INTERSTITIAL HONG KONG BOOK PUBLICATION 间隙香港书籍出版

INTERSTITIAL HONG KONG: EXPLORING THE MINIATURE OPEN SPACE OF HIGH DENSITY URBANISM

间隙香港: 探索高密度都市主义中的小型休憩用地

ABSTRACT

This book offers a critical exploration of Hong Kong’s public open space network through the lens of it's smallest units: the Sitting-out Area (SOA) and the Rest Garden (RG). These locally-initiated and government-managed sites stand apart from the large-scale structured urban plans that guide the city’s green strategies. SOAs and RGs have been assembled on an ad-hoc basis, fitting into the unusable interstitial spaces of the city. The book explores how this open space strategy emerged through the conflicts between imported planning ideas and local constraints of topography, tradition, and bureaucracy. Contributed pieces within the book explore the small open space typology alongside the city's extensive network of informal open space and street culture. Another provides geospatial network analysis to understand how these spaces contribute to walkability. Finally, we explore how these urban sites and the social/economic processes behind them become a tool for teaching landscape architecture and urban design. A section of the book is devoted to the richly illustrated exploration of 40 selected open spaces, organized by types that the authors have devised to describe the organizing urban, geological, infrastructural, and cultural contexts. By providing the first examination of this uniquely Hong Kong built environment condition and a unique counterpart to the number of texts on the architectural conditions of hyper-density, this publication will interest a wide ranging audience of architects, landscape architects, urban planners; and contribute to subjects of public open space in the city, high density urbanism, community design, and specialized subjects such as Asian urbanism, and case-study urbanism.

chapters

This book offers an analysis of a small but important open-space typology in Hong Kong and an exploration of the potential of Sitting-out Areas and Rest Gardens from different disciplinary perspectives. These different disciplinary viewpoints are unified in their analytical approach to the Sitting-out Areas and Rest Gardens, using a mix of theoretical, empirical and historical motivations—interpreting public open space in relation to Hong Kong’s geological setting; drawing attention to the pedestrian network that ties Sitting-out Areas and Rest Gardens to the city and to each other; analyzing the relevance of these spaces in urban planning policies; expanding on adjacencies of other occasionally informal open spaces; and ultimately reflecting on the use of these open space fragments as case studies in the graduate program at the University of Hong Kong. The opening chapter “Hong Kong Terra Infirma” analyzes Hong Kong’s ground and examines how the design, construction, and upgrading of man-made slopes and retaining structures have shaped the territory’s civic spaces. It casts new light on urban socio-natural interactions through a close study of the geotechnical expertise and commitment invested in consolidating the city’s historically unstable ground. By bringing into sharp relief the role of geotechnical risk management as a catalyst for institutional change and urban reconfiguration, this chapter challenges the dominant Hong Kong narrative that fetishizes the role of land value and spatial efficiency in the shaping of the city’s urban spaces. The ambiguity of heroic infrastructures and the compromised ground as constituted in the three-dimensional pedestrian network in the city is discussed in the second chapter “Between the In-between”. In this text the locations and adjacencies of public open space are interpreted through the overlapping of machine learning, artificial intelligence and human interpretation to assess the current and potential locations of small open spaces in the city. The study analyzes two dense urban areas at a series of scales using a blend of regulatory principles and proposed measures such as frequency, visitation duration, size and accessibility. The findings reflect on the suitability of planned renewal projects and the city’s approach to its latest land reclamation and harbor-front renovation projects. The third chapter “On Imported Planning Policies” examines the history of planning policy in Hong Kong and its role in shaping 22 21 public open space. Emerging in the context of the rapid urbanization of Hong Kong after World War II, the typology of Sitting-out Areas is positioned as a by-product of attempts to transplant British town planning theory to Hong Kong. Considering the city’s dense and ever more built-up context, the piece argues for a design and maintenance framework, which is able to satisfy government requirements and local community aspirations, respond to the unique and contradictory forms and functions of the urban fringe, and be sensitive to the ecology of their site-specific flora, fauna and human beneficiaries. The fourth chapter “Ambiguous Topologies of Public Open Space in Hong Kong” extends the analysis to a larger network of open spaces, to highlight the ambiguity of formal classifications. Given Hong Kong’s dense, over-built and often vertiginous conditions, spaces have a tendency both to bleed into one another, but also to be interrupted and disjointed in unexpected and surprising ways. This chapter focuses on the practices that unify many of these spaces, describing the complex connections between spaces and objects. The authors show how localized open space networks help us to understand the ways that people actively occupy, define, create and maintain this system. The final chapter “Reassembling the Case Study” revisits the pedagogical origins of this research project. Within the context of training the city’s landscape architects in a first-semester design studio, the chapter presents an example of a modified case study method, used both to illuminate the unique circumstances of a particular urban condition and to generate reflective design thinking. In studying the everyday nature of Sitting-out Areas, the exercise forces students to deal with the underlying potential of these areas and articulate alternative positions. Challenging the hierarchies of studio education and the typically rigid use of case studies, the chapter argues for an integrated methodology that prioritizes field work, critical thinking and active learning within the outdoor laboratory that is Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s Sitting-out Areas and Rest Gardens have never been considered conceptually, collectively or strategically as a specific typology in the city. This book attempts to weave these abundant small public open spaces into the tapestry of the city itself, connecting their smallness and publicness to the unique forms, textures, and narratives that make Hong Kong. In quantity and value, the ad-hoc and accidental Sitting-out Areas and Rest Gardens of Hong Kong already rival the heavily promoted micro-urban space projects in other cities. Yet, within Hong Kong itself, they remain underappreciated as an urban system and undervalued as urban space. Sitting-out Areas and Rest Gardens have yet to realize the true potential of their beneficial impact for the city, its environment and its community. The surveys here highlight these lost potentials while respecting the unique outcomes of each individual case within the city’s fabric. Ultimately, these tiny pieces of open space in hyper-dense Hong Kong point to methods for a more deliberate dialogue in this city, one that interweaves small and large; public and private; and green and grey.

本书对香港小型但重要的休憩用地展开分析，并从不同学科角度探 讨了休憩处和休憩花园的潜力。通过对休憩处和休憩花园进行理 论、实证和历史动机的分析研究，这些从不同学科观点出发所展开 的文章被统一起来：解读公共休憩用地与香港地质环境的关系；聚 焦将休憩处和休憩花园与城市相连以及彼此互联的步行网络；分析 城市规划政策视角下小型公共休憩用地的相关性；拓展休憩处和休 憩花园与其他偶然的非正式空间的联系；最后，回顾并反思香港大 学研究生项目运用休憩用地碎片作为案例研究的尝试。 第一章《地动香港》对香港的地面展开分析，并探讨了人造斜坡和 挡土结构的设计、建造和升级如何塑造城市的公有空间。香港的地 面松散不稳固，《地动香港》通过对岩土工程技术的研究，以及对 人们为巩固地面所投入努力的考察，让读者对城市中社会与自然的互动有了新的认识。对香港故事的讲述，通常沿着土地价值和空间 效率如何塑造城市空间这条线索展开；本章的论述则着眼于岩土工 程风险管理如何作为制度改革和城市重构的催化剂，从而对既有的 主流论述发出挑战。 势在必行的大型基础设施与迁就妥协的地面之间存在模糊地带，而 两者都是香港三维立体步行网络的组成部分，这就是第二章《间隙 之间》讨论的主题。通过机器学习人工智能与人为直观空间阐释的 重叠，本章对公共休憩用地的位置和相邻范围进行了解析，以审视 城市小型休憩用地现在和潜在的位置。该研究采用监管原则和特定 量度（如出现频率、到访时间、规模大小、易达性等）相结合的方 法，对香港的两个高密度城区进行了多维度分析。研究结果反思了 政府规划城市更新项目的适用性，以及城市近期填海/海滨改造项目 所采用的方法。 第三章《论导入式规划政策》探讨了香港规划政策的历史及其在塑 造公共休憩用地方面的作用。在第二次世界大战后香港快速城市化 的背景下，出现了休憩处这一空间类型，它可视作港英政府试图将 英国城市规划理论“移植”至香港的过程中产生的副产品。考虑到 香港愈发密集的城市形态，该章节强调构建设计和维护体系的重要 性，该体系应同时满足政府要求和当地社区愿望，有效应对城市边 缘地区地形与功能的独特性与矛盾性，并细腻关切特定地区的动植 物生态和受益人群。 第四章《香港公共休憩用地的暧昧拓扑学》将目光扩展到更广泛的休憩 用地网络，从而突出既有空间类型分类的模糊性。在密集、过度建造和 地势陡峭、地形多变的环境下，香港的空间既有相互渗透的趋势，亦会 以出乎意料、令人惊奇的方式被打断和分离。该章节着重挖掘居民的日 常生活如何模糊了不同类别空间之间的界限，并描述了空间和物件之间 的复杂联系。局部、小型的休憩用地网络如何有助于我们理解人们积极 地占用、定义、创建和维护这一体系的方法，作者对此作了阐述。 第五章《重组案例研究》回溯了该研究项目的教学法起源。在园境 建筑硕士第一学期设计课的背景下，本章呈现了一个被修改的案例 研究法。该案例研究法既用于阐明某一特定城市条件下的独特情 况，又用于促生反思性的设计思维。该练习要求学生们在研究休憩 处日常性的基础上，充分发掘这类间隙空间的潜能并阐明突破常规 的他样方案。本章挑战了设计课中师生间的等级制度以及僵化的案 例研究方法，倡导一种在香港这个“户外实验室”中展开的、以强 调实地研究、批判性思维以及主动学习为核心的综合教学法。 香港的休憩处和休憩花园从未在概念、整体或战略的角度被考虑 过。本书试图将这些数量众多的小型公共休憩用地编织进这座城市 的“挂毯”之中，将其小规模与公共性同香港独特的形式、纹理和 故事联系起来。从数量和价值上来说，香港特有的和偶成的休憩处 和休憩花园，已经可与那些在其他城市大力推广的微型城市空间项 目相媲美。然而，作为城市体系和城市场所，休憩处和休憩花园没 有得到应有的评价和重视。休憩处和休憩花园尚未施展它们给城 市、环境和社区带来有益影响的真正潜力。本书中呈现的研究，尊重城市肌理中每一个案例独具的成效，同时试图强调作为系统的间 隙空间被忽视的潜力。终究，这些散布于香港高密度城市中的细碎 休憩用地，暗示了在这个大与小、公共与私人、绿色与灰色交织的 城市中开展一场更具深意的对话的方式。

TYPE

Book Publication

LOCATION

Hong Kong

YEAR

2019

CITATION

Valin, I.A, Lu, XX and Trumpf, S., 2019. Interstitial Hong Kong: Exploring the miniature open spaces of high density urbanism. Shanghai: Tongji University Press.