The studio considered architecture’s capacity to frame and address territorial scale issues that implicate political, social and economic forces by asking the question:
Between the present day and 2047, what transformations to Hong Kong’s political-geography are necessary for the territory to legitimate an identity as: part of the People’s Republic of China; part of the Pearl River Delta region; as an independent nation?
Political geography is understood as the system of spatial structures (geography, landscape, infrastructure) that underlie and impact political processes.
The studio: developed methodologies for reading, describing and interpreting the territory of Hong Kong; problematized a specific issues relevant to the studio question; identified a site or sites where these issues are manifest; identified programs that respond to both this problematization of issues and the chosen sites; made speculative proposals at relevant scales that enact these programs.
The seemingly linear process described above was, in practice, a back and forth between scales, between sites, between modes of thinking and modes of production. The ultimate objective was to articulate and support a position through drawing, model and text. Students were encouraged to work simultaneously at multiple scales, using encounters between tectonic, urban and territorial considerations as a way to test the limits of their position.
Chun Ka Ming Bobby and Liu Tsz Shing Bobby densified New Town districts, occupying streets with residential and commercial ribbons of development.
Chung Kim Him Obed analyzed the future of Hong Kong’s container port imagining a district of mechanized housing.
Lau Kok Yi Joey developed a floating city as an alternative to conventional land-fill projects between Hong Kong and Shenzen.
Leung Verena and So Cheek Ying Sharon speculated on a future in which the MTR system becomes a continuous, self-contained city of clean, breathable air that protects citizens from the a degraded external environment.
Liu Kaixuan projected a continuous MTR network for the Pearl River Delta, with civic nodes for exchange.
Tsui Wing Yee Verdi speculated on the future of the Hong Kong Express Rail Link Station when de-bordering takes place in 2046.
Yim Chi Chung Tim develops a new land-fill district in Aberdeen that connects land with island.
University of Hong Kong // Department of Architecture // BAAS4_Spring 2018