This dissertation addresses the characteristics and material properties of clay statues of Guardian Gods in Hong Kong temples. Guardian God statues in Hong Kong temples are usually represented as a pair, flanking the main deity and are usually the approximate height of a person. The statues under study in this dissertation may be categorized as Hong Kong’s vernacular temple sculpture of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and The Republic of China Period (1911-1949), as most of the statues are approximately 50 to 150 years old. This dissertation documents general information about the statutes and includes an inventory of specific statues in Hong Kong SAR, in combination with a detailed case study of a particular statue currently deposited in the Conservation Section of Hong Kong Heritage Museum. By describing and documenting the damages of the statues and discussing the physical properties of the encountered materials, theories for the reasons of the damages are made. The research about the characteristics, materials and techniques and damages to the statues serves in preparation to find an appropriate conservation concept for the case study statue, and aims to provide information for possible future conservation concepts for similar statues. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Just prior to the Japanese invasion, the Hong Kong Government embarked on an extensive program of building public shelters by tunneling into hillsides to protect the civilian population against bombing raids. Those air raid precaution tunnels that survive World War II have become part of the very few remaining physical witnesses to the history of Hong Kong in preparation of civil defence against Japanese attack. Tucked away inconspicuously in the bustling parts of the city, the disused shelter tunnels are the 'outsiders' of societal interaction, rarely catching the attention of the people of Hong Kong. Bored deep into the hills leaving only the portals exposed to air, this 'hidden' heritage continues to be lost or damaged without drawing public attention. Ironically, the damage is not from the ravages of war but from redevelopment projects above ground, geotechnical strengthening works and road improvement works, all of which have been carried out post-war, resulting in tunnels being partially or wholly filled in, dug up or forgotten and neglected. As little wartime architecture purposely built for preparation of World War II remains in Hong Kong, there is a need to preserve/ conserve this wartime heritage that once helped shape the city’s history. It is hoped that through this dissertation, both heritage and contemporary values of this forgotten example of wartime architecture be recognized and that a consensus be agreed upon conservation of this World War II heritage, in order to prevent further losses and damages that may only be fully appreciated when it is too late. The dissertation will examine the issues related to the conservation of air raid tunnels through answering the following questions: 1. Where were/ are the tunnels, what purpose did they serve and what are the stories behind them? 2. Are the tunnels a significant heritage, and if so, what are their heritage values? 3. Are the tunnels adequately protected as a heritage in terms of current legislation and policies? 4. What are the threats against the conservation of the tunnels? 5. What are the opportunities for the conservation of the tunnels? / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Traditionally, architectural and construction development in Hong Kong relies on load bearing bricks for structural support. In the modern age after World War II, the common application of reinforced concrete structure in high-rise construction has seen a change in the use of brick as an infill material for reinforced concrete frame construction. Because load bearing brick cannot meet the structural requirement of high-rise buildings, it is no longer common used in construction, and brick buildings that have been built are gradually demolished for redevelopment. For surviving brick buildings in Hong Kong, the ones built with red facing bricks are generally Western style buildings mostly located in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. For buildings built of Chinese grey brick, they are usually Chinese vernacular buildings, such as ancestral halls and temples, located in New Territories. However, with the common availability of modern paint for redecoration as well as weather protection, some brick heritage buildings have been plastered with rendering and painted. The reason for this is that a smooth painted surface gives a neater appearance and the impression of being easier to maintain and clean. Of course, there are also some traditional Chinese vernacular brick buildings, particularly Hakka houses (客家屋), which have a tradition of having brick surfaces painted with white wash covered with lime plaster (Tsang Tai Uk at Shatin and Poon Uk at Yuen Long are examples). With heritage conservation becoming more important, there are now more and more restoration work carried out on historical brick buildings. These projects are usually led by the Antiquities and Monuments Office and executed by the Architectural Services Department. One of the restoration problems faced in these projects is the removal of paint so that the original brick surface will be revealed. This dissertation aims to concentrate on the common methods used in Hong Kong to restore painted brick surfaces and to evaluate these paint removal methods through case studies that involves buildings of red engineering facing brick and Chinese grey brick. Through this dissertation, it will be demonstrated that restoring a brick surface is not straight forward technical work, but a process that must have a systematic conservation approach and planning. The dissertation will examine case studies of conservation projects involving paint removal work, and use the lesson learned to establish guidelines for paint removal in a planned and systematic way. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Kuling, a hill station community located within the Lushan Mountains in Jiangxi Province in the mid-eastern part of China was founded by English missionary Edward Selby Little in 1895. Designed by and for western missionaries and their families and children living in China, Kuling offered cool weather and clean air away from heat and disease in the plains below. Between 1896 and the 1930s, hundreds of residential bungalows were constructed in the planned community of Kuling, along with churches, hospitals, schools, a library, hotels, commercial areas, and leisure and recreation areas such as parks, swimming pools and tennis courts. The bungalow residences in Kuling can be viewed as an historical record representative of and for its associations with the lives of many western Christian missionaries living in China at this time who summered or vacationed in Kuling. Later, as a response to a change in the social and political environment, wealthy Chinese and government officials occupied the residences, and Kuling became a summer capital for the Chinese government. Mt. Lushan (including the bungalows) was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. Today Lushan is a large and vital community that attracts many tourists and visitors; the bungalows in Kuling are fragile and currently face man-made and natural challenges to their sustainable protection. Currently there are no conservation guidelines for the maintenance, repair or alterations to the buildings within this UNESCO World Heritage site. This dissertation will outline the history and creation of Kuling as a hill station, identify its architecture and landscape feature attributes, specific heritage values and character-defining features, and the spirit of the place. The research will answer the question how the Kuling bungalows can best be conserved, and provide a statement of significance, conservation approach, and conservation rationale. The objective of this dissertation is to provide conservation guidelines for the bungalows in Kuling, in order to ensure their proper long-term maintenance and conservation so that they maintain their significance and authenticity as a UNESCO World Heritage site. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This thesis explores what existing issue of the complex relationship between heritage conservation and popular tourism, and the related problems influenced by the development of tourism and economic. Currently, many problematic heritage conservation practices have occurred in China, such as heritage reconstruction, imitation of heritage, commercial packaging of heritage and losing the setting of heritage, etc. So, I supposed that there are deep socio-economic problems under those phenomena, and the value system of heritage conservation was occupied by the ideology of economic growth. Some local governments did some “big” so-called conservation projects for achieving revenue growth, and some government leaders even for their political achievements. Lack of the knowledge of heritage and conservation and dearth of talent in this area could still be obstacles to solve those problems. In Chapter 2, the authenticity of two different examples of heritage reconstructions are compared – Mo Chi Garden and Jianfu Gong Garden – through information sources based on charters and guidelines. In Chapter 3, I am focusing on the issue of commercial packaging, and using various cases to understand the motive and goal of doing problematic conservation from different angles such like local government, private sector, estate developer, tourists and residents. And another main issue of losing the setting of heritage and focusing on fragments is discussed in my fourth chapter. In my last chapter, I use an analysis of Yellow Crane Tower to state a effective of dual identity which cause a misunderstanding to heritage conservation in China as a conclusion. For those reconstruction buildings, we should be treating this as a reconstruction which happened time and again in the course of the history of man. And problems for those commercialized and setting-lost heritage structures and sites are not with whether they are cultural heritage or whether they compliant with the standards of being a cultural heritage, but the problem is on whether they keep the essence of history and preserve our culture. What makes something heritage, though, is that it records a long history and rich culture, which need inherit from us to the next generations. Today’s new building is tomorrow’s cultural heritage if we could give it meanings. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The nature of values is explored in the aspects of law, property rights, town planning, environmental management, sustainable development, and conservation economics. The findings are roughly grouped as non-calculus and calculus approach for easy discussion. Each interpretation has its own complex but different theoretical basis on values. But a more convincing approach is enlightened by Cheung’s idea on transaction costs, in which many options for conservation are possible but the option with the least transaction costs is the most preferred. Lai’s idea on relationship between conservation and sustainability has provided a theoretical framework on the recent R-scheme, which opens a new way of conservation echoed with Cheung’s idea. The idea of conserving for public interest is explored, and found that the idea is not well tested because of the vague definition. In deciding actions on conservation, a clearer understanding on the relative gain and loss on each option can help to make a more sensible choice. The situation of both international and local HIA implementation was reviewed, and found that despite HK is becoming an important laboratory for HIA, the theoretical basis for HIA is inadequate. A critical review or audit on HIA implementation is conducted. It was found that the HK HIA mechanism is in lack of legitimate support, and may become another piece of bureaucratic procedure. Continuous evaluation on HIA implement throughout the whole processes is important. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

 Daoist architecture, as the cultural carrier of Daoism, has close relationship with cultural landscape which is a key element in the conservation of Daoism sites. However, very little scholarly attention has been paid to it, and obviously this is a threat to the integrity of Daoist architecture and also the intangible part behind it – the continuity of Daoism culture. To date, 86 properties with 5 trans-boundary properties and 1 delisted property on the World Heritage List have been included as cultural landscapes: of these only 3 were in the China, whilst none of them is related to Daoism. The relatively small number of Chinese nomination is due partly to less concern to the cultural landscape during inscription in china, despite its great importance. Moreover, though some Daoism sites and architecture have been proved to have universal value and inscribed as world heritage, such as Mount Qingcheng and Dujiang yan Irrigation System, Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mount and Mount Sanqing shan National Park, some official presences have ignored the fact that they would fulfil the category of continuing landscape of outstanding universal value with cross reference to the associative cultural landscape category. And the objective of this dissertation is to provide an understanding of the close relationship between Daoist architecture and cultural landscape which seems to have never been integrated with each other, and also the important role that cultural landscape plays in the survival and conservation of Daoist architecture, through a case study of a Daoism temple in Chongqing. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Historic Bridge is one of the major heritage structures in the world. USA has Golden Gate Bridge (1937) at San Francisco, England has Tower Bridge (1894) at London, Italy has The Rialto Bridge (1591) at Venice, France has Pont du Gard (20BC) at Remoulins and China has An-Chi Bridge (安濟橋) at Zaoxian (趙縣), Hebei (河北) (605 A.D. Sui Dynasty (隋朝)). How about Hong Kong? Hong Kong also has a lot of historic bridges and they are distributed in Hong Kong Island, Tsuen Wan and New Territories such as Min Mo Bridge (便母橋) (1710), The 21-Arch Section of the Bowen Aqueduct (1887) and Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir Masonry Bridge (1970). But what is the condition of them? Whether they are graded or declared as monument will have different level of conservation. They are facing what kinds of impact? All these questions are interesting to investigate and the answer may be useful for those who interested in heritage bridge study in Hong Kong or who want to know another type of heritage structures other than the historical buildings. In this survey, it will cover the 17 numbers of historic bridges with different status from Grade 3 to Declared Monument in Hong Kong. In order to carry out the detailed survey for each bridge, I have spent over 3 months to research the history of the bridges and 5 months site survey to collect the data and inspect the current condition of all bridges by taking site photos, tape measurement, drawing site sketch and carrying out visual appraisal. Finally, I carried out the data analysis and based on the finding to draw out the conclusion of this survey. I hope you can find out the answers from it and obtain understand the current condition and impact to the historic bridge in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This dissertation studies the negotiated space of urban regeneration in Hong Kong through an investigation into the dynamics among the government, citizen, and the contingent local context. Hong Kong is a city where changes and transformations happen frequently and mingle with various sectors, and these changes have been influential to the practice and objectives of urban regeneration. Urban regeneration in Hong Kong has long been criticized as economy-led and physically-focused; there was also projects which received vigorous disagreement from the people; the government initiated to carry out public consultation practices, but the effects were regarded as bureaucratic and tokenistic. Not until recent years, the strength of the civil voices and actions has successfully led to a change in the authority’s attitude in spatial treatment. Given this background, this dissertation asks how the process of urban regeneration has changed, why it changed, and ultimately, what we can learn from the changes. To better answer these questions, the dramatic development process of Central Police Station Compound (CPSC) is taken as a case study. The original commercial plan to redevelop the declared monuments of CPSC was replaced by a better welcomed and acknowledged revitalization plan after a series of civic activities. The transition is a visualization of the gap between the conception of the producer of space, and the lived experience of the user of space. Analyzed with a theoretical framework built upon Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theories and the concepts of urban regeneration, it is found that the missing comprehension between the government and the people rooted the struggles and conflicts during the course of development. At the end, it is argued that a truly sustainable urban regeneration is made possible only by the healthy dynamics among the government and citizen, both of whom should continuously make separate but complementary efforts. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

The demolition of Star Ferry Pier and Queen’s Ferry Pier, the controversial conservation approaches for Wan Chai Market and Central Market, and the recent crisis owing to proposed demolition of West Wing of Central Government Offices raise my deep concern on conservation of architecture of recent past. During public consultation for conservation approach for these modern buildings, the term of “collective memory” is widely adopted as the only core value of and justification to preservation. The architectural value of buildings of this period (i.e. 1950s - 80s) in Hong Kong, however, are always looked down or undervalued by conservation experts and general public owing to sheer quantities of such building type in our community. This dissertation is to look into characters of modern architecture, values of such building type to our community and identify their exemplary works in Hong Kong. Through study of world-wide development of conserving modern architecture as built heritage in this dissertation, it tells us Hong Kong is far behind on this issue. We could not wait, but take our first step to safeguard the modern architectural heritage of our city. In the last chapter, therefore, we suggest major steps for conserving modern built heritage in Hong Kong – identification, registration, documentation, and study whether our modern built heritage could meet the six selection criteria of the World Heritage List. Recently, I am pleased to learn that Hong Kong is applying for membership of Working Party on the Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement (i.e. DOCOMOMO – Hong Kong). I wish the research result in this dissertation could contribute to such application. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation