Retrieval of Private Owned Public Space Public Owned Public Space
Generating Public Open Space from Public Space in High-Density Urban City
Privatization of public realm seems to be ‘encouraged’ by Hong Kong government since extra public space in private development is exempted in Gross Floor Area calculation. This trend of urban development brings significant improvement in total area of public space on paper, however the accessibility issue and management problem are questioned through decades. Although the total area of private owned public space is almost 1.5 times of Victoria Park, community may not be benefit due to the uncertain publicity of these spaces.
In order to inject public open space into neighborhood, generating that from public sector instead of private properties is the abstract. While overall land is limited and city is nearly saturated, potential is thus found over the infrastructural network system.
WHAT?
Layer Public Open Space added on the public infrastructure network
in light-weight structure in-between the urban blocks
Highway bridges and railway flyovers are essential elements of city and its area portion in dense urban area may even larger than parks and open spaces. There are 1,330 in total found in both old and new developed towns in Hong Kong, which they are located in the area, crossing in-between lots and connecting different districts.
Layer Public Open Space would gain the benefit of these infrastructural qualities and applying those to the social level, brings flow of public space to the residents as well as activates the community.
The test case therefore is picked along the East Kowloon Corridor in To Kwa Wan, with the minimum distance between the edge of flyover and building façade is just about 5 meters. Serious noise pollution by heavy traffic and problematic indoor air quality due to lack of ventilation affect the residents for years. Noise barrier cannot be added due to the limitation of the designed loading ability, government says rebuilding the whole flyover is the ‘only way’, meanwhile it is not in schedule in foreseeable future. This thesis will be thus focusing on this test case and exploring possibilities to add the layer lightly over the flyover from structural perspective as initial point, which the target outcome is suitable for both new-built and existing highway structure.
WHY?
Layers of Infrastructure
contain different elements but on same surface layer
A recent discourse on public space related to infrastructure is High Line Park in New York City. It was an unused railway for trucking industry, and reuses as public open space in 2009. The layer of infrastructure in this case is hidden under the layer of new public open space, the pure experience of flow of public open space and movement in the city are the key of success, which is surely gained from the infrastructural quality of the hidden layer to elevate the new layer.
However by June 2015, there are about 340 licensed vehicles for every kilometer of road in Hong Kong. Together with the re-route and bypass projects currently in construction, reclaiming those located in the dense districts to transform to public space does not seem to gain support by the government nor majority of public. Maintaining a fully functioning infrastructural network is thus important, therefore instead of merging two layers into one, experiment on how to place the layer public open space over the flyover is the key, extracting the quality and letting both work as gears.
Aiming to contribute to the future development of public open space and infrastructure system, it is a mixed typology in urban scale which has been discussed since last decade but exploring in high density urban scale and structural perspective. The relationship between the flow of public open space and traffic layer, accessibility and the structural connection would be thus critical in this thesis research.
HOW?
01-The first step would be researching way of access to the elevated public open space, referencing other infrastructure example as well as bridging architecture, and together with studying of the site content to explore different possibilities on connection to the community.
02-Following by exposed diagrammatic analysis of the flyover, search the potential way how two layers can sustain and react to each other.
03-Due to the major concern of the added layer is the loading ability of existing flyover, light-weight structural system would be studied, and major target structural material is bamboo, which is a light sustainable material with certain tensile strength. Form and the way of construction would be the focus point here.
04-Experiementing the structural typology and incorporating that with essential elements of public open space. Testing it with the test case and repeat 03 for refinement and adjustment
05-Generated a public open space from the public sector of urban city without reclaiming of land, which is problematic and time-consuming process. Spaces are flowing along the flyover which bond people together and this layer can also act as noise barrier as well as urban air filter to maintains a healthy community.
Bibliography
1.Building Department. “Areas within private properties dedicated for public use” 23 Dec 2014. Building Department.
2. Highway Department. “Hong Kong Road Network” 31 Jul 2015. Highway Department
3. Institution of Civil Engineer ICE Publishing Journal, United Kingdom, 2012.
4. James Corner. High Line Park, 2009.
5. Norman Foster. SkyCycle, 2015.
6. J. Mayer H. Architects. Metropol Parasol, 2011.
7. Andrea Chin. “moving meshes: flexible bamboo forms by maria blaisse” 21 Sep 2012. Designboom.
ARCH 6127 RESEARCH SEMINAR
THESIS STATEMENT DRAFT 1.0
CYRIL HIN YAN, LEUNG
UID: 3035168980
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