{"id":1116,"date":"2016-11-02T00:48:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T16:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2016-11-16T23:04:31","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T15:04:31","slug":"making-room-capsule-towers-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/making-room-capsule-towers-in-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Room-Capsule Towers in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Bamboo Micro homes could be slotted inside Hong Kong’s old factories- Studio Affect-T<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Making room-Capsule Towers in High-Density City<\/strong><\/p>\n Architecture is the making of a room; an assembly of rooms. The light is the light of that room. Thoughts exchanged by one another are not the same in one room as in another; a street is a room, a community room by agreement. Its character from intersection to intersection changes and may be regarded as a number of rooms.<\/p>\n —Louis Kahn<\/p>\n \u201cArchitecture comes from the making of a room\u201d, Louis Kahn graffitied on a drawing he exhibited in 1971.\u201dThe room is the place of the mind.\u201d A room always stands for the interior, the domestics, a place of the person.\u201d I am my world\u201d To Kahn, architecture is \u201can assembly of rooms\u201d, to us, it is an assembly of many alternative worlds.<\/p>\n After this summer\u2019s visit to Japan and have a specific experience living in a Capsule Tower named Ginza Bay Hotel in Ginza District as well as visit the Nakagin Capsule tower which impress me most is the tidy and basic space with all the necessary function in it: no-smoking area, women floor, men floor, shower room, washing closet etc. It runs well with only a few servants to serve more than 100 people which shows great efficiency especially in High-density and highly developed cities, Tokyo, similar population density comparing with Hong Kong, then here comes a question that: Why there are many capsule towers in Tokyo however Hong Kong is none.<\/p>\n The reason is: After world war II, Japan is under high pressure to rebuild the country, Tokyo as the center of the country has the responsibility to provide cheap and comfort apartment in the heart area. Therefore the capsule tower emerged. In other words, it is a product of post-war metabolism.<\/p>\n However, years later, it becomes one of the most popular hotels for visitors. From the perspective of tourism, Hong Kong can also learn from that. Because of super-expensive house rent and politic issues, Hong Kong\u2019s tourism now is under great pressure. Visitors need to spend 70% of their expenses into Hotel Fee and even live in Chong King Mansion which is considered unsafe place for visitor especially for girls. Even though social safety issues may not be solved with only one architecture, but as an architect, we should provide their more choice of living and working in the city.<\/p>\n Therefore, I question that whether the architecture can re-activate the tourism in Hong Kong. Capsule tower will be the first choice for visitors with its low price, high security and basic function room as well as for young generations who start their young life in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n The Initial Structure of Capsule Tower in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n I: Definition of Capsule tower.<\/em><\/p>\n Chances and Challenges(controllable and uncontrollable issues such as politics, \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0economics, environmental etc.)<\/p>\n II: Capsule Tower as a tool to re-activate Hong Kong\u2019s Tourism.<\/em><\/p>\n III: Required resources:<\/em><\/p>\n Ergonomics<\/p>\n Research Basic Living Units in Hong Kong as well as the world.<\/p>\n Economics and politics: the feasibilities under economics and politics influence<\/p>\n Re-construction and Abandoned Projects can be the experiment area for capsule space.<\/p>\n Pre-fabricated Member to generated from the assembly-line.<\/p>\n IV: Methods (How)<\/em><\/p>\n Eg. Capsule Units combination in main Structure<\/p>\n Movable structure with Movable elements.<\/p>\n Learn from Containers.<\/p>\n Different scales of Capsule for different functions.<\/p>\n Materiality: Bamboo, Wood, abandoned bricks etc.<\/p>\n V: Expansion of Capsule in Hong Kong<\/p>\n Expansion of the use with capsule in Hong Kong:<\/p>\n For Tourists(located in Central, TST and Mountain in Hong Kong)<\/p>\n For Homeless(Under Bridge or Large Infrastructure)<\/p>\n For Elderly(Located near Hospital)<\/p>\n For Residence(young generation also take Re-construction project into consideration)<\/p>\n For Offices (such as Inflatable Capsule Unit)<\/p>\n For Delayed Flight and transfer Passengers in or near Hong Kong International Airport (should be supported with Government<\/p>\n Harbor: Hong Kong should take its own advantage that the Hong Kong Island is surround by bays and hundreds of islands. Therefore the Capsule could also be floating living unit as travel machine.<\/p>\n VI: Expansion of Capsule Use in other places of the world with specific design method.<\/p>\n Advantages to use Pre-Fabrication System:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Research Book<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u300aMy 32 sq. Apartment-A 30-year Transformation\u300b,Gary Chang<\/p>\n<\/h1>\n