
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Intersecting Soft & Hard Skins
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1:200 Sectional Model- Platform-Stitches Interface
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Positive & Negative Skins
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After-words Being the Urban Driver of the city, MTR is seen to be an prominent developing stitch that thread through urbanisation with economic growth of a place. The adopted efficiency models of this infrastructure secure the capitalist’s concern on hierarchial management as well as the enterprise’s concern on further development of properties such as shopping mall and residential towers. These all result in layers of barriers and boundaries spatially in this public transportation system. This thesis is setup as a study to rethink the role of this Urban Driver, by revealing its fact of being highest circulated gateway to a district by the public; as well as by pushing to another extreme, considering the MTR as the infrastructure that provides unconcealled public spaces and communal facilities to the situated context. This seems to be impossible in the economic or developer’s point of view. However, it could be equally benefitial to its neighbourhood or even to the whole district. This issue is especially discussable on the chosen Testing Ground of Wong Chuk Hang, on which a new podium-tower type complex is being proposed and undergoing construction. Wong Chuk Hang is planned to be an important tourist spot with the connection to the Aberdeen Waterfront Annex and next to the Ocean Park, together with strong communal character of sport grounds, swimming pools and clubhouse. The manipulation of the Concourse into the Inhabitable Skin is to percieve the MTR as a public connector, in which boundaries are broken down to increase the value of the land socially and culturally. This may also help to present the image of MTR, as well as the city of HK. Broaden up to the Urban Scale, this thesis could also be a counterthought to the masterplanning of MTR station in the urban context. 75
ReThinking MTR, the Urban Driver
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Acknowledgement Special thanks to be dedicated to my Thesis Supervisor:
Christiane Lange
for her inspiration, consistant & fruitful guidiance throughout the thesis period;
Special thanks also to advisors:
Juan Du, Chad McKee, Thomas Tsang, Eunice Seng, Michael Kokora, Joshua Bolchover, John Lin for your constructive advices and critical comments during each review;
Heartfelt thanks to my fellow friends:
Jason So, Zeth Ko, Leaper Yiu, Cyrus Chan, Fion Wong
without you guys’ unconditional and collective supports, the production of these great amount of works in this thesis would not have been made possible;
Last, but not the least, thank you very much to:
Jo Luk, Yankit, Amanda Ho, Movin Sin, DT Cheng, Elsie, Ada Yuen, Grace Mak, Calvin Hau, Amanda Kwok, my fellow thesis-mates & my Family for the support, joy, fun and assistances throughout this long battle period.
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URBAN wisdom, advancing with CHINA 44, Rail Making Cities, 12/ 2010 Learning from Las Vegas, Robert Venturi, MIT Press, 1972 MTR 365 Days, www.mtr.hk365day.com MTR HK, www.mtr.com.hk
Bibliography
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