Residential Podium Roof Renovation in Shek Tong Tsui Community

Thesis Background

Hong Kong’s political system, geography and population density make it one of the most crowded urban environments in the world.  Soaring real estate prices fed by profit driven developers and a deluge of investment and speculation from the Chinese mainland has led to shrinking apartment sizes and more expensive real estate.

While most apartments in those buildings with tiny footprints have barely outdoor space, the roofs of the podiums seem to be ignored and wasted to a large degree. Many of the roofs became private terrace of the household on that floor or a disorderly public space for clothes drying.

Thesis Statement

The podium roof spaces have a great potentiality to be renovated into a part of the urban living, e.g. public roof garden linked to ground, or elevated streets while connected to other roofs of the adjacent podiums. It would not only be benefit for the residence that could get more outdoor space near home, but also create value for developers if the program combines with commerce. More importantly, it would create another surface for the urban living, and stimulate more possible activities for citizens.

Description of Contexts and Target Users

Shek Tong Tsui bird-view-satellite

Bird-view of Shek Tong Tsui community, from Google Maps

Shek Tong Tsui, a community sitting between Saiyingpun and Kennedy Town, near the corner Queen’s Road West meeting Belcher’s Street, has a great density of old residential buildings. Among the residents in this community, there is a large population of the elderly due to the history of the area. There are more than five homes for the aged in the community. Meanwhile, there are also a great number of house renters consisting of foreign students studying in HKU and young people working in Hong Kong island and cannot afford buying a house, and most of them do not have families staying together.

For the elderly, more social welfare facilities, e.g. health care, activity center, are always needed in the community, since the elder population is growing and the existing facilities are not enough to meet the needs anymore. Elder people start to have rallies or line up for getting welfare from the facilities on street, which is seriously dangerous and inconvenient not only for them, but also other pedestrians and the car divers passing through this area.

For the young renters, nowadays the social network has controlled everyone that young people are too busy checking their mobile phone messages to meet the real world. The lack of public space is one fact to blame. Renters have nowhere else to meet up nearby other than staying at home chatting online. However, these people have more demands for the public social space to communicate since they have no companions at home (for those sharing an apartment they also have so little spaces in the house).

 Description of Project Intended to Test the Thesis Statement

In this community, most of the residential buildings have wasted the podium rooftop spaces, or some of them made the rooftop into a public cloth-drying space for residents in that building, even private terrace for residents on that floor.

The design will focus on a sequence of podium roofs on Queen’s Road West, redesigning them into non-residential spaces for both elder and young people for their demands. It is proposing a new typology of multiple podium roofs as a new interface linking several buildings in the community.

original typology of Queen's Rd. W.

Original Typology of Queen’s Road West, illustrated by Minjun Huang

new-typology of Queen's Rd. W.

The New Typology of Queen’s Road West in Thesis Design, illustrated by Minjun Huang

Methodological Processes of Research/Design Experiments

The design will start from a set of researches of potential podium roofs in the area, including the quantity (how many podium roofs and how many of them potential to be redesign), quality (the current condition), height, property (what in the podium), etc. Also, there should be analysis of existing public facilities, e.g. the Shek Tong Tsui Municipal Service Building, the sports center, and the public library, which could be combined with the new design. Pedestrian’s routine will be a decisive factor for the form of the design; hence the study of circulation is necessary in the initial stage.

Related Regulations

The Town Planning Ordinance has specified the programs for residential building or portion of a building upon development/redevelopment/conversion, which would affect the program choosing on the new interface.

TPB-specified-uses

Appendix I: Other Specified Uses – Schedule II, from Town Planning Ordinance by TPB

Annotated Precedents

queens-road-central-hk

Queen’s Road Central (Conceptual), from Cities without Ground: a Hong Kong Guidebook, 2012

The conceptual Queen’s Road Central diagram in Cities without Ground: a Hong Kong Guidebook, showed a great example of creating new interface with rooftops for pedestrian system.

“This continuous network and the micro-climates of temperature, humidity, noise and smell which differentiate it constitute an entirely new form of urban spatial hierarchy. The relation between shopping malls and air temperature, for instance, suggests architectural implications in circulation — differentiating spaces where pedestrians eagerly flow or make efforts to avoid, where people stop and linger or where smokers gather.” (Cities without Ground: a Hong Kong Guidebook, 2012)

References

Cities without Ground: a Hong Kong Guidebook, Adam Frampton, Jonathan D. Solomon, Clara Wong, 2012

Town Planning Board Guidelines for Designation of “Other Specified Uses” Annotated “Mixed Use” Zone and Application for Development within “OU(MU)” Zone under Section 16 of the Town Planning Ordinance, Town Planning Board of Hong Kong

Urban Design Guidelines for Hong Kong, Planning Department of Hong Kong SAR Government

The Podium Roof Garden at Toronto City Hall – An Assessment, Jörg Breuning, Andrew Cole Yanders & Patty Jordan, 2012

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