published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Modern cities do not only aim at focusing on economic development solely, but they also need to provide high quality of urban living environment which could achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability. Public open space constitutes an indispensible part in achieving this planning objective. Nevertheless, open space is not a unitary planning concept. It has been being constantly redefined to suit changing social and economic needs. This study investigates the development of land supply and land-use planning of public open space in Hong Kong. It attempts to examine how open space was understood, planned, and provided in different periods in Hong Kong. Open space is presumed to be influenced by the interplay of three main social forces, namely the government, the capitalists, and the people. The interplay of the three forces changes in different periods of time in Hong Kong, resulting in the changing meaning and transformation of open space in the aspects of locations, forms, distributions, and ways of provisions. My key arguments are as follows: In the pre-Second World War colonial period, extraction was regarded as the primary objective of the colonial government. Since the colonial atmosphere shared the idea of earning from re-exporting trade and temporal stay, public open space, except for private leisure facilities, was not truly a concern of any of the social groups. While recreational opportunities and open space were still necessary to attract foreign investments and provide political functions, the colonial government provided open space in a residual manner, utilizing urban fringe areas of Victoria City and existing land-uses for open space functions. To maximize the use of open space, though the government was reluctant to provide, open space was utilized for political functions to preach social conforming behaviours and Western lifestyle to the Chinese immigrants as well as to new Chinese generations. The post-Second World War open space development was characterized by an expansion of the scope of open space, as well as political reform of the municipal governments and the planning institution. Triggered by the large influx of Chinese refugees that migrated to Hong Kong and the rising population of the local-born Chinese youngsters, elected representatives were introduced to the municipal councils. These elected representatives endeavoured to urge the government to provide open space where available, persuading the government by giving new meanings to open space. The planning institution, however, continued to plan open space in a residual manner. Inspired by the Abercrombie Plan, open space was planned towards the countryside and new forms of open space were introduced to expand the scope of open space. The contemporary pattern of public open space is examined by quantitative analyses. Three kinds of open space are examined, namely zoned open space, administered public open space, and public open space within private developments. Results show that large-scale zoned open spaces tend to cluster in urban fringe areas and countryside, whereas zoned open spaces in urban areas tend to be fragmentary. Waterfront and coastal areas, whether in urban or rural areas, are commonly utilized for open space purposes. These findings echo the planning strategy, aiming at shifting open space from the inner urban areas to the urban fringe and rural areas. Administered public open spaces are found to be related to the income level and the ratio of occupational status of a community. The analyses of planning applications further suggest that open space serves as the potential land reserve for various uses instead of being a mere recreational site. Public open spaces within private developments are provided more flexibly compared to conventional public open space in terms of their physical forms and regulations. The manipulations are found to be wittingly introduced by the developers to suit their parochial interests. It is expected that open space will be subject to constant redefinition under further socioeconomic developments and changing compositions of the three social forces. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

There are huge demands of limited lands in Hong Kong. It is an increasing trend for Hong Kong Government to develop open space for the use of recreation activities as they found out that it is very important to the individual as well as the community. Other than recreation use, those open spaces can also served to allow air ventilation, penetration of sunlight and also act as a place for amenity and visual relief in Hong Kong. Although, these functions are very important in the high rise building environment, high density city like Hong Kong, there are many small public open spaces in urban area which are not in a good quality. They cannot function well in responsive to the context of the area, enhancing the quality of the neighborhoods and suited for the public need in the community which they turns out become not as popular as they are expected. The pocket open space in urban area is relatively small, surrounded by commercial buildings or residential buildings. They usually have a simple setting with planters and street furniture. Different activities involvement by different users in these small open spaces create a small community in the urban area and supposingly can enhance the interaction within people in the area. Considering that there are complaints from the Artists that there are not enough outdoor arts space in Hong Kong and public arts is the trend of some of the cities in other countries to enhancing the identity and culture of the urban areas, such as the King Williams ArtWalk in Otario in Canada. However, It is not popular in the urban dense space in Hong Kong. It is good to exploring a possible new way to sustain the unique culture by applying public arts platform in the urban area. The site is located around the Aberdeen Street in Central. It is an old district with new culture style but lack of solid identity and energy throughout the space. Although there are different organic developments, the streetscape is without strong characters. The following pilot project is aim to use art platform as a tools to revealing the missing link in urban context and also adding a possible new function to the open space in urban dense area as a “outdoor showroom” of arts in the city in order to vibrate the city and raise the awareness of public arts to the publics. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture