{"id":1307,"date":"2015-09-30T08:03:09","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T08:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2015\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2015-12-15T01:35:37","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T01:35:37","slug":"over-the-flyover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2015\/2015\/09\/30\/over-the-flyover\/","title":{"rendered":"Over the Flyover"},"content":{"rendered":"
Privatization of public realm seems to be \u2018encouraged\u2019 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.
\nIn 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.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n 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 added on the public infrastructure network<\/strong>
\nin light-weight structure in-between the urban blocks<\/h4>\n
\nLayer 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.
\nThe 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 fa\u00e7ade 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 \u2018only way\u2019, 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.<\/p>\nWHY?<\/h4>\n