University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Psychology

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Psychology

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Psychology

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This design thesis is to provide an innovative design concept and approach to revitalize the area of Porto Interior. In this design, a piece of industrial waterfront in Porto Interior of Macao has been taken to revitalize the old town Macao and to enhance the protection of the Historic Centre of Macao at the same time. This design thesis is divided into 3 sections: 1) surveying, 2) planning and 3) landscape design section to show the generation of the design process. Site selection, problem findings and forecasting are supported by the surveying section. This information supports the generation of landscape planning and design concept for the Porto Interior waterfront. The main design idea is to connect the world heritage of Macao to the water edge and emphasize the linkage to other waterfronts in Macao in order to build up an entire public open space system. The “Connection” idea is to re?link the world heritage of Macao and Porto Interior waterfront in physical and mental way, as well as tangible and intangible way. In the whole design process, nine heritage paths are created in order to provide a physical linkage between the Historic Centre of Macao to Porto Interior. Main landscape areas?the celebrate nodes are generated by the intersection point between the heritage paths and the waterfront. Those nodes contain with different functions, such as plaza, garden, infrastructure, leisure and entertainment space and their design are inspired by the daily experience, story and element of the Historic Centre of Macao. Those inspirations are captured or interpreted into the nodes in mental and intangible way as well. This design idea and approach will shorten the distance between the world heritage and Porto Interior. At the same time, it provides a consistence experience to visitors and recalls visitors’ memory. The new design for Porto Interior is able to improve the living and business environment by providing higher quality public open space. Besides, vehicular circulation is improved as the design thesis proposes the harbor tunnel to link up the south and north of Macao and the light rail public transport system, moreover, pedestrian circulation is enhanced since the share street concept is promoted and the main carriageway between community and waterfront is narrowed, increasing the accessibility and adaptability from the residential area to waterfront public open space. “Connection” design vision is fully addressed in the waterfront design of Porto Interior, Macao. The new design waterfront is able to be a unique public open space to Macao, reflecting the spirit of the Historic Centre of Macao and blending with the history of industrial waterfront simultaneously. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Since casino liberalization, Macau has been undergoing metaphoric changes that are fundamental, rapid, and far-reaching. This poses a challenge to Macau people to cope with life changing circumstances to the extent of rediscovering their hometown which have changed profoundly as evident by the city‘s ever-changing skyline. Having said so, this study aims to explore the effects of large-scale casino development on Macau residents‘ sense of place, and how their changing sense of place determines their support for casino development. To achieve this study purpose, three interrelated research objectives are laid down for the study. They are (1) to assess the impact of casino liberalization on Macau society, (2) to describe Macau residents’ sense of place amid the casino boom, and (3) to delineate the structural relationship between casino impact, sense of place, place satisfaction, and support for casino development. By using a purely quantitative approach based on a comprehensive resident survey, the study identified both positive and negative casino impact factors as affecting Macau people economically, socially, and environmentally. More importantly, these casino impact factors were also found to exhibit significant predictive power in explaining respondents‘ sense of place intensity, therefore empirically validating a posited relationship between the impact of casino development and inhabitants’ sense of place. The study also found that respondents’ sense of place carried obvious connotations of modernity and exquisiteness because respondents were using everyday vocabularies such as ‘rich’, ‘lively’, ‘developed’, and ‘unique’ to express their perceptions of the new Macau. This brief glossary of words, which characterizes successful urban development, was also found to associate strongly with their sense of place assessments. Finally, the study validated an integrated conceptual model within which the sense of place construct assumes a decisive role in affecting place satisfaction and support for casino development. The contribution of this study lies in the fact it has brought to our attention residents’ sense of place as an important determinant for the success of any large-scale tourism project such as casino development. This study has also provided a new breath to the traditional casino impact studies by taking a new look at an old problem through a cross-disciplinary perspective. / published_or_final_version / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The history of public housing in Macau started in 1928. Yet, the performance level of the public housing sector is relatively lower compared to the nearby cities, whereas their public housing sectors were commenced at a later stage. The return of sovereignty of Macau in 1999 becomes the major turning point of the city. Since then, the economic landscape of the city has dramatically changed by the liberalization of the gaming industry in 2002. The vibrant economy has directly led to an upsurge of the real estate market, resulting an unaffordable private housing market. In addition, the city has also initiated the demand of more public housing by the local residents. With the sudden increase in the demand of more public housing units, the government has decided to launch the “19,000 Public Housing Units” Programme. With this phenomenon recently occurred in Macau, it will be worth visiting the current performance level of the public housing sector in Macau; aiming to find out if the public housing sector has met the expectations of different stakeholders, with quantity, quality and affordability as the assessment criteria. Negative results have been shown while assessing the criteria of quantity and quality and a positive result has been reflected for affordability. After knowing the weaknesses of the public housing sector, it will be worth looking into the possible factors influencing its performance with land supply and urban planning as the critical components. Recommendations to improve the performance of the public housing sector through better land and planning policies have been established to conclude this dissertation. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts