Kennedy Town: Now and Then, Doom and Reborn

Authors.KOON Yuk Ting, LIU Songling, TSUI Wai Shan

After understanding the history of Kennedy Town, through an online survey and interviewing local residents, we found some problems in Kennedy Town. Kennedy Town gives the impression that it lacks cultural identity. Kennedy Town is nowadays an area of settlements, where residents do not have any sense of belonging to this place. Interaction between local residents is lacking, there is actually a need to enhance their interaction, in which there is a potential for Kennedy Town to develop its unique social and cultural value.

Road signs are our main focus for the solution. Road signs provide a guidance function that we use to carry out our solution. Three strategies would be used on the road signs: a poster, Chinese Calligraphy and street art painting. Stories of the past Kennedy Town would be told on the road signs through these combined strategies. Therefore, people can know more and even interact with the past Kennedy Town, leading them to gain an understanding of the future development of the place where they live. We considered the feasibility of the solution, to use local residents and students to ensure the number of helpers, as well as enhancing the interaction of local residents. Knowing the colours of road signs set by HKSAR have special connotation for road users, we avoid having colours of road signs the same as the road signs set by HKSAR such that our road signs will not cause any confusion.