On Public Interior Space

PROPOSAL ABSTRACT ATTEMPT

In recent decades, public spaces has been shifting within contemporary buildings in Hong Kong. The movement formed an expanded interior space linking to the exterior pedestrians. Walking and living through endless interiors; travelling from one interior to another; from home, to your car, to parking lots, shopping malls then office…

The thesis is about the public interior space in Hong Kong. The question to start the research will be: what defines a place to be public in topological and political dimensions? Research will be done based on the fundamentals including: social, economic and political contexts. The fundamentals are crucial to understand what constitutes to the perception of architecture and space. Architecture cannot solve social problems, but it can control perceptions of a space, which is the role of an architect.

Examples to study includes: narrow street markets that appears between buildings, that make the exterior feels like interior. What constitutes to the interiority? During the Umbrella movement, locals claims roads instead of building lobbies or shopping malls: what is the political drive behind? Local identity? What does claiming the road and start building on roads (making it into an interior space) mean? Is interior a virus that is invading our city? How can politics change spaces?

The thesis will be focusing on the political aspect that gear the progression of public interior space in architecture in Hong Kong. The architectural project will be very relevant to the program proposed, that will be suggested during the research. Possible projects I can foresee at this stage includes: event space/west Kowloon proposal, Art museum, a future memorial building of the present age.. etc.

Readings:
Delirious New York – Rem Koolhaas
Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance – Ackbar Abbas
Arcade Project – Walter Benjamin
The Project of Autonomy: Politics within andagainst Capitalism – Pier Vittorio Aureli
Learning from Las Vegas – Robert Venturi

Richard Hamilton. Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? Collage. 1956.

23 September

Contemporary cities today are made up with interior becoming the focus of design. Is architecture still the protagonist? For example, old reprogrammed warehouses are now functioning as design studios; abandoned factories reused as music venues or boutique hotels.

Studio 2A+P/A. The Holy Mountain. Digital image. ,May 2015. Web.

This split between form and function, discipline between interior design and building design would be the focus of my thesis. Wanting to work with both interior and exterior as one fabric that spans through the whole process of design. Exploring the possibilities of adaptive reuse and designing a new building, my thesis will rethink the relationship between exterior and interior, approaching both in the design thinking of architecture.

“The Holy Mountain,” Studio 2A+P/A, accessed September 23, 2016, http://www.artribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Interior-Tales-%E2%80%93-workshop-di-2A-P-%E2%80%93-Alejandro-Jodorowsky-The-Holy-Mountain-1973-studenti-Karina-Roberts-e-Tiffany-Pau.jpg.