Rejuvenating the mega-block
|
Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city. – Le Corbusier
WHAT? My project is envisioned to be in the form of a hybrid mega-block with mix-use program designed in such a way that it is well-integrated as a 3-dimensional urban structure in Hong Kong so as to break down the distinct segregation of public and private space and also compensate for the lack of accessible ground level to the public. In a sense, this proposal is a reexamination of the prevailing podium tower typology in Hong Kong today, which on the one hand help solve the hyper-dense conditions at urban center but on the other sacrifice public ground levels to private ownerships. This proposal will instead tend to interact with the city in such a way that it improves its connectivity, by allowing it to expand horizontally and vertically (3-dimensional planning) with an optimum ground footprint. By introducing the public space/streets at multiple levels which is well-connected with the adjacent urban and topographic context, the mega-block will arise as a new potential to promote connectivity, circulation, social activity, and urban vibrancy and this new architecture typology will serve as a platform for future growth and development.
The site of the project is intended to be on the edge of an urban center in the proximity of a hilly topography. This is to give further justification for adopting a 3-dimensional planning approach with public spaces and streets extending into multiple levels. The size of the project will be the size of a typical urban block in Hong Kong which is approximately 60m x 80m. The research of the project will be primarily focused on circulation and its connectivity with the adjacent urban conditions in order to have a sensible mixed-used program distribution inside the mega-block itself.
WHY? Modern Metropolis has always been defined by divisions – a division of districts from the city, a division of blocks from the districts, a division of plots from the block, etc. In Hong Kong, the story continues, from the plot where the buildings erect, a division of storeys from the building, a division of units from the storey, and even a division of unit into sub-units; this culture of division has become endless… In Hong Kong, a quintessential high-density small-footprint city – with a population of 7 million on an urban land area of just 120 km2 (ie a concentration of people approaching 600 per hectare – only to be rivalled by Mumbai and Dhaka)[1], this culture of division seems inevitable in order to accommodate the enormous amount of people in a finite amount of land. This super-efficient strategy of segregation and division has effectively signaled the end of the public space in our city – every floor area has a price and is a domain from one owner to the other, the ‘public’ domain has been stripped to its barebone and reduced to essentially a series of streets (with their main purpose to facilitate the divisions of blocks in the first place). In hindsight, Hong Kong has become Archizoom’s No-Stop City in which the city ‘ceases to become a “place”, to become a “condition”: in fact it is just this condition which is made to circulate uniformly, through consumer products, in the social phenomenon. The future dimension of the metropolis coincides with that of the market itself…’ [2] Therefore the obvious question is: is this the only way to build our city? The notion of public domains in the sky is not a new concept. From Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation to Yona Friedman’s Ville Spatiale and Alison and Peter Smithson’s Street in the Sky concept, these examples explore the possibilities of a multi-level public domain in response to the development of high-rise buildings and the consequent drastic drop in available public space at ground level. More relevant local examples would be the mega-block buildings of Hong Kong built in the 1960s (eg Chungking Mansion (1961), Man Wah Sun Chuen (1965), Tai On Building (1968), and the Kowloon Walled City (1962)). These buildings very often occupy the whole of an urban block (approximately 60m x 80m) and as such has become a ‘city within a city’ themselves, with public, commercial and other programmes intermingle with domestic units. This typology, having the potential for hyperdensity and offer the most potential for an integrated city, will be the point of departure for this thesis. Since the introduction of First Schedule in Building (Planning) Regulations in 1966[3], which limits the site coverage and plot ratio of a building with respect to its height, the mega-blocks became less efficient in fully utilizing the development potential of a plot and is replaced by the podium tower typology which is still the prevalent building typology in Hong Kong to this day. This, can be regarded as the source of culture of division in Hong Kong. [1] Barrie Shelton (Author), Justyna Karakiewicz (Author), Thomas Kvan (Author), The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric, p.4 [2] Martin Van Schaik, Otakar Macel (ed.), Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations 1956-76, Prestel Publishing; (2005), p.158 [3] Barrie Shelton (Author), Justyna Karakiewicz (Author), Thomas Kvan (Author), The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric, p.4
HOW? The objective of this thesis is to rejuvenate the mega-block that represents Hong Kong’s lifestyle and culture which go against the prevalent podium tower in order to create an integrated urban development model. The mega-block will grow three dimensionally, healthily, safely, legally to continue its life within the city context. Today, we could see that tenement house is a rapidly disappearing typology due to the urge of demolishment and reformulation of the tenement houses to podium and tower for the bourgeoisies which reinforces the power of mammonism and allotment of space turning the urban development into a sick phenomenon. That’s why there are various prevailing building types in Hong Kong in various times, this includes the Verandah Type (1920), Cantilevered Living Quarters type (1950-1960), Rectangular Mass Type (1970) and the Podium Tower Type (1980 onwards)[1]. Hence, the conflict between economic growth, cultural preservation and accommodation of various classes in the urban development shall be negotiated for social harmony. First and foremost, I will be using theoretical precedents and local building references as points of departure. The thesis will then focus on a number of mega-blocks built in Hong Kong in the 1960s, including Chungking Mansion (1961), Man Wah Sun Chuen (1965), Tai On Building (1968), and the Kowloon Walled City (1962). For example, “The Kowloon Walled City”, people often called City of Darkness, the worldwide acknowledged tenement buildings, although demolished, the vitality of the tenement buildings, as well as the culture and collective memory attached were architecturally valued. In addition, the project should propose several treatments into this urban sickness, is to inject the religious activities into the buildings to diffuse the class tension within the community, which in other words, is to study the programmatic diffusion from different class. Also, surgical modification can be adopted to evolve unique elements such as corridor, staircase, light well, balcony, and rooftop to a better environmental condition while preserving the embodied culture. As far as we know, the chaotic circulation was experienced pretty well by the residents in Kowloon Walled City, they actually have the opportunity of more than 20 routes to get out from the building itself, on the other hand, comparable to podium and tower typology, we will only have defined route to get from building either from the vertical transportation or the means of escape (MOE). Therefore, every one of them staying inside the podium tower will have repeated the same route every day in travelling from their building to their office, school and so on. Last but not least, the insertion of new structural framing can magnify the possibility of mega block to grow in line with the city’s developmental needs. These treatments demonstrate how a ‘classless’ community can be established within the community.Should the site be treated as a kind of tabula rasa, witnessing Hong Kong culture similar with that of Kowloon Walled City. From the above-mentioned treatments intends to inject into the mega block and envisage how monopoly can be broken. [1] Kobun Ito: “Hong Kong: Alternative Metropolis”, p.61 BIBLIOGRAPHY
|
