Hong Kong’s extremely high density has mesmerised many outsiders for years. Through the
devastations of the World War II to the influx of immigration from the Mainland China, Hong
Kong has managed to build a remarkable city within the severely limited land mass and
inhospitable topography.
Hong Kong’s skyscrapers sores into the sky, leaving crevasses of spaces between towers for
people and vehicles to flow through. In the Central Business District, elevated walkway
connections hovers and criss-crosses every major roads, moving thousands of people on a
daily bases. Some people descend into the CBD by hopping on hill-side escalator from nearby
residential area of Mid-Levels. Seemingly chaotic yet orderly typical scene of Hong Kong’s
CBD is enough to intimidate first timers to Hong Kong. Add flying cars and people in futuristic
suits, it will be enough to resemble those images of future envisaged by film makers and
architects from the early 20th century. The vertical city of Hong Kong has emerged as one of the
first embryonic volumetric cities in the world.
Hong Kong continues to defy the conventional Western beliefs in urban planning and
development establishing itself as an efficient, vibrant and safe urban model with an extreme
density. Yet, the city’s experience remains peripheral to the mainstream debates despite many
lessons to be learned from Hong Kong as more cities aspire to intensify in an attempt to
establish sustainable living. The reasons for this can be attributed to the general lack of
evidence-based research on Hong Kong’s model, especially in vertical urbanism, as well as the
reluctance to adapt higher density living in the West, shrouded by grossly misunderstood
notions of density.
This research begins by demystifying the (mis)understandings of density using Hong Kong as
an example and attempts to decode the complexity of Hong Kong’s urban model. The research
does this by developing and applying a quantifiable tool – the Volumetric Study - to assess and
analyse the current practice of building in Hong Kong and to identify the emerging condition of
multiple ground.
The complexities of vertical and/or volumetric living are assessed using readily available data
and simple field work. It is hoped that the Volumetric Study offers insight into the understanding
of how existing buildings operate as well as providing potential guidance for future
improvements and development. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/174365 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Hwang, Se-young. |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47307432 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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