THESIS STATEMENT<\/b><\/p>\n
Appropriating signage, especially neon signs and neon lights in 21st<\/sup> century Hong Kong<\/strong>\u00a0– this is the subject of my thesis. Identifying that soon the be gentrified old districts of Mong Kok with expiring land lease offer land and design opportunities for a prototype building. A building design relevant to the context of 21st<\/sup> century Hong Kong that explores better means of showcasing neon signs and light would be my task. Ie making neon signage on increased vertical buildings whilst still visible?<\/strong><\/p>\n THESIS BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1972 Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown\u2019s findings in Learning<\/em> from<\/em> Las<\/em> Vegas<\/em> have identified that \u201carchitecture<\/em> of<\/em> signs<\/em> is<\/em> antispatial<\/em>\u00a0as it<\/i>\u00a0was<\/em> an<\/em> architecture<\/em> of<\/em> communication<\/em> over<\/em> space<\/em>, where<\/em> communication<\/em> dominates<\/em> space<\/em>\u201d, ultimately strengthening the \u201csense of place itself\u201d; in other words, giving place identity through the space left for visual perspective. However unlike the city they studied: Las Vegas, in the dense city of Hong Kong where the width of streets can\u2019t even compare to sidewalks of American cities. Signs, and in particular, neon signs took a different turn and adapted towards the orientation of pedestrian rather than vehicular traffic. Formulating Hong Kong\u2019s very own compact\u00a0\u201csense of place\u201d or “communication space” as a neon city.<\/p>\n Neon signs emergence, facilitated by striving commercial activity in the 20th century forged Hong Kong’s identity into\u00a0a neon city, as it once embedded\u00a0into every crevasse of the urban fabric. Together, neon signs collectively conveyed the message of prosperity through the collective use of \u00a0its alluring medium, whilst adding a level of \u201cexcitement to the dull repetition of building elements<\/em>\u201d as identified by Hong Kong architect and urban planner Peter Cookson smith in his study on Hong Kong\u2019s organic and spontaneous street culture. This makes Neon signs found on mixed used vernacular buildings oriented specifically towards the eye of pedestrians a unique local identity belonging to the post-colonial city of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n But at the turn of the century LED and other lighting technologies used for signage encouraged by fast culture funnelled through the insensitive globalized commercial activity have stolen the scenes, slowly killing the identity of Hong Kong as neon city as well those that make neon signs.<\/p>\n WHERE:<\/strong> My design would be situated in Mong Kok, where old building’s where 50 year land lease is expiring.<\/p>\n CONSIDERATIONS:<\/strong> As a building that wants to showcase neon lighting, perspective of pedestrians\u00a0is a key factor for designing the building. Ie, designing a building using a methods that stimulates visual pleasure, providing value for\u00a0both pedestrians as well as users of the building. 1) Pedestrian view orientation should be considered. 2) users of the building should not be fully exposed to the neon light\/signage it showcases.<\/p>\n WHAT: <\/strong>With the decline of neon signage as well as those that make it, the building needs to\u00a0be a workshop for neon sign makers to revive and showcase their profession.<\/p>\n WHY ONLY 1 BUILDING:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>I avoided proposing an authoritarian urban scale project, as signage in Hong Kong is both a unique local identity and also an advertising choice of businesses. Thus a prototype building would be explored rather than jumping into an authoritarian micro scale design solution imposed on an urban scale.<\/span><\/p>\n URGENCY<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> PROJECT:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>In the 20th century Neon signage was once the root of Hong Kong\u2019s vernacular visual culture used for advertising. In the 21st century, signs powered by LED and other new lighting technologies have outmatched neon signs bringing its number to a\u00a0steady decline. Recognising that neon signs mean something \u2013 identity wise, there is a need to retain what made up the identity of Hong Kong. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>OPPORTUNITY FOR MY PROJECT<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A)\u00a0<\/span>Acknowledging that there is a slow decay in the numbers of neon signs<\/span><\/p>\n B)\u00a0<\/span>Taking advantage of 50 year land lease expiry date of buildings in old district of Mong Kok<\/span><\/p>\n A building that takes up the plot ratio of a soon lease expiring mid rise is an opportunity for a well-designed building that showcases alluring neon lights and signage. Aiming to bring back neon signs to the 21st century.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n WHAT I WILL\/HAVE SET OUT TO RESEARCH<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1) Beneficial to CONSTRUCTION<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Fa\u00e7ade detail, lighting techniques, <\/span><\/p>\n 2) Beneficial for Argument and Process of Design thinking<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Learning from Las Vegas (how much should my integrated signage affect my building\/ noncommercial programs within)<\/span><\/p>\n Iconography and Electronics upon Generic Architecture \u2013 Rob Venturi<\/span><\/p>\n Architecture of Communication: The Visual language of Hong Kong\u2019s Neon Signs. \u2013 Kieth Tam<\/span><\/p>\n The Urban Cultural Imagery of Neon \u2013 Lawrence Pun<\/span><\/p>\n I SHOULD NOT LOOK AT<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n Signage techniques of other cities, ie Tokyo\/ Taiwan. (keep it limited to Hong Kong)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THESIS STATEMENT Appropriating signage, especially neon signs and neon lights in 21st century Hong Kong\u00a0– this is the subject of my thesis. Identifying that soon the be gentrified old districts of Mong Kok with expiring land lease offer land and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":1231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2494,"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/2494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}