The transformation of Hong Kong into a high-density city has created a unique three-dimensional
urban fabric defined through networks of urban activity and infrastructure within
tight spatial constraints of mountainous slopes and the island shoreline. In Hong Kong urban
development, the government performs a dual role both as landlord and as administrator
determining the development agenda. With limited space available for development high
land price policies have restricted land supplies and priority is given to ‘economic space’
rather than ‘life space’. This has created a city of mobility based on consumption where
privatized public spaces such as shopping malls, corporate plazas and elevated walkways are
linked primarily to promote shopping. Public spaces are increasingly managed by private
parties, and the degree of publicness of such spaces is often not clearly distinguishable to
their potential users. Due to Hong Kong’s population density of approximately 33,000
persons/km2, practices of everyday life are increasingly limited by multiple restrictions
controlling the use of spaces that only seem to be public.
The district of Central, Hong Kong features an urban network of both publicly and privately
maintained elevated pedestrian walkways that provide a secondary circulation space.
Designed according to commercial priorities, the walkway system in Central typically links
privately owned second floor lobbies with similar owners to promote consumption. Although
these regulated spaces are required to allow public access 24 hours a day, pedestrian
connectivity seems merely an after thought. In such private public spaces, pedestrians move
between consumption nodes through a maze of displays and windows filled with luxury
consumer goods. This study takes focus on the walkways in Central thus investigating
publicness specifically within the context of Hong Kong's high-density urban fabric, then
within a wider context of elevated pedestrian walkway systems in Asian Pacific cities. To
this end, this thesis employs an empirical case study methodology consisting of a series of
observational studies. Each of these studies publicness transcribed through observations of
use, users and use patterns. This study identifies a distinction that underlies the discussion of
publicness: that of non-place as opposed to place. The distinction of space and place relates
to whether users establish personal relationships to the spaces they use and has drawn much
critical attention in urban studies over the past several decades. Places typically provide the
stage for social practices. The relationship between place and mobility at an elevated level
has however, not been studied in detail yet. As mobile urban populations pass through places
more than we dwell in them, a new type of space has emerged to facilitate a ‘frictionless
passage’, or non-place. Within this realm of non-place pedestrians pass through zones of
movement like passengers experiencing a lack of relationship or disconnectivity with a space.
This leads to the question whether elevated pedestrian walkways consisting of spatial flows,
movement and transitional zones are only capable of performing as non-places? Can
relationships develop between the walkways and their users, making them more than non-places,
but places?
A case study forms the main part of this thesis and specifically focuses on observing aspect of
movement and circulation within Central that determine perceptions of publicness. Findings
resulting from this study provide an understanding of the ambiguous nature of spaces in
Central. From a background study of elevated pedestrian walkways in six Asian Pacific
cities, indicators of publicness are established that provide a framework to distinguish
characteristics of elevated pedestrian walkways. In Central, gatherings among domestic
helpers are found to contribute to the success of the elevated pedestrian walkway system into
urban context. Results of this study indicate that elevated pedestrian walkways can be both
places and non-places depending on the publicness of space and suggest how a transition of
publicness can occur within such spaces. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/174362 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Rotmeyer, Juliana Adele. |
| Contributors | Lau, SSY, Zhu, T |
| 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/B47300292 |
| 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) |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds