Breaking the edge : reinterpreting the city’s topography and walkscape

Breaking the edge : reinterpreting the city’s topography and walkscape

[abstract]

This thesis is made to identify the edge conditions found on Hong Kong Island North between the country parks and the urban environment. By making use of the vast level difference at this edge, I am going to design a new pedestrian network with hybrid buildings with diverse programs, to reintroduce the mountain to the city dwellers as a pedestrian-friendly “place”.

[formation of the urban edge]

The orange line is the boundary of the City of Victoria, which was set during the British rule, and the development was then bound by this line. Part of this boundary has later become the boundary of the country park in the 1970s.
Because of building technology advancement, highly efficient multi-layer flyover network, or other infrastructure which enhance efficiency have been built over Hong Kong Island to link the upper levels to the city centre. These flyovers provide breaches to the edge. Because of the vast level difference, space under the infrastructure has been left unused.

[site selection]

I have identified three potential sites, which possess different topographical / infrastructural conditions. The first one is Glenealy in Central. The multi-layer flyover links the mid-levels to Central and Admiralty, and is surrounde by churches, schools and the Botanical Gardens. Motor vehicles run along, and hikers walk to the Peak underneath. The second site is in Wanchai. In the old days people used to walk uphill to their dwellings. But the high speed escalators built in Hopewell Centre now serve as the connector of the two extreme levels. The third site is the Hill Road Flyover in the Western district, which runs through the lower-income neighborhood. Its passing from Pokfulam cuts off the pedestrian circulation on the upper level. So each case possesses a different condition, and by designing for these sites, eventually I can look for a prototype for every breach condition of this edge.

[case studies]

Some cases of mixed-use landscape infrastructural architecture were analyzed.
The Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle connects the city to the abandoned seafront across the automobile expressways. The Spiroid Sectors proposal for Dallas by Steven Holl involves a hierarchy of coiling public spaces framed the protected prairie to the condense living and working activities. The High Line Park in New York City involves a mix of outdoor programmes.

As I am going to extend the circulation network of the pedestrians from the hill to the city, I also had a quick look of the existing mountain trail provision in Hong Kong and in China. In Hong Kong hikers are protected by many facilities like iron fence and emergency call point, which are all standardized in government country parks. But in China it has been more casual like in Qingcheng Mountain in Chengdu. Pavilion were built by wood in natural shape.

[programme]

The collages show the preliminary proposal of programmes, which reflect the mix of the activities held in countryside with that in the urban environment, and vice versa.