This dissertation seeks to investigate the grading system and its effect on the private property development right of historic buildings in Hong Kong. Unlike the statutory nature of declaring a monument, the grading system is an administrative and internal measure that is mainly referred to the Antiquities and Monuments Office and Antiquities Advisory Board, and has no statutory significance. It could be understood that statutory measures, like declaring a monument, has an effect on development rights in the way that development parameters imposed under statutes have an effect on a given site; however despite the administrative nature of the grading system, there is a very strong perception among property owners and development that historical building gradings also have an effect on development rights. This dissertation will introduce the notion of and conflict between private property development rights and heritage conservation. Case studies from the local Hong Kong context will be used to illustrate the frustrations property owners face when trying to determine the future of their graded historic buildings. The dissertation will conclude using uses overseas case studies to provide some pointers on the way forward for the local heritage conservation system. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This research serves as a reference not only for persons or organizations intending to propose adaptive re-use of or A&A works to a historical building of Cattle Depot but also for architects, engineers, surveyors, heritage conservationists and designers who are engaged for this type of project as a Youth Hostel. The hypothesis of this dissertation is that there is a high demand for urban youth hostels in Hong Kong and such youth hostels are in critical short supply. This leads to the scope of my dissertation, which is to explore the technical feasibility to adapt a heritage building as an urban youth hostel. After conducting comprehensive desk study and site inspection to the Cattle Depot, the methodology of the study will be based on the various statutory submission stages of adapting a building for a new use. To be more precise, this study will examine the procedures of adaptive reuse in terms of (1) what to do and (2) how and where to get it done in the following three main stages in Planning, Building and Licensing. Last but not least, there would be a way forward of historical building sustainability, to change the more appropriate adaptive reuse as a Cattle Depot Youth Hostel would be more possible as a solution to meet the needs of community and benefit to that district development. More importantly, a number of tangible heritages of the Cattle Depot could make use of these available resources to tell of its story history to the community. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

“If you ask people what they think about cities they are more likely to talk about buildings and cars than streets and squares. If you ask them about city life they are more likely to talk about alienation, isolation, fear of crime or congestion and pollution than about community, participation, animation, beauty and pleasure.” (Rogers, 1997) The picturesque quoted here, illustrates the void that most of the modern cities are facing; unable to meet the demand of socio-cultural, ecological and communal characters of humankind for dwelling. The economic and political competency in the practice of urbanism makes an astonishing indifference towards vitality of urban spaces, which otherwise should have addressed the dynamics of urban life, people and community. To some extent, historic cities still express sense of place and identity of community at this juncture, though such elements in a few only remain authentic. Even though these cities went across century’s long political, socio-economic transformation, they have retained the legacy of sustained urban life and environment. And of course, the same is the socio-cultural manifesto and charm into cityscape and built forms. For such occurrence, reconciliation of conservation and current trends of development and changes need to prove one of the substantial means of transiting from traditional city planning approaches. In this aspect, urban conservation added new hopes, bringing even the ruins of such historic cities for preservation and made them an agendum for further researches in city planning and development. However, most of the conservation efforts in historic cities are focused on individual public monuments as a piecemeal trade to enhance international tourism and market forces. Consequently, as a dark side remnant of overall city planning and conservation practices, the image of city and its identity remained overshadowed. As one of such instances; Bhaktapur, the city known to be “Cultural Capital of Nepal” stands right into this dilemma of urban development and conservation. The living heritage of this city resembles the bonds of urban spaces, built environment, and life endowed with cultural activities enthralled entirely. This paradise perhaps will no longer remain if its urban development trends at the edge are freed. Urban growth however, inevitable currently as globalization; in no longer should influence the urban tranquility of this historical city. The outdated planning traditions are responsible for such hiatus to long for ages. Due to this fragility, it concurrently faces vigorous peripheral development at Kamalvinayak, Libali and Tumacho and a rapid transformation in historic fabrics demising traditional values. An approach of integration in historic city especially, cultural heritage area with emerging new development is believed to arrest the problem when it is unripe. Further investigation on amorphous relationships between the two urban typologies and development contexts is crucial to explore potentialities for integration. The synergy between urban conservation and urban development in order to retain the historic image of a cultural city is explored through an integrated approach. This study explores to seek integrity aspects of historic urban landscape of the traditional town with planning interventions to meet the demands of urban development at the edge. The study area is mainly focused on clusters of neighbourhood in cultural heritage area of this town incorporating new development area at the edge and an urban design research approach with random household survey is adopted in comparing the neighbourhoods for integrity aspects. Finally with thorough review on related concerns in conservation and development in Bhaktapur this study identified the need of integrated urban conservation taking into consideration of integrity aspects idealized during analysis. Integrated urban conservation is one that reconciles development aspects with overall structure of conservation process and this study finalizes the need of strategies of broadening heritage context, strategies for conservation oriented development, urban spatial continuity and strategies for capacity building with participatory mechanism. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

This dissertation focuses on the military heritage in Hong Kong. It specifically covers a case-study military site – Pak Sha Wan Battery on the east of Hong Kong Island, an abandoned defensive mechanism and one of significant battlefields in the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941. This research dissertation is to examine military heritage as a Cultural Heritage with both tangible and intangible elements. By the Pak Sha Wan Battery as a case study, this is also to recognise the importance of the military heritage site in the history of Hong Kong, and the war relics deserve to be preserved for our future generations. To a certain extent, military heritage is neglected by people in Hong Kong. Part of the reason is perhaps because of a lack of a local military tradition. There has never been compulsory military service in Hong Kong. Additionally, Hong Kong does not involve in direct war conflict after the World War II. Military and war are concepts far away from Hongkongers. Few people could tell the location of military compounds and battlefields in Hong Kong. Military heritage may not even be considered as an important heritage because those military relics are just pieces of abandoned ruins to them! Owing to being neglected for long time, most of the Hong Kong war relics are overgrown and witnesses of the war become invisible to the people, though some military heritage sites are not actually hard to access, e.g. Pinewood Battery on Victoria Peak and the disused military structure on Devil’s Peak, and the former Lyemun military installations at the present-day Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence (HKMCD). As an assistant curator in a military theme museum in Hong Kong, the author find few publications on the Hong Kong military, and it is believed that many military relics in Hong Kong are still to be uncovered and documented. Pak Sha Wan Battery, inside the closed area of the HKMCD, is hardly accessible, and therefore it was least mentioned in publications. Most likely it is just mentioned the location name in publications but few further details information about the Battery can be found. It is hoped that this dissertation with the Pak Sha Wan Battery as a case study could help to document the gap of record in the military history of Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This dissertation examines the notion of ‘sense of place’, which is the collection of meanings, beliefs, symbols, values and feelings that individuals or groups associate with a particular locality. Hong Kong is a city where changes and transformations happen frequently, and these changes have great influences on the overall image of the city. Realizing that all true places have distinctive identities and characters, urban planners and designers start to see the importance of engendering a ‘sense of place’ in the urban landscape through heritage conservation, so that a historical urban identity and authentic urban identity can be preserved and to enrich the overall landscape. The new understanding that heritage conservation should not only focus on restoring the authenticity, but also to conserve the overall urban experience has led to the inquiry of people’s behavior in the place, and how their emotional ties to a place is formed. Understanding that people’s place attachment can be studied through their ability in imaging the place, this dissertation introduces environmental mapping – a qualitative research method in gathering spatial information of a place from the conscious and unconscious behaviors and minds of people. Through a case study on Cattle Depot Artist Village, we will be able to understand how a sense of place is developed, and how the environmental mapping method can be applied in urban planning and conservation projects. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / abstract / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

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