Community Greens: A brief comparison between the gardening schemes in Singapore and Hong Kong
Tampines Green Community Gardens in Singapore Sau Pau Ming Community Gardens in Hong Kong Gardening as a social process Collective gardening is a huge trend in the city. There are rooftops, vacant land and underutilized spaces that can be used for gardening. In other words, there are lots of opportunities. But why it is in...
Alternative public space: Little Manila in Central Hong Kong
Little Manila: Filipino domestic workers who gather in Central on Sundays to enjoy their day off; an image so powerful, it makes you feel powerless in the city. Their presence disrupt the orderly visual space of Central in which they engaged in ‘undesirable’ activities such as sitting on straw mats in public spaces, getting haircuts...
A City without Ground
Connecting Pedestrian Elements Hong Kong’s obsession with elevated structures is not only apparent in its urban core but also in physical existence in its new town developments. This trend was observed during a visit to Sha Tin New Town which was developed in the 1970s. Elevated connectors unite different layers of activity, and accommodate new...
“Embedded memory” of the Blue House
Blue House Cluster Regeneration requires a comprehensive and integrated vision aimed at lasting improvement through measures that resolve a range of problems in the urban domain. The notion of ‘embedded memory’ is bound up with time, place and culture. Most remaining heritage buildings in Hong Kong have been re-branded with functions that are very different...
Invisible logic of the city #7
Hong Kong street scene at night©Neurotic Monkey “While western cities with their formalist urban configurations have a built-in inertia to change, Hong Kong with its high urban population density and established street traditions is more open to mutation and reinvention. The on-going process of urban regeneration must seek a subtle and responsive dialogue with the...
Invisible logic of the city #6
Hong Kong ©Ryu Itadani Tokyo ©Ryu Itadani Omotesando, Tokyo ©Ryu Itadani “Considering the specificity of the urbanization in Asia and the debate concerning the Weberian question and Eurocentric values of the role of citizens, the phenomenon of “urbanization without cities”, or “cities without citizens”, has to be dealt with. The emerging role and values of...
Invisible logic of the city #5
Detail from the cover of The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric. ” By analogy to two popular items of Hong Kong cuisine; both consist of a great many ingredients and are products of the immediate region. One is dim sum, meal in which items are served separately from steam baskets in tower formations...
Invisible logic of the city #4
Mong Kong @ Night © b80399 “I have noticed an exciting paradox, the more Hong Kong adapts, the more it becomes itself. Hong Kong is a city capable of absorbing any influences without compromising its own essential culture” —- Rem Koolhaas on OMA proposal for West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong This is part of a series titled: Invisible logic...
Green Wash
Observation: Hong Kong’s obsession with covering everything with slick coat of green paint and imaginary images of nature and the so called ‘green dream’ of the future. Everybody’s talking about Green these days. Greenwashing has become the state-of-the-art marketing tool. Some politicians and developers misuse ecology and nature to promote their own agendas. Nature is...
Sharing Hong Kong’s Hidden Secrets
Stephen and Josie were awarded the Citizen of the Year 2011 by ShenZhenNan Fong Daily. (Image courtesy of Secret Tour HK) The Hong Kong Tourism Board has set out to make a primary impression: Hong Kong, glittering skyscrapers planted across and overlooking Victoria Harbour; a perfect mix of the East and the West; touted as...