This paper focuses on the character of multi-level pedestrian accessibility and walkability withi... more This paper focuses on the character of multi-level pedestrian accessibility and walkability within the public and quasi-public realm in Hong Kong, using the particular case of the redevelopment of Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay. In an era when the value of public space as a space for public activity and debate is coming under increasing scrutiny, both in Hong Kong and internationally, this paper explores multi-level interior and exterior public and quasi-public realm, as a hybrid form of interior open and transit space in a commercial setting that has becomes a central part of the city’s planning, designed to both serve and profit from the high level of pedestrian traffic. This paper draws on empirical research of pedestrian behaviour patterns to interrogate the value and significance of linked-spaces within commercial districts, both to the users and the real estate travelled through, using the city of Hong Kong as a reference and the specific case of Taikoo Place.
East Asian urbanization is characterized by complex processes of extensive densi fication. Fuelle... more East Asian urbanization is characterized by complex processes of extensive densi fication. Fuelled by rapid economic growth, Asian cities' size, scale, and physical dimensions remain incomparable to any Western se ing. During the past thirty years alone, various concepts have a empted to de fine hyperdensity, layering, and intensity as core principles of Asian urban development. Although these concepts explore the physical properties of development, few examples provide insights into the behavioural and social dimensions of such complex morphological se ings. This paper examines the eff ects of urban compaction and volumetric urbanism on liveability in East Asian cities. Hong Kong exempli fies an extreme scale and rate of densi fication. Podium developments – commercial plinths elevated above street level that connect large residential towers to commercial complexes – are one of the city's most common development types. The hypothesis is that the combination of diff erent ty...
A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and ... more A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and Gerhard Bruyns.
This paper focuses on the character of multi-level pedestrian accessibility and walkability withi... more This paper focuses on the character of multi-level pedestrian accessibility and walkability within the public and quasi-public realm in Hong Kong, using the particular case of the redevelopment of Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay. In an era when the value of public space as a space for public activity and debate is coming under increasing scrutiny, both in Hong Kong and internationally, this paper explores multi-level interior and exterior public and quasi-public realm, as a hybrid form of interior open and transit space in a commercial setting that has becomes a central part of the city’s planning, designed to both serve and profit from the high level of pedestrian traffic. This paper draws on empirical research of pedestrian behaviour patterns to interrogate the value and significance of linked-spaces within commercial districts, both to the users and the real estate travelled through, using the city of Hong Kong as a reference and the specific case of Taikoo Place.
East Asian urbanization is characterized by complex processes of extensive densi fication. Fuelle... more East Asian urbanization is characterized by complex processes of extensive densi fication. Fuelled by rapid economic growth, Asian cities' size, scale, and physical dimensions remain incomparable to any Western se ing. During the past thirty years alone, various concepts have a empted to de fine hyperdensity, layering, and intensity as core principles of Asian urban development. Although these concepts explore the physical properties of development, few examples provide insights into the behavioural and social dimensions of such complex morphological se ings. This paper examines the eff ects of urban compaction and volumetric urbanism on liveability in East Asian cities. Hong Kong exempli fies an extreme scale and rate of densi fication. Podium developments – commercial plinths elevated above street level that connect large residential towers to commercial complexes – are one of the city's most common development types. The hypothesis is that the combination of diff erent ty...
A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and ... more A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and Gerhard Bruyns.
Within Hong Kong’s neoliberal landscape, what insights can an interrogation of its domestic inter... more Within Hong Kong’s neoliberal landscape, what insights can an interrogation of its domestic interior deliver in terms of spatial and tactical adaptability in the context of volumetrically compressed living? As an urban necessity, dwelling has globally become a malleable urban resource, part and parcel of speculative development far beyond the control of the individual (Levin and Wright 1997 Levin, E. J., and R. E. Wright. 1997. “Speculation in the Housing Market?” SAGE Journal, Urban Studies 34 (9): 1419–1437. (Accessed 13 May 2016). doi: 10.1080/0042098975493. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ; UNECE 2016 UNECE 2016. “The Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing.” (Accessed 13 May 2016). [Google Scholar] ). Demonstrative of planning and social policy, housing standards have become socio-spatial registers (Marshall 1950 Marshall, T. H. 1950. Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays. London: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar] ), that at the larger scale essentially expose misread criteria that affect social mobility and the “well-being” of all citizens (Morris 1961 Morris, P., H. Alford, et al. 1961. Ministry of Housing and Local Government: Homes for Today & Tomorrow. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. [Google Scholar] ). However, beyond the structural issues lies a “lived” reality. The need for equal housing (Yung and Lee 2014 Yung, B., and F. Lee. P. 2014. “‘Equal Right to Housing’ in Hong Kong Housing Policy: perspectives from Disadvantaged Groups.” Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 29 (4): 563. doi: 10.1007/s10901-013-9365-2. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ), and the rising criticism of public housing’s punitive point system (Yau 2012 Yau, Y. 2012. “Social Impacts of the Marking Scheme in Public Housing in Hong Kong.” Social Indicators Research 107 (2): 281–303. doi: 10.1007/s11205-011-9837-2. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ), has forced the “practice” of dwelling to become a “tactical” environment. In view of Hong Kong’s spatial recoil, this paper commences from a position that sees compressed interiors as a mirror for social needs. First, the investigation of interiors questions how space is tactically mechanized – how and by what means – against compressed living that maximizes moments of “micro-resistance.” Second, in an ethnographic sense, it posits the square-foot-society concept, that triangulates the conditions of quotidian everydayness with the spatial technical affordances that become specific to groups, peoples, and cultures with their customs and habits. As a conclusion the paper harnesses the “tactical” to formulate alternatives to challenge planning attitudes that view compression as a natural consequence of sustainability and at the larger scale of Hong Kong’s approach to Urbanization.
Workers in Hong Kong made plastic flowers, incense before that, and consumer goods throughout the... more Workers in Hong Kong made plastic flowers, incense before that, and consumer goods throughout the city’s provincial, Imperial, and colonial periods. Kowloon Peninsula’s deep harbour and proximity to shipping lanes gave rise to export-oriented industries long before imperialistic conflicts changed their ownership from Chinese to British, and back again. Making things in this context served to define self-motivated enterprise. Hong Kong Chinese people made most of their export goods following a low material investment, labour-intensive model. Workers hand-painted ceramics and toys more often than their employers invested in better plant to replace their work. Relationships to time and industry have changed in Hong Kong, particularly since the 1980s. The city has re-imagined itself as a centre for financial capital and knowledge capital, as a ‘global metropolis’ rather than a manufacturing hub. Indeed, this particular factory of the world is now defined regionally rather than locally. Cross-border trade communicates knowledge capital from the offices of Hong Kong to the sprawling, cheaply rented tidal flats of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Guangzhou, where the physical capital of real estate awaits. This re-imagining brings inequalities. Spatial and economic ‘compression’ has occurred, where profound poverty and anxiety sit adjacent to the ‘top-level professionals coming to the city’ and the ‘global flows’ of commerce and capital.6 Along with the clearance and replacement of old spatial morphologies, historic areas of the city have been redeveloped to allow those not participating in the ‘knowledge-based economy’ to maintain their lives and livelihood. The conflicts of agency in this scenario are reflected in specific decisions that designers make, placed as they are between knowledge workers and object makers. The binary character of globalisation centres is, in part, prompted by ambition to ascend from poverty, and the ensuing fluidity of physical capital changing rapidly in relation to knowledge or financial capital. Conventional architectural design practice specialises in accommodating the latter two forms of added value, benefiting from the fluidity of work across global borders, nimbly following the factories of the world as global capitalisation is insinuated into cheap labour markets.10 The primary constraints upon this fluidity are prevailing starting biases, influencing how things should be made, and containing preoccupations about who does the making. In response to these prevailing predispositions, we set out here possibilities for a material-led design research practice – out of our own preliminary work – to seek to transcend the spatial inequities that a globalisation centre produces.
In a digital paradigm, so exposed by the conveniences of social media and the infinite replicatio... more In a digital paradigm, so exposed by the conveniences of social media and the infinite replication of images, it is hard to imagine how some Hong Kong spaces and interiors are disappearing – replaced in part by image and in part by reflection and transparency that removes shadow, material presence and physical embodiment – given that the constructed world of buildings, homes and stores provides an intense sense of inertia, one that falsely endows a belief in the permanence of our physical environs.
The notion of territoriality, territory and terrain are all derivatives of 'terra' or 'earth.' As... more The notion of territoriality, territory and terrain are all derivatives of 'terra' or 'earth.' As discourse, 'territory' has remained largely land centred for its terminologies, means of representation or in its application within urbanization. Water, conversely, is often considered as a resource or as a specific morphological characteristic but rarely as a key object of discourse. China's claim within the South China Sea and the subsequent creation of newly formed 'island outposts', has brought to light the political welding that water holds, as both territorial claim and negotiating instrument. Particularly significant in the context of increasing pressures on development in this urban age.
This paper examines how the substitution of 'terra derived' concepts with that of 'hydro' driven concepts, impact the domains of territoriality in planning and urbanism. Focus is placed on speculative projections of design work that highlights one possible method of reconfiguring the territoriality of the South China Sea. Consequentially this work questions the assumptions and spatial ideologies in the 'nine-dash line' policy.
The emergence of social media and the networked society, as exemplified by [but not limited to] T... more The emergence of social media and the networked society, as exemplified by [but not limited to] The Internet of Things [Ashton, 1999], generates enormous potentials that reposition design as a means to synthesize emerging social complexities into new constellations. These have the capacity to foster new social forms and social design as a knowledge field in its own right. One of the ways design in this context becomes reconfigured is as the dynamic interconnections of people, practices and artifacts, in which the interactions lead to relational rather than objectified forms of design. Such approaches tend to be process driven rather than outcome based, and activate design’s potential within both knowledge generation and knowledge transfer processes - that can be understood as ‘information’ or as design before design and design after design. This provides pathways for innovation in the development of new processes, systems, networked and relational outcomes. Changes in social systems therefore evolve the ways design develops towards these forms of knowledge, utilising collaborative processes and cross-disciplinary practices [Sanders & Stappers, 2008]. As design disciplines and design schools seek ways to respond to broader social changes, there is a need for new a research praxis to engage design processes in social contexts to contextualise, codify and define this emerging praxis as Design Social...
H. Sohn, S. Kousoulas and G. Bruyns, (2015) “Commoning as Differentiated Publicness” in Footprint... more H. Sohn, S. Kousoulas and G. Bruyns, (2015) “Commoning as Differentiated Publicness” in Footprint Issue#16 Spring 2015 eds. H. Sohn, S. Kousoulas and G. Bruyns, Delft: Architecture Theory Chair in partnership with Stichting Footprint and Techne Press, pp. 1-8
Contemporary commoning practices do not constitute a mere alternative, but instead comprise a qualitative threshold: a moment of critical differentiation. As such, they call out for the development of a set of renewed methodological, analytical and synthetic tools and devices that are better equipped to understand the in-between as a ‘thirding’: as a form of differentiated publicness. The editorial introduction offers a platform of negotiation, which far from disregarding the already established approaches to the thematic in question, aims at expanding their scope, complementing them with non-dialectical readings. By presenting non-hierarchical understandings of urban practices, as well as fostering the intersection of different trajectories and discourses, the introduction to this issue strives to provide a fertile ground for the encounter of the multidimensional and relational potentials of contemporary commoning practices.
This urban thesis represents a body of work which spans eight years. Presented within its pages i... more This urban thesis represents a body of work which spans eight years. Presented within its pages is a ‘PhD-Thesis-Atlas’ related to the questions of how to read the urban structure for the contemporary urban landscape. It embodies first and foremost the academic explorations of what specific questions, problems and issues present themselves within the debate of urban morphology and, specifically, typomorphology which centres its activity around the study of the physical [building] and spatial [open] forms of the cities. The Thesis-Atlas simultaneously traces the effects of the typomorphological debate through the visual and empirical explorations of urban form and structure. Documented here, is a theoretical underpinning for the debate, as well as a proposal on how to empirically reflect on urban form and place formations. The document is divided into 4 parts. Parts 1 to 3 contain the core text and theoretical elaborations within the debate, and explore the possible methods of how to examine the city empirically. A total of 10 chapters, each with a specific focus and questions, complete part 1 to 3. Each chapter has visual markers to indicate which images relate to specific issues mentioned in the text. Part 4 represents the visual narrative of the thesis. It contains all graphic material, either sourced or original, in photographic, mapped and diagrammatic formats. It is hoped that the 500 images shown in this thesis will help guide the reader through the periods and types of development which has not only been instrumental in the historical development of the debate surrounding city structure, but also to act as a stimulus for future work.
This book directly links the notion of the commons with different design praxes, and explores the... more This book directly links the notion of the commons with different design praxes, and explores their social, cultural, and ecological ramifications. It draws out material conditions in four areas of design interest: social design, commons and culture, ecology and transdisciplinary design. As a collection of positions, the diversity of arguments advances the understanding of the commons as both concepts and modes of thinking, and their material translation when contextualised in the domain of design questions. In other words, it moves abstract social science concepts towards concrete design debates. This text appeals to students, researchers and practitioners working on design in architecture, architecture theory, urbanism, and ecology.
Overall, the premise of Hong Kong’s entrepreneurial legacy is not lost. Not so much an ‘island of... more Overall, the premise of Hong Kong’s entrepreneurial legacy is not lost. Not so much an ‘island of entrepreneurism,’ Hong Kong’s position has transformed into a landscape of ‘(in)trepreneurism’. The shifting of industry, the emphasis of commercial enclaves and the compression of production centres collectively combine and inwardness at all levels of its urbanisms. With the rise of the creative class (Florida, 2002) the shift is made towards design as a domestic product and service industry. Design, not as a mass production of goods but as synthesis of skills, knowhow and knowledge driven by small-scale collectives. In the paradigm of the ‘collective’ (Sohn, et.al.) design takes on a new position, through the home, the three-person office, the two-man family-run shop or in the organization of individual street vendors. Whether echoed within the disciplinary approaches of architecture, urban, product or communication design, the future premise of the any entrepreneurial city need to question how and in what forms ‘design social’, ‘design economies’ and ‘design making’ grounds itself in both social urban capital, in or exterior, as future prospect of, not only Hong Kong, but other urbanisms further afield.
In the following account, which I have entitled Distorted Perspectives; Notes from the Urban Edge... more In the following account, which I have entitled Distorted Perspectives; Notes from the Urban Edge, I have identified what I call ‘transformative types’ and have examined how these types range from identity to the larger problematique of urban form. It is also necessary to speak about urban form and of what may be termed morphological nomenclatures. When I speak of types I do not intend this to suggest definitive and closed systems. Indeed, as the material will show, this opens up more questions and exposes larger undercurrents than is often immediately visible, and, further, the magnitude of variables are such that they facilitate the very formative process that is instrumental in inducing change....
A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and ... more A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and Gerhard Bruyns.
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Papers by Gerhard Bruyns
[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]
; UNECE 2016 UNECE 2016. “The Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing.” (Accessed 13 May 2016).
[Google Scholar]
). Demonstrative of planning and social policy, housing standards have become socio-spatial registers (Marshall 1950 Marshall, T. H. 1950. Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays. London: Cambridge University Press.
[Google Scholar]
), that at the larger scale essentially expose misread criteria that affect social mobility and the “well-being” of all citizens (Morris 1961 Morris, P., H. Alford, et al. 1961. Ministry of Housing and Local Government: Homes for Today & Tomorrow. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
[Google Scholar]
). However, beyond the structural issues lies a “lived” reality. The need for equal housing (Yung and Lee 2014 Yung, B., and F. Lee. P. 2014. “‘Equal Right to Housing’ in Hong Kong Housing Policy: perspectives from Disadvantaged Groups.” Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 29 (4): 563. doi: 10.1007/s10901-013-9365-2.
[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]
), and the rising criticism of public housing’s punitive point system (Yau 2012 Yau, Y. 2012. “Social Impacts of the Marking Scheme in Public Housing in Hong Kong.” Social Indicators Research 107 (2): 281–303. doi: 10.1007/s11205-011-9837-2.
[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]
), has forced the “practice” of dwelling to become a “tactical” environment. In view of Hong Kong’s spatial recoil, this paper commences from a position that sees compressed interiors as a mirror for social needs. First, the investigation of interiors questions how space is tactically mechanized – how and by what means – against compressed living that maximizes moments of “micro-resistance.” Second, in an ethnographic sense, it posits the square-foot-society concept, that triangulates the conditions of quotidian everydayness with the spatial technical affordances that become specific to groups, peoples, and cultures with their customs and habits. As a conclusion the paper harnesses the “tactical” to formulate alternatives to challenge planning attitudes that view compression as a natural consequence of sustainability and at the larger scale of Hong Kong’s approach to Urbanization.
shipping lanes gave rise to export-oriented industries long before
imperialistic conflicts changed their ownership from Chinese
to British, and back again. Making things in this context
served to define self-motivated enterprise. Hong Kong Chinese
people made most of their export goods following a low material
investment, labour-intensive model. Workers hand-painted
ceramics and toys more often than their employers invested in better
plant to replace their work. Relationships to time and
industry have changed in Hong Kong, particularly since the 1980s.
The city has re-imagined itself as a centre for financial capital
and knowledge capital, as a ‘global metropolis’ rather than
a manufacturing hub. Indeed, this particular factory of the
world is now defined regionally rather than locally. Cross-border
trade communicates knowledge capital from the offices of Hong
Kong to the sprawling, cheaply rented tidal flats of Shenzhen,
Zhuhai, and Guangzhou, where the physical capital of real
estate awaits. This re-imagining brings inequalities. Spatial
and economic ‘compression’ has occurred, where profound
poverty and anxiety sit adjacent to the ‘top-level professionals
coming to the city’ and the ‘global flows’ of commerce and
capital.6 Along with the clearance and replacement of old spatial
morphologies, historic areas of the city have been redeveloped to
allow those not participating in the ‘knowledge-based economy’ to
maintain their lives and livelihood. The conflicts of agency in this
scenario are reflected in specific decisions that designers make,
placed as they are between knowledge workers and object
makers. The binary character of globalisation centres is, in
part, prompted by ambition to ascend from poverty, and the
ensuing fluidity of physical capital changing rapidly in relation to
knowledge or financial capital. Conventional architectural
design practice specialises in accommodating the latter two
forms of added value, benefiting from the fluidity of work across
global borders, nimbly following the factories of the world as
global capitalisation is insinuated into cheap labour markets.10 The
primary constraints upon this fluidity are prevailing starting
biases, influencing how things should be made, and containing
preoccupations about who does the making. In response to these
prevailing predispositions, we set out here possibilities for a
material-led design research practice – out of our own
preliminary work – to seek to transcend the spatial inequities that a globalisation centre produces.
This paper examines how the substitution of 'terra derived' concepts with that of 'hydro' driven concepts, impact the domains of territoriality in planning and urbanism. Focus is placed on speculative projections of design work that highlights one possible method of reconfiguring the territoriality of the South China Sea. Consequentially this work questions the assumptions and spatial ideologies in the 'nine-dash line' policy.
One of the ways design in this context becomes reconfigured is as the dynamic interconnections of people, practices and artifacts, in which the interactions lead to relational rather than objectified forms of design. Such approaches tend to be process driven rather than outcome based, and activate design’s potential within both knowledge generation and knowledge transfer processes - that can be understood as ‘information’ or as design before design and design after design. This provides pathways for innovation in the development of new processes, systems, networked and relational outcomes. Changes in social systems therefore evolve the ways design develops towards these forms of knowledge, utilising collaborative processes and cross-disciplinary practices [Sanders & Stappers, 2008]. As design disciplines and design schools seek ways to respond to broader social changes, there is a need for new a research praxis to engage design processes in social contexts to contextualise, codify and define this emerging praxis as Design Social...
Contemporary commoning practices do not constitute a mere alternative, but instead comprise a qualitative threshold: a moment of critical differentiation. As such, they call out for the development of a set of renewed methodological, analytical and synthetic tools and devices that are better equipped to understand the in-between as a ‘thirding’: as a form of differentiated publicness. The editorial introduction offers a platform of negotiation, which far from disregarding the already established approaches to the thematic in question, aims at expanding their scope, complementing them with non-dialectical readings. By presenting non-hierarchical understandings of urban practices, as well as fostering the intersection of different trajectories and discourses, the introduction to this issue strives to provide a fertile ground for the encounter of the multidimensional and relational potentials of contemporary commoning practices.
questions, problems and issues present themselves within the debate of urban morphology and, specifically, typomorphology which centres its
activity around the study of the physical [building] and spatial [open] forms of the cities.
The Thesis-Atlas simultaneously traces the effects of the typomorphological debate through the visual and empirical explorations of urban form and structure. Documented here, is a theoretical underpinning for the debate, as well as a proposal on how to empirically reflect on urban form and place formations.
The document is divided into 4 parts. Parts 1 to 3 contain the core text and theoretical elaborations within the debate, and explore the possible
methods of how to examine the city empirically. A total of 10 chapters, each with a specific focus and questions, complete part 1 to 3. Each chapter has visual markers to indicate which images relate to specific issues mentioned in the text. Part 4 represents the visual narrative of the thesis. It contains all graphic material, either sourced or original, in photographic, mapped and diagrammatic formats.
It is hoped that the 500 images shown in this thesis will help guide the reader through the periods and types of development which has not only been instrumental in the historical development of the debate surrounding city structure, but also to act as a stimulus for future work.
‘(in)trepreneurism’. The shifting of industry,
the emphasis of commercial enclaves and the compression of production centres collectively combine and inwardness at all levels of its urbanisms. With the rise of the creative class
(Florida, 2002) the shift is made towards design as a domestic product and service industry. Design, not as a mass production of goods but as synthesis of skills, knowhow and knowledge driven by small-scale collectives. In the paradigm of the ‘collective’ (Sohn, et.al.) design takes on
a new position, through the home, the three-person office, the two-man family-run shop
or in the organization of individual street vendors. Whether echoed within the disciplinary approaches of architecture, urban, product or communication design, the future premise of the any entrepreneurial city need to question how and in what forms ‘design social’, ‘design economies’ and ‘design making’ grounds itself in both social urban capital, in or exterior, as future prospect of, not only Hong Kong, but other urbanisms further afield.
questions and exposes larger undercurrents than is often immediately visible, and, further, the magnitude of variables are such that they facilitate the very formative process that is instrumental in inducing change....