The Indie Map – Playground for the Denied

A_Thesis Title

The Indie Map – Playground for the Denied

B_Thesis Statement [WHAT]

The flock of budding creatives moving into industrial buildings during the decline of Hong Kong’s manufacturing era has led to an organic flourishing of local creative industry. Despite the out-of-date policies that prohibit most of the cultural activities to take place in industrial buildings, habitants managed to get by and built their own nurturing grounds for creativity. Yet, recent schemes to formally “revitalize” these buildings are sabotaging the already dynamic micro-community instead. This thesis aims to develop a typology suitable for repurposing vacant industrial buildings with minimal intervention based on critically re-thinking the “top-down” redevelopment mind-set.

C_Description of contexts and key ideas driving the thesis [WHY]

  • From the Bottom Up: It is the fourth relocation of Hidden Agenda, an indie live performance venue, that sparked my interested in the criticism of the well-intentioned “revitalization scheme” to utilize vacant space in industrial buildings of Hong Kong. It was the tight relationship built upon the friendships between the founders and their musician friends whom also play music and live in the same district that shaped and evolved Kwun Tong into one of the most well-known independent music scene of today.[1]
  • Artificial vs. Spontaneous: On the west end of Kowloon, the highly anticipated West Kowloon Cultural District was heavily funded and respected with lots of future promises. On the other end, the spontaneously-grown creative industry in the industrial districts of east Kowloon is facing the harsh reality of increasingly unaffordable rents (and land lease issues) due to the government’s urban revitalization and redevelopment schemes. In the highly-developers driven city like Hong Kong, it is unlikely that any “naturally occurring” creative districts will sustain.
  • Life Cycle of Creative Districts: Zukin’s definition for the life cycle of creative districts (of New York) can be summarized as: low-rent neighborhoods occupied by artists will eventually attract developers to revalorize the district due to the visible “hip” lifestyle, resulting in relocation of artists to other areas of the city[2]. The cycle would repeat itself and indefinitely. Proved by Zukin’s observation, the relocation of the creatives will affect the well-established creative scene in Kwun Tong.
  • Confronting with Conflicts: Perhaps it is the spirit of building from the ground up, criticizing and rebelling against the mainstream and the authority (the constraints and the restrictions) that makes the creativity process thrive and blossom. This leads to the question of what kind of rebellious elements in architecture could potentially lead to different form of community?

D_Description of Project Intended to Test the Thesis Statement

The project is to develop a typology that intervenes minimally so as to allow the creative class to create maximally. The typology should help preserve the organic ecosystem that naturally manifested itself in industrial buildings. Much like a playground, where no instructions (but only restrictions) are provided, users decide for themselves ways to create the most fun out of the supplied equipment. The area of focus would be set at the Kwun Tong industrial district, as it is a district urgently facing a drastic change in its land use fabric. Investigation on how economic events had naturally changed and repurposed the intended use of industrial buildings would help explore the kind of architectural intervention that intervene the least, while confronting with the existing industrial building regulatory constraints.

Ultimately, the project aims to challenge the traditional mindset of “redevelopment”, where “culture” only serves as wrapping papers[3] and “sub-culture” is packaged only as marketing products, as symbols for higher social class to show off their image and lifestyles. [4]

E_Methodological Processes/ Outline of Research/ Design Experiments [HOW]

  • Research on Technicalities:
    • Research on the general history of industrial buildings of Hong Kong (location, distribution, types of industry, building plans, size, selling price, renting price… etc.)
    • Definition of non-compliant uses in industrial buildings (違契)
    • Related revitalization schemes such as the Development Bureau’s Revitalising Industrial Building scheme on how these policies have affected the existing tenants (http://www.devb.gov.hk/industrialbuildings/chi/home/index.html )
    • Failed revitalization cases (e.g. Cheung Hing Industrial Building)
    • On both local and foreign industrial districts/ buildings revitalization projects to understand the circumstances that allow the conversion project to be realized
  • Research on the area of focus – Kwun Tong:
  • Research on what it should not become, e.g. the West Kowloon Cultural District

 

F_Supporting Original Visual Materials/Artifact

SAMSUNG CSC

Photographed by Melissa Chan. Taken on September 25, 2016 at Hidden Agenda 3.0.

G_Annotated Bibliography/ Precedents

Bibliography

Chan, M. [陳銘冲]. (2012). “An analysis of the revitalization of industrial buildings in Hong Kong. (Thesis).” University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b5025445

Kwun Tong District Council. “The Renewal and Development of Kwun Tong Industrial District Study.” Accessed September 22, 2016. http://www.kwuntong.org.hk/tc/publications.html

Wen, Jiling. “觀塘區獨立音樂的發展——從Hidden Agenda說起”. 專題文章: 熟悉和陌生的香港 (June 2014). Lingnan University, Hong Kong SAR. Accessed November 1, 2016. http://www.ln.edu.hk/mcsln/40th_issue/pdf40.pdf

Zukin, Sharon. “Public Art: Tracing the Life Cycle of New York’s Creative”. International Symposium: Urban Regeneration through Cultural Creativity and Social Inclusion. URP GCOE Document 9. 2011. Osaka: Urban Research Plaza, Osaka City University. Accessed November 1, 2016. http://www.ur-plaza.osaka-cu.ac.jp/wp1/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/doc_vol9.pdf

Zukin, Sharon. Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

To be looked at: Henri Lefebvre, Walter Benjamin…

Precedents

  1. (Foreign) Migration of artists & creative districts in New York

Greenwich Village (1880s – 1920s), Soho (1960s/1970s), East Village (1970s/1980s), Williamsburg (1990s), Bushwick and East Williamsburg (2000s) as highlighted by Zukin

  1. (Local) Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC) – An industrial building in Shek Kip Mei, built in the 70s, was converted into a hub for both educational and commercial creative activities in 2008 to house galleries, experimental theatre and event spaces… etc.

(Image Source: JCCAC Website http://www.jccac.org.hk/?a=doc&id=5983 )

  1. (Local) Fly the Flyover Operation – This section of the underpass of the Kwun Tong Bypass was once a space where workers store collected recycled materials. Independent bands used to hold guerilla styled performance, bringing in their own equipment and start playing on spot. As part of the KEKO initiative, the underpass was now renovated and performers will now need to apply to play in the space

(Image source: Fly the Flyover Operation Website http://www.ekeo.gov.hk/en/pmp/flyover_operation.html )

  1. (Local) Lai Chi Kok D2 Place – formerly an industrial building, with its phase I opened in 2013, was converted into a mixed-use building that features a podium mall that contains a market place space for art & crafts events, a 7000 sqft roof garden, and office units on its upper floors.

 

  1. (Foreign) 798 Art Zone in Beijing – an artistic community transformed from a former military factory building complex (but also received criticism of gentrification in recent years)

[1] Jiling Wen, 觀塘區獨立音樂的發展——Hidden Agenda說起 (Hong Kong, Lingnan University, 2014), 23.

[2] Sharon Zukin, Public Art: Tracing the Life Cycle of New York’s Creative (Osaka: Osaka City University), 29.

[3] Jiling Wen, 觀塘區獨立音樂的發展——從Hidden Agenda說起 (Hong Kong, Lingnan University, 2014), 60.

[4] Sharon Zukin, Public Art: Tracing the Life Cycle of New York’s Creative (Osaka: Osaka City University), 33.

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