The Repulse Bay Cultural Landscape can be identified as a “Continuing Landscape” in the UNESCO cultural landscape categories. At the south end of the beach is the Hong Kong Life Saving Society Headquarters, Club House (HKLSS), and seafront Garden, which has evolved over the last fifty odd years. It continues to do so, and is highly acclaimed in Hong Kong for its water safely education and its recognition by the international community. Over the years, the HKLSS placed more than one hundred religiously related (Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese folklore) architectural elements including statues, memorial tablets, and steles, as well as pagoda and pavilion In this seafront Chinese style garden This site is used by a massive number of “stakeholders” including HKLSS members, local residents and tourists, etc. And the place is without proper management and maintenance because of lack of financial and expert support. Also, through lack of social awareness, the condition of some of the structures which may have heritage value is declining disintegrating badly. Because this place was mainly developed from the 50s onward, it is unlikely to be considered as a heritage site by conservation professionals. In order to identify this seafront property’s potential heritage value, the focus of research should be on discovering and recording the heritage value of the place. My dissertation aims to reveal and explain the physical aspect and related elements-architecture and space- of this seafront property, and the social aspect- achievement- of one of its major stakeholder (The Hong Kong Life Saving Society). I have produced a SWOT Analysis Report and Heritage Assessment (Using the heritage criteria of the Hong Kong Antiquation and Monument office) in order to identify the heritage value of this place, and explain why “Preventive Conservation” is necessary. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Fair face lime-based brickwork is one of the most popular types of fa?ade in early colonial buildings in Hong Kong. A good proportion of such buildings are slowly but inexorably disappearing. Since the sixties, the awareness of the general public in heritage preservation of Hong Kong started in its embryonic form, gradually evolved through the seventies and eighties, gaining momentum to active involvement in the nineties, and finally to the organized and pragmatic approach of today. In 1976, the Hong Kong Government enacted the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance to ensure that the best examples of Hong Kong’s heritage are protected. With the establishment of the Antiquities and Monuments Office in at the same year, a number of buildings with historical and architectural values have been declared as monument or included in the list of graded heritage buildings since then and their conditions are being concerned. However, conservation principles have not been highlighted in our local heritage building maintenance practices. Perhaps, due to client’s intention, funding constrains, and/or lacking of skillful craftsmen and expert supervision, incompatible building materials and inappropriate methods have been applied on those fair face brickwork fa?ade. More and more evidence shows that such maintenance practices worsen the condition of the historic fa?ade and causing damages to the heritage. No doubt, fa?ades of those deteriorating heritage buildings are deserved proper maintenance and repair under appropriate conservation approaches. The focus of this dissertation is upon the understanding the issue of brickwork failure particularly owning to the saturation of soluble salt in brickwork attributed to various inappropriate maintenance approaches. To establish a guideline for lime-based brickwork fa?ade maintenance to ensure longevity, reduce costs and improve value. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

It was a miracle that I discovered the redoubt when I was studying in secondary school. During a summer holiday, I visited the Shing Mun Reservoir with my best friends. Suddenly a monkey attacked us and grasped one of my friend’s bag. The monkey ran away and we had to chase him to get back the bag. Finally, the monkey found that there were no food inside the bag and left the bag on the trail. When we found the bag, we found the tunnel entrance next to us. Out of curiosity, we went through and tunnels and found really interesting and exciting. Almost twenty years later, I revisited the redoubt and found my memories in my last visit. This time, I came with my eldest son. He is 10 years old and he found it very exciting to visit the tunnels, which he has not ever thought of its existence. For my own experience, there were not many changes, though silts and stagnant water have already blocked some parts of the tunnels. The Shing Mun Redoubt, built in 1930’s, was a very important defensive point of Hong Kong. It was essentially the last point of defense of Kowloon. It witnessed the military defense of Hong Kong, in particular during the Japanese attack in Dec 1941 during the World War II. The redoubt has already lasted for around 80 years. It is left unattended for years. “Dangerous” signs are erected to warn people not to go inside the tunnels. However, this is a very important place to address the history of military defense of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong SAR government has already set up a military trail in Wong Nai Chung Gap, describing and displaying the military defense history of Hong Kong. Given that the military structures of the Shing Mun Redoubt remains largely intact, I strongly recommend the government to set up another military trail to highlight the importance of the Shing Mun Redoubt. In this paper, I addressed this issue and have developed a plan to set up a military trail there called the “Shing Mun Redoubt Military Trail”. In doing this, I made reference to the condition survey of the redoubt and the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Thread) analysis of the development proposal. In connection with the proposed development, I also worked out the associated works such as transport facilities, maintenance plan, publicity plan etc, all aimed to successfully develop this military trail and to attract more visitors to come and enjoy. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This dissertation focuses on Central Star Ferry Pier whose impending and actual demolition in 2006 provoked an unprecedented level of confrontation over historic conservation between the Hong Kong government and civil society groups. The confrontation continued in 2007 over the dismantling of Queen’s Pier, whose reassembly and relocation continue to be a subject of debate today. Case studies of these two piers describe their history, trace the conflicts over their fate within the broader controversy over harbour reclamation, place the disputes in social and political context, and analyse constructions of their cultural significance amid changing values. Particular attention is paid to definitions and redefinitions of the piers’ significance (or lack thereof) in relation to contemporary issues in Hong Kong society and governance, such as the formation of post-colonial identity and struggle for democratisation. This long-running drama in two acts not only underscored the neglect of built-heritage conservation in urban planning in Hong Kong, but also called into question its developmental model and consultative system. Its outcome was a paradigm shift in public understanding of and official approaches to urban conservation, better recognition of social value in heritage making and greater efforts to integrate it into the sustainable development of Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

As raised by Randall Mason in his “Fixing Historic Preservation: A Constructive Critique of ‘Significance’.” Places 16, no.1 (2004: 64-71), scientific methods and objective standards used for conservation have overemphasized the fabric side of the memory/ fabric connection in the 20th century. Conservation efforts have linked the significance of a place to its historical and architectural values, while limiting its economic and social values to secondary status. University Hall, the subject of this dissertation, is facing the same conservation problem – its social value is often ignored. According to English Heritage’s Conservation Principles, Policies and Guidance (2008: 32), social value is associated with places that people perceive as a source of identity. This sense of belonging is a result of collective memory of stories linked to a place. People therefore have a deeper attachment to a place and they share some common behaviour or attitudes in a place. The social value here fits in perfectly with a heritage place that is the topic of my proposed dissertation: University Hall. Ever since 1864, on the top of Pokfulam hill stands a Castle. The Castle is now named University Hall and is the dormitory of some hundred young men. The student residents call themselves Castlers. Although it is the only hall in HKU in which the building was not originally constructed for student residential purpose, a strong fraternity of students was shaped and even fostered by the architecture itself. Traditions are passed along year by year under the roof of the Castle. This means that the architecture and history of University Hall are the source of the social value. However, English Heritage’s Conservation Principles, Policies and Guidance (2008: 32) also states that “the social values of places are not always clearly recognised by those who share them, and may only be articulated when the future of a place is threatened.” This is the key issue for University Hall and it is also the key issue of my proposed dissertation. Starting from the 1970s, HKU has been recently building high-rise mega residential halls to meet the keen demand for student accommodation. The characters of these newly built halls become relatively homogenous. University Hall, as one of the few surviving residential halls carrying strong tradition and history, is rather special under such context. Although there is no plans to change the use of University Hall, but HKU's development pattern will pose a potential threat. It is therefore important to identify the social value of the place before "the future of [this] place is threatened." In other words, the social value of University Hall has to be clearly recognised by the Castlers who share them, and be able to articulate them, before the redevelopment threat to University Hall becomes real. The reason for this is that in Hong Kong, it is often too late to consider conservation when the future of a place is threatened, as demonstrated by the cases of Star Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier. In a nutshell, this is what my proposed dissertation is about. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Hong Kong has carried out heritage conservation since the late 1970s based on the Antiquities & Monuments Ordinance of 1976, but protecting individual buildings has been the main focus. This is a fragmented way to conserving tangible heritage and is neither to the best interest of the building nor to the visitor experience. Designating a street as historical is common in countries such Britain, Canada and the United States. However, they normally conserve the area as a whole rather than a single street. For example, Cleveland Street in London, England, is listed but it is treated as an “Conservation Area” rather than a “conservation street”. As designating streets as heritage is not new to these countries. It is, however, a quite new concept to Hong Kong. 2009 marked the first time in Hong King’s history that streets were listed as Grade I built heritage, namely Pottinger Street and Ladder Street. Both are in the Central district. Is it a good way to conserving a street by just designating it as a heritage, but segregating it from its context? What other support measures are required to have it be really conserved? This dissertation focuses on whether it works as conservation by designating a street as a built heritage without including its context. The scope covers one case-study street, Ladder Street in Sheung Wan, and tracks the changes of the area after its Grade I listing in December 2009. Ladder Street is one of the earliest streets constructed in Hong Kong. It is not only a “built heritage” in itself, it also cuts across several streets featuring other “built heritage,” such as Man Mo Temple, YMCA and the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences building. This study will attempt to evaluate if it is appropriate to designate a street. The main objective of this research is to review the Hong Kong experience in conserving built heritage, the designation procedure in Hong Kong, the reasons of designating Ladder Street, the impact on the streetscape and its implications in Hong Kong. Overseas example will be examined and their applicability in the Hong Kong context will be discussed. Ultimately, possible areas for further investigation will be identified. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Public sentiment towards heritage sites in Hong Kong has changed dramatically over the past decade. A city built entirely on its rapid urban development and redevelopment, Hong Kong has transitioned into a place where people start to concern about what is left in our heritage before it is too late. The change of public sentiment leads us to have a different set of expectation on heritage sites in Hong Kong, which is the topic of this paper. In response to the escalating public concerns regarding the administration’s take towards heritage conservation, Hong Kong government’s new Heritage Conservation Policy in 2007 launched the ‘Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme’, overseen by the new Commissioner for Heritage’s Office. The Scheme (the ‘R-Scheme’) is an initiative to engage non-profit organisations (NPOs) to conduct adaptive reuse at government-owned historic buildings. The Batch I of the R-Scheme included the proposed revitalisation of the Old Tai O Police Station. Built in 1902, the Old Tai O Police Station is a Grade II historic building located on Lantau Island. The Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation Limited (HCF) has been selected to restore and operate the site as Tai O Heritage Hotel, a boutique hotel in a non-profit social enterprise model. The R-Scheme is a pioneer initiative that builds up a framework for public-private partnership in heritage conservation. And as most pioneer programmes go, while the R-Scheme opens up new opportunities and broadens the field of heritage conservation, it also brings new challenges that one might not have foreseen beforehand. This paper uses Tai O Heritage Hotel as a case study to look into these new challenges, and how these challenges are arisen because of the change of public sentiment and expectation towards historic buildings in recent years. Part of this paper is written in first person narrative, as the author has been working on this revitalisation project and has personally encountered these challenges, including heritage interpretation and public engagement. The challenges and solutions covered in this paper focus on the “software” of the project, as she is involved mostly in the non-technical aspects of the project, and also this portion of the project contributes heavily on satisfying public expectation as well. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

As a contribution to econometric research on the role of architectural heritage, this dissertation evaluates non-aggregate data for a total of 2142 designated National Priority Protected Sites (NPPS) in China using hedonic model and ordered probit model. Attempting to verify economic costs of conserving architectural heritage sites in China, the objectives of the dissertation are to find out the grading system of NPPS; to compare the monetary value and non-monetary value methods on architectural heritage conservation; to identify the current criteria of national heritage conservation maintenance funding (NHCMF) allocation for the NPPS; and to select and evaluate the key factors of NHCMF allocation for the NPPS. The research question of this dissertation is: “what are the decision criteria of NHCMF allocation in China?”. The dissertation conceives of one general hypothesis and 17 empirical hypotheses. The general hypothesis is based on the maintenance funding and grading system of each conservation project. The empirical hypotheses are generated from possible determined factors of NHCMF allocation, theories of sustainable development, economic value and heritage value. Based on the real market information, 7 factors have been identified as the determined factors of NHCMF allocation of NPPS. They are “average household income”, “annual economic benefit”, “average personal salary”, “population”, “ticket”, “types modern building” and “types revolutionary sites”. Of these 7 factors, on the one hand, “average household income”, “annual economic benefit”, “population”, “entry ticket fee” and “types (revolutionary sites)” have positive relationship with the maintenance cost. The positive relationship result implies that the revolutionary sites locate in economic developed area with more population and higher entry ticket fee are more likely to get more maintenance funding. On the other hand, “average personal salary” and “types (modern buildings)” have negative relationship with maintenance funding. The negative relationship result reflects that modern buildings of NPPS with higher average personal salary are less likely getting more maintenance funding. Based on the hypothetical market data, 4 factors have been identified as the determined factors of NHCMF allocation of NPPS. The factors of “population and “annual economic benefit” have the same relationship with monetary market data. The “maintenance funding” and “original usage” have negative relationship with grading system. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

During the Battle of Hong Kong fought in December 1941, Wong Nai Chung Gap was a major battlefield as it was a strategic location. Like almost all battlefields in this Battle, however, the defensive military installations within the subject area, most in ruins nowadays, have never been professionally surveyed with the purpose of mapping the military buildings of the battlefield apart from those reported in Lai et al (2011) to better fathom the flow of battle. Indeed, the only professionally surveyed military relics were those by Lai and Ho for Devil’s Peak and Lai, Davies, Ching, Tan and Wong (2011) for Shing Mun Redoubt. All existing historical researches suffer from a lack of accurate mapping information, if at all, essential for understanding the conduct of military hostilities. This thesis illustrates how an accurate exercise locating and mapping of three pillboxes (PB 1, PB2 and PB3), among other war relics in the vicinity, near Wong Nai Chung Gap in Hong Kong Island was performed; and addresses historical and conservation issues using direct on-site measurement by professional mapping techniques. GIS was used as the key tool for analysis and interpretation. The survey results were then used to identify the configurations and distribution of the war relics in Wong Nai Chung area and to verify the authenticity of war diary records provided by the defender on the battle. Precise arcs of fire of key permanent defence structures in relation to the surrounding topography were accurately determined. They help explain and reconstruct a prominent battle that took place some 70 years ago. It should provide a solid referent for war historians, relics’ enthusiasts as to how the state-of-art GIS technology can be used in probing key intriguing historical questions. Those addressed in this thesis, in relation particularly to three pillboxes, the observation post (OP) on the summit of Jardines’ Lookout and Stanley Gap, are: (1) Did PB 1 really kill that many enemies? (2) Why didn’t PB2 report to have fired at enemies along the Ride or Wong Nai Chung Gap? (3) Why didn’t PB 3 fire at all? (4) What were the daylight vision of the three PBs and the OP on the 18/19 December 1941? (5) What was the defence philosophy of the pillboxes? (6) Was the Japanese portrait on the battle correct in terms of details? (7) What was the role of the OP on the summit of Jardine’s Lookout? (8) Were Brigade Lawson’s Headquarters protected by any PB? (9) What were the locations of the military installations now destroyed or buried? (10) What were the locations of the military installations near Stanley Gap? To address the ten questions above, three working hypotheses are established for questions (1) to (3) while accurate on site measurements could be applied in finding the rest of the questions. For question (1), the hypothesis is: PB1 could not kill that many enemies because of faulty or unsatisfactory design. It would be refuted if the beaten zones of machine guns mounted inside the pillboxes could cover the major military strongholds of Wong Nai Chung Gap area. The hypothesis for question (2) is: PB2 did cover all routes of attack but only no information about fires was reported in the war diary. It would be refuted if PB2 had any blind-spot in shooting. The hypothesis for question (3) is: the beaten zones of PB3 could cover most of the important fighting areas, e.g. PB1; PB2; the Ride across the valley; the West Brigade HQ as well as the upper reach of Blue Pool Road (then existing) etc. It would be refuted if PB3 had certain blind-spots. The questions from (4) to (10) could be decoded through the onsite accurate measurements. This thesis is an empirical analysis of how the professional mapping techniques are used to plug some gaps in the history of the battle of Wong Nai Chung. The aim of the thesis is to find out some enigma by means of on-site and desk top study. This thesis reports on a number of key findings: the main conclusions drawn from this research showed that, first, PB1 could cover the major military strongholds and both PB2 and PB3 had a certain areas of shooting blind-spots. Nevertheless, the OP together with the three PBs, could cover most of the southern side of today’s Deep Water Bay Road; the eastern side of Repulse Bay Road as well as the almost the entire northern dam of Wong Nai Chung Reservoir except the southern side of the reservoir. The results of the thesis show that the firing arcs of PB3 could not cover the major fighting areas in 19th December 1941 but it could have, apart from delayed the capture of the Wong Nai Chung Gap by the Japanese, inflicted heavier casualties on the enemies because it covered the Police Knoll and the reservoir dam which formed part of the Stanley Gap Road. Secondly, by identifying the surviving war relics in Wong Nai Chung Gap, this thesis should contribute to better conservation research through on-site surveying of these features in a relative large scale which are not documented in any previous literature before. Upon finding out the accurate geographical locations of these surviving war relics, we could appreciate the rest of our research questions; i.e. the truthfulness of the inferred position on the Sir Cecil’s Ride below PB2 from the barbed wire stand which shown in the Japanese portrait; Brigade Lawson’s Headquarters was indeed protected by PB1 but not PB2; there are bunkers and water closets still remain intact in Stanley Gap. In addition, this thesis offers constructive thoughts on how mapping techniques could be contributed to the conservation of historic war heritages. Overall, the findings of this research proved that on-site measurements, together with contemporary GIS technology, can be used as a major tool of explaining the mysterious matters during the war. This thesis comprises of five chapters and the style follows the norms in Kate L. Turabian. Chapter 1 is the introduction. It serves as a general introduction to the thesis. It will commence by a historic review of the battle of Hong Kong in 1941. By describing the background of the battle of Wong Nai Chung Gap, it will points out some enigmatic problems found in war diaries. This chapter states the aims and hypotheses of this study and identify the scope of the research. Specifically, it raises ten specific research questions. Chapter 2 is a literature review. It shows that the “state of art” of battle history is one of written records, collection of photos and small scale sketches without the help of accurate mapping inputs. Where plans/maps were produced in history texts, they were in small scale and hence of limited use for forensic or conservation purposes. In other words, historians are handicapped by a lack of sensitivity to the importance of spatial analysis. This review shows the significance and potential contribution of land surveying in military heritage research and policy development. Chapter 3 describes the methodology of the land survey conducted. It commences by examining the theoretical basis as well as the principles of the technology used and will also present how mapping as well as the state-of-the-art Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques were actually used to perform terrain analysis based on the accurate surveyed positions of the war relics. Ten hypotheses in relation to the questions specified in Chapter 1 are formulated. Chapter 4 provides the survey findings and analysis for the ten hypotheses. Chapter 5 is the conclusion. This chapter summarises the thesis and discusses its methodological limitations and significance for heritage research and policy. It also makes suggestions for future research. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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