ADS9: Aura - A Call for An Open Architecture
Bettina Chow
Bettina completed her BA(ArchStud) at the University of Hong Kong in 2017, prior which she had works exhibited in HKU Degree Show, Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Hong Kong) and REVEAL 2 HKIA. Before studying in the RCA, she worked for Architecture Commons as Year-out architectural assistant on various schools and community projects in Hong Kong. She also worked in CRAB Studio during Summer 2019, currently looking to further her career in the UK.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, this year was exceptionally heart-breaking to see the city going through social unrest and vast political changes. This unprecedented times had me thinking more about the values and identity of Hongkonger, especially the relationship between the built environment and people across generations.
This year, my thesis research stem in two ways; a personal historic account on my family house in Hong Kong, and a volunteering group Fixing HK, formed after the Umbrella Movement in 2014. Both reflect how domestic spaces were shaped through constantly redefined kinship and values, which were heavily influenced by the socio-political environment of Hong Kong since colonial times.
I believe that domestic space is an epitome of the city, which enables one to read common norms of the time, from cultures, rituals to gender roles. It is also a powerful device to frame lives and facilitate new affiliation between people, the neighbourhood and the city. The project shown below is my proposal of an ‘anti-typological’ housing, an alternative way of collective living to the existing high-rise flats.
Learning from Hong Kong protests in the recent year, it is important to gather like-minded people, to bring the localism ideology into daily life and find ways to engage the new era. Especially in uncertain times like now, demonstrating and preserving local cultures and values that generations of Hongkonger hold dearly and proud is above all else critical.
Sectional Perspective in Context — To enhance the wind channelled from the surrounding buildings, the building across the site is generally lower and flatter. Lightness and fluidity of space and structure create a less claustrophobic atmosphere for living.
Stratified Inhabitation — The terracing form provided open space on each level, also created open canyons and sheltered voids across the site for individuals to gather in any weather condition. Small shops and markets are lined on the street level, which culturally are places of casual interaction and neighbourhood exchange.
Bringing the Occupy experience to daily life, a neighbourhood-based volunteer group, Fixing Hong Kong was formed. Volunteers would go to people’s homes and help them fix home appliances, which ownership of space was redefined by this new mode of co-dependence learnt from the Occupy. They also use urban spaces in a very fluid way, treating existing buildings and spaces as infrastructure, disregarding its original purpose; such as hosting movie screenings on rooftops of apartment blocks and forums on the street.
The 53,000sqm site is situated in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, a gentrifying district that was densely built-up with a mix of older residential blocks - Tong Lau and high-rise apartment towers. Surrounding the site, wind is greatly reshaped by the cityscape, hence the building enhances airflow and reduces accumulative heat through terracing and aligning living spaces parallel to the direction of the incoming breeze. Approached from all directions to the inner streets, open staircases lead up to all levels of the collective living platforms, loosely divided by parallel walls. There are no static interiors or rooms, only mattresses enclosed by curtains. Other infrastructures for living such as sinks, kitchen and washing cubicles are in the form of loose furniture, shared among the dwellers, to adapt to different social settings and group sizes. Between these clusters of terracing platforms form open canyons and sheltered voids; larger communal spaces facilitate community interactions from grocery shopping to the celebration of festivals. Partially protected by a wind-sensitive textile canopy, the aura of temporariness is demonstrated through the constant change of light and shadow, dependent on external weather conditions. As the wind blows, shadows cast on the platforms and inner streets scatter.
The project departs from these unfamiliar spatial settings and newly emerged way of informal living, to search for an ‘anti-typological’ living alternative to the existing high-rise housing in Hong Kong.
