{"id":1527,"date":"2016-11-05T12:24:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T04:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/?p=1527"},"modified":"2016-11-05T12:26:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T04:26:12","slug":"airport-as-inhabited-architecture-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/airport-as-inhabited-architecture-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport as Inhabited Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"
[WHAT]<\/p>\n
Airports should be the gateway to an urban center, but they have always been on the periphery, lacking a meaningful connection to the city center. Although the Hong Kong International Airport tried to address this issue, but the recent Skycity Development by the Airport Authority departs from this objective. This thesis aims to question the accepted modes of travel and the current infrastructure that support them, so that the airport could established itself as much more than a mere transitional infrastructure, but more of an inhabited destination in and of itself.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Airport as transitory infrastructure? (By Chung Kit Kwan)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [WHY]<\/p>\n Recently, the Airport Authority has sealed approval to proceed with a 50-year lease at a nominal premium to develop over 10 hectares of the hub\u2019s north commercial district into a large-scale retail and hotel destination, known as Skycity Development.<\/p>\n Although the Hong Kong International Airport is successful in reconnecting the transit experience with a more immediate sense of arrival of the place, as a shopping paradise, the development proposed by the Airport Authority is often hinge on its economic value. In this sense, the airport infrastructure is restricted to the expectation of being economically efficient, suffocating architect\u2019s aspiration for the untapped opportunities lies in this increasingly common travel experience. This recent airport redevelopment provides a tipping point for invigorating more meaningful link for the airport and the city, one that could be perceived as more than a transitory place, but one as a de facto destination. In an ever increasingly connected world, airport could not afford to be complacent in its dragging state as a mere form of instruments of travel: they should not remain as a unidirectional infrastructure, but become a multifunctional environment. Hence, instead of being dictated by the city\u2019s economic agenda, it could be a potential catalyst for reforming the city.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n