Mineral springs were a popular aspect of American culture prior to World War II. In conjunction with the rest of the United States, Texas offered visitors numerous locations for people to “take the waters.” Unfortunately, for various reasons, the springs fell out of favor and the buildings associated with them were largely abandoned. I briefly discuss the history of the springs through the ages and then move onto a discussion of the different styles of architecture associated with the springs in the United States and how these styles differed in Texas. Due to the loss of architecture associated with the mineral springs in Texas, this paper uses Heath, Oc, and Tiesdell’s five forms of obsolescence to analyze the reasons for failures in adaptive reuse, discusses the successes, and presents some extant buildings where futures are undetermined. In order to answer these questions, I gathered a collection of case studies, focusing on locations in Texas, but including several from the United States and Europe. I analyzed these case studies and gathered information from the result of the studies to deduce why the forms of obsolescence could not be overcome, and how some sites differed and successfully surmounted these difficulties. / text

Since 1997, Hong Kong as an international financial center has experienced several financial storms. Whenever it was in the storm, the Government found reliance on finance and real estate unreliable and sought the need to diversify its economic mode. However, as soon as the storm was over, the Government forgot the need and continues to focus on financial development. In 2009, in view of the international financial crisis, the Chief Executive (CE) identified 6 priority industries as the new growth drives to propel Hong Kong towards a knowledge-based economy. In parallel, the Policy Address 2009 endorsed the Government would take “appropriate policies to remove obstacles to their development” (para.21) and “examine whether the existing use of resources can support the new economic structure, and to prevent the factors of production from being tied up by outdated policies and economic structure.” (para.22) Subsequently, CE suggested that diversified development should be a strategic move to achieve sustainable economic growth. To utilize the land resources for the 6 industries? development, the Government launches 4 measures to release the potential of 1000 industrial buildings. Its intention is good. Yet, the result will be much better if there are cohesive policy and measures to synchronize the needs and the strengths of the industries. Among the 6 priority industries to utilize the industrial land, this dissertation targets primarily on cultural and creative industries (CCI) which may collaborate with other industries, such as education and tourism to develop cultural tourism and an education center with a view to forming a CCI park in a post-industrial area. This dissertation divides itself into three. The first part evaluates CCI, urban industrial heritage buildings and their combination; the second examines 4 local case studies, Cattle Depot, JCCAC, Fotan and LoftStage as well as 6 Shanghai ones. The third and final part devises a preliminary but innovative model of how to develop a post-industrial area into a sustainable CCI park with various potentials and resources concerted in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This dissertation explains the emergence of adaptive reuse from economic and real estate development perspectives, and defines the particular circumstance in property acquisition that is favourable to adaptive reuse. The recent booming real estate market in Hong Kong is a favourable economic environment for redevelopment through demolition, but there is still room for adaptive reuse whereby existing buildings can be conserved. According to the economic theory of transaction cost, difficulties in implementing redevelopment scheme with demolition can absorb some of the financial incentives offered by this development activity such that adaptive reuse, the alternative option, becomes feasible. The well-documented difficulties in property acquisition particularly in the final stage involving ownership consolidation and site amalgamation should be one of the main causes for such transaction costs that make the demolition-and-redevelopment proposal abandoned. Such relationship between the difficulties in acquisition of outstanding property ownership and feasibility of adaptive reuse is verified by an empirical study on the actual development activities within the period of post-SARS property boom in a selected urban area in Hong Kong. Despite that there exist such favourable factors causing developers to settle for the adaptive reuse scheme, its sustainability is questioned. Fortunately, there are coming opportunities that enable local purchasers and developers to recognize the value and trading potential of adaptive reuse properties, which is a positive sign for sustainable success of conservation by developers through adaptive reuse in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Urban landscape offers an effective means to improve local capability for regional and global competitions. Along with the growing power of cultural economy, urban landscape with unique identity is increasingly repackaged as venue for cultural, particularly visual, consumption. At the same time, globally oriented cities compete with one another by promoting arts districts. In this context, arts districts have become a global urban phenomenon, contributing significantly to agglomerate cultural consumption activities. For the past two decades, arts districts in Beijing have gained rapid increase in terms of locations and spatial patterns. However ,they were called ‘artist villages’ which represent their undergrounded statues in the early 1990s.It was not until 2000s that some of them were soon commercialized with international galleries, trendy restaurants, caf?s and night clubs appearing on the scene. These underground settlements were eventually recognized as “creative clusters” by the government. Speculative developers have seized the opportunity to investigate arts districts along with the growing importance of cultural economy. Compared with western cases, Beijing’s arts districts merely took less than 20 years to shift from its isolated state to a tremendously popular one among local citizens and foreign visitors. Under this specific circumstance, the mechanism that contributes to such transformation has yet to be explored. Knowledge in this field in China is still on the stage of adopting the western model with a strong passion for explaining their economic capability. Whereas, in order to explore the relation between production landscape and consumption landscape, there is need to conduct a critical investigation for arts districts as a cultural spatial product in a social process. In light of the scenario given above, the study aims to examine the role of place identity in producing Beijing’s arts districts with special focus placed on their branding strategy. The first step of the study is to review the overall development process of Beijing’s arts districts to identify specific background conditions and analyze their development characteristics. In the given urban context, two case studies of Factory 798 and Jiuchang are carried out, which are designed to achieve the research objectives. The two cases display different patterns of development mode. However, according to the study findings, similarities between them can be explored. Based on the distinctive image that the cases create, the study arrives at a conclusion that the role of place identity is evident in forming the characteristic of the consumption pattern. The significance of place identity is recognized for lending its value to Beijing’s arts districts. Further, from production landscape to consumption landscape, the commodification process of arts districts is ineffective without the interplay of social actors. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Images of Shikumen Housing have been regularly present as Shanghai’s “collective memory”, serving as testimony to the city’s rapid growth from a backward colonial enter pot into a booming metropolis in the past decades. After 100 years of usage, it is now threatened by modern lifestyle, both functionally and materially. Revitalization is needed to extend the lifespan of the houses within. With a burgeoning enthusiasm towards urban revitalization, various approaches of revitalization have been tried, among which Tianzi Fang(田子坊), located in Taikang Road, Luwan District, is unique for its coexistence of original residents and creative industry practitioners. Results from the case study suggest that Tianzi Fang approach is more welcomed by direct stakeholders as well as visiting tourists. It challenges the conventional mode of urban revitalization by a community-initial approach. This dissertation investigates the case of Tianzi Fang. First hand survey on the spot together with secondary information collected and analyzed to have a comprehensive understanding of the characteristic and process of the revitalization for sustainable development. A literature review commented that the efficiency of public participation was appreciated which contributes a lot to Tianzi Fang’s success. A management proposal is raised at the end of the dissertation as a conclusion of the study and a reference for further research. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Cultural and creative industries are often considered as one of the latest knowledge-based economy that prevailed around the world. Globalization makes the concept of cultural and creativity spread all over the world. The rise of the creative class, which has permanently transformed our economy and society, has rapidly transformed the world (Florida, 2002). Florida has suggested the creative classes have become more pronounced in recent decades and people around the world start to live differently, pursuing a new stage of lifestyles (Florida, 2002). In Hong Kong, cultural and creative industry has only been considered in the Policy Address in 2009, which has become as one of the six new pillars industry in Hong Kong. The transformation of the economic and industrial structure in Hong Kong has injected new value-added elements in economic development. How could Hong Kong react to this change? Currently, the territory does not even have policies that promoted cultural and creative industry. Cultural and creative industries are not greatly promoted. Different artists joined together and formed different artists organization in order to protect their own value and promote the concept of cultural and arts among citizens. In this dissertation, the clustering of cultural and creative industry in Hong Kong will be discussed. Different concepts and theories about the shaping of a cultural city will be analysed. Locational factors that lead to the clustering of cultural and creative industry in Hong Kong will be examined. A local case study – Fo Tan – will be examined by all the theories and concepts regarding to this clustering effect of cultural and creative industry. Fo Tan is one of the most significant industrial areas with most cultural and creative industries in Hong Kong. Different locational factors will be examined and see if they could be fitted into the local context. Moreover, the institutional setting of cultural and creative industry and urban planning system will be analysed and see if there are any deficiencies. With all the above mentioned, this dissertation hopes to see if government policies could help the development of cultural and creative industries and if different sectors in cultural and creative industries could co-exist in Fo Tan. Looking into the future, we would like to see what the Government or other private sector could do in order to help consolidate the cluster of cultural and creative industry in Fo Tan. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Adaptive reuse of industrial buildings into creative spaces has recently sparked global (Mommaas, 2000, 2004; Daniels, Ho, and Hutton, 2012)and local interests (Leung, 2010; Kong, 2012). The clustering effects of creative spaces have also inspired extensive research on how creative spaces could contribute to urban development and in particular economic growth (Pratt, Andy C., 2004; Evans, 2009; Mommaas, 2009). This dissertation critically reviews existing literature and examines the hypothesis with a comparative study of the Fotanian Artist Village (Fotanian) and Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC), which represent two distinctive development trajectories namely organic and planned creative spaces in Hong Kong. It is argued that the development of creative spaces in industrial buildings is strongly correlated to the intention of the public sector to promote creative economies, as well as market assumptions in dealing with obsolescence in urban environment. Both are governed by the concept of neoliberalism, which advocates utilization of land resources based on exchange value rather than use value, and the use of creative spaces as urban development tools. Thus, developing creative spaces in obsolete places through adaptive reuse would restrain the organic growth of creative spaces, or result in its commodification and institutionalization. The hidden neoliberal agenda has also led to the misconception that creative spaces should be assessed for its efficiency and effectiveness as a cluster based on the agglomeration effect of industrial cluster in traditional sense. Fotanian and JCCAC are selected to test against their success performances based on the cluster theory. The two cases are compared to examine whether the planned is less successful than the organic as suggested by the literature. Findings suggest that neither one of them entirely fulfills all the conditions of creative cluster identified in the literature for a successful creative space. Indeed the clustering effect is an inconclusive, if not misleading, criterion of successful creative spaces, given that the development of creative spaces in cities might bring a variety of benefits. Studies have shown that the adaptive reuse of obsolete places might pose potential threats to creative spaces. It is argued that the success of organic and planned creative spaces can only be possible in the long term when breeding and sustaining factors are introduced. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

The global climate has been affected adversely due to the emissions of large amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and there is an urgent need for emissions reduction. Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and the reduction of its emissions is indispensable to the achievement of sustainable development. The building sector is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions and one way to reduce the emissions is uplifting the energy efficiency of existing buildings by conducting sustainable building refurbishment. As cost would affect the decisions on sustainable building refurbishment strategies, it is necessary to examine the cost of various sustainable refurbishment solutions for existing buildings. Unfortunately, most of the previous studies focused on the technical side with little effort being directed to cost side. Therefore, cost analysis of sustainable building refurbishment solutions should be conducted to fill the research gap. The aim of the research is to develop a cost estimation model to facilitate decision makers to evaluate the cost of sustainable building refurbishment solutions for residential buildings in Hong Kong by considering various factors affecting the cost. The major research methods include literature review, interview and questionnaire survey. Through literature review, the current practice of sustainable building refurbishment is investigated. A variety of refurbishment solutions including improvement on building envelope, renovation of building services system and the use of renewable energy are reviewed. Cost evaluation techniques commonly used in the construction industry including qualitative techniques, quantitative techniques and intelligent methods are also identified and discussed. Due to the limitations of cost data and previous experience, it is suggested that fuzzy logic theory be adopted to develop the cost estimation model. To facilitate the development of the model, the factors affecting the cost of sustainable building refurbishment solutions are examined through literature review and interview. It is found that market price, complexity, efficiency, economy of scale and disturbance are the dominant factors affecting the fluctuation of cost. Finally, a fuzzy reasoning cost estimation model of sustainable building refurbishment solutions is developed. The model is built based on fuzzy reasoning system. Users can input the information of the project and the model is able to evaluate the cost fluctuation based on the information provided by the users. The model is then validated. The cost estimation model developed in this research provides a new way for the construction industry practitioners to estimate the cost of sustainable building refurbishment projects effectively and efficiently. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Elevation of blood pressure leads to structural and functional alterations in vasculature, resulting in increased arterial stiffness, which in turn is a predictor of future hypertension and cardiovascular risks. Angiotensin II (Ang II) plays a crucial role in blood pressure regulation. In addition to its hemodynamic effects, Ang II activates both innate and adaptive immunity. The objective of this study is to define the roles of CD4⁺ T lymphocyte subsets in the progression of vascular remodeling and stiffening induced by Ang II. A mouse model of Ang II infusion was used to induce hypertension and vascular diseases. In the WT mice, Ang II infusion led to an increased aortic stiffness within 7 days of the treatment as well as an increase in aortic remodeling within 14 days of the treatment. Interestingly, RAG1(-/-) mice, lacking functional T and B lymphocytes were prevented from the vascular stiffening and remodeling caused by Ang II. Characterization of T cell subsets in the perivascular aortic infiltrates showed that there was a sequential activation of peri-arotic Th1 and Th17 during the time course of Ang II treatment, which was associated with the initial increased aortic stiffness and the subsequent remodeling, respectively. To extend the concept, roles of suppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs) were further examined. Proliferation of Tregs was successfully induced in vivo using a cytokine complex of IL-2 and anti-IL-2 mAb clone JES6-1. Ang II-infused mice that received the IL-2/anti-IL-2 complex exhibited a reduced vascular remodeling and stiffening caused by Ang II. Stimulation of Tregs with the IL-2/anti-IL-2 complex also suppressed the Th1 and Th17 responses and reduced immune cells infiltrates in the aortas. Since hypertension is closely related to the kidney and renal homeostasis is also tightly regulated by Ang II, the kidney function was determined in this Ang II-hypertensive model. In the wild type mice, two weeks infusion of Ang II resulted in an increased glomerular filtration rate (GFR) whereas immunodeficient RAG1(-/-) mice exhibited a marked decrease in GFR. Subsequent experiments showed that Th17 was crucial in renal hemodynamic response to Ang II, partly by regulating secretion of vasodilatory prostaglandin E₂.