published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Culture-led regeneration policy has become a global trend in many major cities worldwide (UNCHS, 2004; Miles and Paddison, 2005). While overseas governments such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia have directed their regeneration policies to encourage the creative class and industries; Hong Kong is again left behind. Some scholars suggest that the culture-led strategy can act as the twenty-first century driver for regeneration, able to better preserve social networks and capital, and hence bring greater benefit to the local residents (Szeto, 2007). However, the methods of promoting culture-led regeneration in the Hong Kong context are rarely discussed. In addition, to what extend urban planning could help to facilitate creative class, and its possible impact on local residents is yet to be studied. This dissertation therefore has a two-way focus; on one hand, it seeks to address the research gap on how culture-led regeneration can be implemented in Hong Kong; on the other hand, it contributes to the academic debate by exploring the mechanism of capitalising culture in a regeneration project in order to maximise the ways at which local residents can truly benefit. It is often assumed that the integration of cultural production, consumption and community art programmes bring about the greatest benefits for the local economy, and hence benefit the locals by ‘trickle down’ effect (Binns, 2005). However, this dissertation argues that the community and its institutions play an important role in distributing the wealth created by culture-led redevelopment. While gentrification as well as the displacement of local residents, is usually observed in culture-led regeneration, progressive community planning and community ownership of the ‘Common’ can help in breaking the monopoly of rent and fixed capitals, to the benefit of local residents. The case of Hoxton – with the success of its local organizations in reducing the pressures of gentrification – is studied alongside with a case of similar background, Noho, Hong Kong, to explore new research and enlighten a possible new policy direction of culture-led regeneration in Hong Kong. Both cases are led by artists and creative industries in the area with the aim of revitalizing poor local economies. In light of this, the two cases are compared to firstly address the research gap on the community role in a sustainable culture-led regeneration, and then to enlighten a possible new policy direction of culture-led regeneration in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Various studies from different universities indicated that Hong Kong is facing a serious housing problem especially for the singleton elderly. Lack of a viable retirement protection and the new trend of married children to live away their parents causes the elders become the major group of poor living alone in the sub-standard housing units in the old urban districts. The high demand for private flats has provided the impetus for private developers to launch the urban redevelopment projects. In the course of carrying out the redevelopment projects, the elders were forced to displace to a strange new community which makes them lost the social support and impairs their mental well-being. In addition, lack of offering local community relocation would discourage the elders to improve their living condition by opting for re-housing. By contrast, other scholar alleged that the physical characteristics of the housing environment are the major concern which affects the elder’s residential satisfactory the most and the social support from friends and neighbors played only a minor and insignificant role. In order to explore the factors affecting the relocation choice of the elders upon urban redevelopment, personal in-depth interviews were conducted for 42 elders selected from 3 newly launched urban redevelopment projects. The findings shows that the elders desire for a self-contained public housing unit for improving their living condition but they would give up the chance if the local community relocation is not guaranteed. It is concluded that the elders would sacrifice their living condition in exchange of the local community continuity. Furthermore, the financial ability is the most crucial factor affecting their decision of the living arrangement and their residential satisfactory. Recommendations were proposed to URA for offering the needed elderly local community relocation by building their own rehousing blocks in the targeted districts. Moreover, the URA should focus on promoting building rehabilitation as the alternative for solving the problem of urban decay while would not impair the life of the poverty elders living in the old urban areas. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

We walk along the street every day. In the densely built urban environment, streets are the most abundant public space that serve not only as channels for movement but also as public realms and places catering for social activities. Throughout the development of Hong Kong, many public streets have evolved with a unique character and local identity that are integrated into the everyday life of the community. Yet, in a rapidly transforming city like Hong Kong, redevelopment has posed considerable threats to such significant cultural landscapes of public streets. In particular, mega redevelopment projects substantially alter the physical space and also trigger subsequent changes in the social dimension of streets. Such a transformation thus results in the role of streets gradually deviating from being a public space and streets disconnected from our everyday lived experience both practically and connotatively. It is the intention of this Study to investigate how mega-redevelopment has reshaped the way public urban streets are lived. It attempts to answer such questions as what cause the changes and what the changes are. Inspired by Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life, the physical and social dimension of public streets is simultaneously formed by two interrelated constituents. On one side, planning and governance measures by the institution determine more the physical space. On the other side, these institutional tools mediate spatial practices of individual street users, which thus in turn dictate the living component of public urban streets. Through the local case study of Langham Place, a mega-redevelopment in Mong Kok, this Study illustrates the dialectic relationship between these two aspects of space. Bearing in mind the dual role of streets, the findings suggest a heightened attention to the impact of redevelopment on the social space and the importance of planning for everyday life. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Urban decay has become a serious problem in many countries around the world, and urban renewal has been widely adopted as an important national strategy to encounter such problem. After decades, public participation as a soft part was taken into account to supplement the physical reconstruction. In developed countries and regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore, U.K., etc, the spirit of public participation has permeated in the whole society, and has been applied in the urban renewal process, while in developing countries such as Mainland China, public participation is more like a slogan. In the real practice, to complete urban renewal as fast as possible, participation is generally ignored by the government, and the public do not have the consciousness of participation. General conditions and specific cases of public participation in urban renewal in both Mainland and Hong Kong are illustrated. In this dissertation, however, unlike most scholars’ judgment, advantages of Mainland’s mode are confirmed, and disadvantages of Hong Kong public participation are a little different from common argument. Based on literature review and international best practices, four factors are extracted to establish an ideal framework of public participation in urban renewal, namely special executive agency, comprehensive and detailed legislations, public’s consciousness of participation and rich free social resources, which mainly refers to non-government organizations. Recommendations to both Mainland and Hong Kong will be proposed on account of the model in the end of the dissertation. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

In between the congested crowded urban layout of old districts in Hong Kong, it is not hard to discover one and another small left behind “gaps” in between the buildings. These lots, being left over, are either as land banking lots, or rented out for short-term tenancy. They, as being falling into the result of urban renewal, have an ultimate destiny of being redeveloped, but well before that, they are just leave there and wait for their other accompanies, in order to redevelop as a larger foot print. While the short 4 to 9 storey tall old Tong Lau had been redeveloped into 30-storey tall high-rise building, the capacity of affordable households had been raised significantly. Under the government policy of providing 1 m2 of open space per person, the growth of open space is obviously cannot catch up with the rapid redevelopment of old district. The urban land banked gaps, as a byproduct of the urban renewal process, are actually could be taken as a potential buffer to the imbalance development speed of urban redevelopment and open space. In connection to the temporary nature of the urban gaps, this thesis is aimed to focus on temporary landscape and to provide a sustainable strategy for coordination of different stakeholders, so as to utilize the gaps in a more valuable and sustainable way. Based on three main concerns: temporary, flexibility and sustainability, this thesis will test out how the strategy, in operational and design aspect, could work. An experimental case of Kowloon City district would be used as an example for testing the temporary landscape system. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

The urban redevelopment will be a trend and mainstream in the development of housing needs. In addition to the elderly problems in some old city districts, improvement in living standard, housing needs as well as to preserve the historical buildings are the concern in the redevelopment of a new urban. The ageing problem with related to the housing development in the urban redevelopment projects are the focus in this research study. It aims to understanding the elderly problem in the progress of the redevelopment projects and the needs that can satisfy the elderly people as they have been the labor group to promote Hong Kong’s prosperity in the early century. The elderly people deserved to have a better living of environment. By conducting the in depth interview with the social worker/ volunteer and the questionnaires with the elderly people, more information will be revealed on the thoughts and needs of the elderly people and turning out to suggest and recommend for improving the urban redevelopment to the URA. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management