Posts tagged: urban planning

General, Urban Planning / September 1, 2016

Utopian City for Businesses

How can we create an Utopian City using Collective Intelligence?

We conducted a world-wide survey about city planning. We wanted to find out how we can use collective intelligence to design an utopian city for businesses. Our final design can be seen here. Below are data collected.

World Business Survey

Wijdène Kaabi, KAA Studio, Tunisia/London/Hong Kong

Minimize social polarity
Social Innovation: Citizen engagement / creativity / cohesion
Platform for dialogue and social diversity – compact (no social and special segregation – limit costs and the impact of transport
Space for ecological or environmental regeneration
Economic growth
Horizontal and vertical coordination (with other cities, connectivity)

Fran Parente, Fran Parente Photographer, Brazil/New York

The freedom to come and go with a good transportation system that doesn’t rely on car, the feeling of safeness. Also the mixed use and how you can live without leaving the surroundings of your neighborhood if you want. A good balance between nature and built environment providing leisure within minutes from their house/work.

On the business side, I would say that government sponsorship/incentives is a good way to attract new companies. Co working spaces for the creatives (free?). Less bureaucracy for businesses to open and run.

Benjamin Cox, The Artist, Belgium/Hong Kong/London

Connected: Efficient transportation with meaningful interaction during commute. Efficient digital connections. Shared vehicles including bikes, cars and subway to encourage interaction.

Vibrant: Localized gathering spaces to social. Green spaces combined with cultural programs like museums, bars and restaurant. Government to have open mindset and policy for young and innovative company. Government to hold sponsor programs to provide spaces, visa, funding and connections to new businesses.

Sustainable: good quality of air, waste management, health system. A hub for medical research with good hospitals and nearby universities for research.

Nelson Ng, Lost Magazine, Singapore/Shanghai/New York

It would be exciting for businesses and talented people if cities made it super easy for anyone to live and work there. This might include abolishing or relaxing visa requirements, equal treatment to anyone who came to work in the city (and not just favoring locals), and a super simple process to start any business. To take this even further, it would be cool if major cities around the world banded together to create their own form of identity or pass for startups, where this single city pass can give you access to London, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai or even Tokyo. With this pass, you could get access to facilities, free Wi-Fi or even basic accommodation and a simple office space for your work, making it easy for anyone to move between cities. Imagine if every city offered a free basic work space for any startup that would surely be inviting!!

Matthieu Maury, La Station, France/Hong Kong

Safe social environment
Liberty of thinking
City filled with people are willing to work to accomplish their dreams
Freedom to start a company
Low Government Tax
Administration/bureaucracy is too much involved in citizens life
Simplicity of life in HK
Being able to live in a 24/h city with the inherent stress
Possibility to work with different cultures
Ethnic Diversity
Digital and physical transportation to connect people to family and friends back home

Gordon Laplante, GCreate, Florida/New York

Free market layout vs controlled market

Designing creative and growth-inspired entrepreneur spaces has been a constant perplexing problem in my mind. The many spaces I have encountered have had varying strategies with a vast rage of success both on the long term global scale and the micro interactions. When bringing this to a city level it complicates the problem. Do you let the free market run wild and dictate the outline? Do you have a shared ownership between the market and an overlying “urban plan”? Or do you completely dictate the layout and allow businesses/individuals infill the spaces you have laid out?

We are a small startup and have hit some of these problems head on. As we are growing its been quite hard to find “reasonable” manufacturing spaces above 1k SF but less than 5k SF. This to me is the crux of the true innovation and startup spaces yet a huge void exists. We happen to be in an area of great tech growth and over the years we have seen a large shift from somewhat “shady” businesses to trendier tech. This has sort of left the new age tech manufacturers in limbo. We need a nice manufacturing space for our cool new product yet we need the basic amenities of any traditional manufacturing space. ie a loading dock and freight elevator access, the basic needs of a business who makes things.

Why am I diving into our very specific case? I feel the future of entrepreneur cities/developments relies on many cogs in the machine but not necessarily everything being tied into a pretty package. The free market will solve a portion due to demand yet framework is needed.

A city with product chain.

To truly allow for innovative entrepreneurial growth, you should incorporate a large portion of the entire product chain. I say a “portion” because to say the “whole chain” is a useless idealistic statement which does not allow for reality. In any case to attract entrepreneurs providing “most” of the product chain will be a huge improvement and keep the majority of their product/service local. This is a great benefit especially considering quality control however in many cases price is impacted. With this model Company A can work with Company B on a product sold by Company C. This can then be exported beyond the reach of the city etc.

Personally I have seen businesses flush with cash, from specific government grants designed to spur the economy, and shaken my head. In many cases these businesses received free money, despite lacking technologies in the hopes of growth yet many eventually fail when “the money runs out”. Many companies have received money due to following the proper procedure, or knowing the right people rather than any demand for their product. It’s for this reason I feel the free market still remains the most powerful economic force and combined with traditional organic growth a very strong economy can be made. Yet this brings me back to an earlier point, you still need framework and some oversight.

Where does this come into play when regarding a future city? I feel you must allow for organic growth opportunities within a lightly defined framework of urban planning. If these organically-grown companies have the local resources needed, (ie shipping access, loan opportunities, the correct targeted workforce, exposure) they should have all the parts necessary for growth. Of course this assumes the demand it there but that’s another topic. Perhaps the answer to this is to link investors with city planners when designing economic zones. Whether tech zones, cultural, business etc. The organizations providing the necessary capital should have some input. This could be the answer to modern urban planning using cluster zones or even a ring layout. In the new digital age communication isn’t the problem, rather close access to physical collaboration is one of the current hurdles.

Tesfa Gebreal, Rocket Internet AG, Ethiopia /New York

“Small businesses define the culture and way of life of Addis Ababa. They display what customers buy, eat and drink. They show how people interact with each other. For example, bargaining is a big part of Ethiopia’s culture and it is apparent in small businesses. They are the basis for the definition of a city”

Sally Ryder, Ryder Diamonds, Melbourne/Hong Kong

Vibrancy of city.

Conducive to business
City with social and business connections.
Government program to sponsor small businesses
Ease to setup, open and runs business

Smrita Jain, The Aquario Group, New Delhi/New York/New Jersey

In context of creating architectural landscapes and cities, I would like to propose, spaces that have the ability to hire story tellers. I believe that any talent has and should have the capability of story telling and must have a contextual story, which can be marketed into any constructive environment. For me, that the key to a constructive, logical, strategical and creative urban planning design.

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Installation, Urban Planning / March 29, 2015

Green Mong Kok in South Africa

Micro Galleries, Open Streets Langa, Hong Kong, Occupy Movement, Mong Kok, Urban Planning, Flying Cars, cross ventilation, solar panels, green mall, park, urban landscape, umbrella revolution, 佔中,佔旺佔領行動行動

Turning streets into gallery:

Micro Galleries turned streets in Langa, Cape Town into a gallery. Their mission is to “change the world in small and creative ways”.

Our work on Green Mong Kok and Documentation of the Umbrella Movement is featured in their show with Open Streets Langa. We are very excited and humbled that our creation of a local drawing and a local movement are now international. Special thanks to Kat Roma Greer from Micro Galleries who organized this event and all the photos below. The interaction between people and art is what made the event meaningful and successful. The idea is very similar to why we teach architecture to young children in Hong Kong. Our agenda is to influence the future leaders with creative thinking. I do believe this exhibition gave people in Cape Town a different idea about “art” and “freedom of speech”.

Kat Roma Greer was in Langa to organize the exhibition with her team. After the event, Kat said to the team”…Old guys were walking down the lane shaking our hands and saying thank you for doing this. It was so shocking and surprising and humbling. I heard endless conversations about the umbrella revolution, saw tonnes of people colouring, reading poems about sunflowers, looking at each detailed image of HK, laughing at space baby, pointing at political cartoons – even on small kid saying in halting English ‘freedom of speech’ reading a work from Sletch Freedom, amazing at the beauty and scale of the European forest. Amazing. Someone asked me about Australian politic and refugee centres, someone else asked how you can create via google images. It was just astounding.”

The idea of turning unused public spaces into exhibition spaces is a fantastic urban planning idea. Micro Galleries previously did it in Wan Chai and Tai Hang in 2013. There are so many public spaces in Hong Kong that can be turned into art projects, like hill that people used to hang clothes and the dark streets in Soho. I can’t wait to find more local spaces in Hong Kong and turn them into meaningful projects.

-Vicky Chan, Artist and Architect

Hong Kong, Occupy Movement, Mong Kok, Urban Planning, Flying Cars, cross ventilation, solar panels, green mall, park, urban landscape, umbrella revolution, 佔中,佔旺佔領行動行動

Artwork by Vicky Chan; Photo by Kat Roma Greer

Arts related to Hong Kong by other artists. Photo credit: Kat Roma Greer from Micro Galleries

Urban Planning / February 12, 2015

Vertical City

Hong Kong, a smart vertical city or a dumb extrusion?

Hong Kong is well known as a vertical city. Growing up in Hong Kong, I always thought bridges, stairs, escalators, and elevators were part of every urban city. Only when I moved to New York, I realized the city can be developed flat as well. Below is a set of photos taken in 2014. After 20 years, I re-examine this city as an architect. Things that I thought was normal are slowly disappearing. From butchers setting shops on the stairs to foreign domestic helpers occupying the escalator lobby of HSBC Building on Sunday, these are spaces and events that I didn’t think were important, but they are really indigenous solutions of how people deal with height and spaces.

Some of their solutions are natural, some are cultural but some are just thoughtless extrusion of city blocks. The natural solutions are mostly result of the steep typography. We have Central-Mid-levels escalators rising through a bunch of small retail shops and apartments. In Kowloon, we have buildings facing the Lion Rock as a natural symbol of the Hong Kong spirit. On the other hand, we still see a lot of buildings that are architecturally identical with no thinking put into the bigger planning. They are similar in design, height, and the use of material. Every time I walked by a luxury tower, I always wonder what the developers were thinking other than money. Those new identical buildings don’t have much dialog with other buildings and the street. How can people get the feeling of home in such cold places, needless to say those new towers usually destroyed an old neighborhood. Where are those mom-and-pop shops that can make people feels like home?

: Hong Kong Market on Stairs

: View of the Harbor

: Lion Rock at night

: HSBC on Sunday

: Lion Rock during the day

: Random Extrusion

A diverse city with singular mentality?

Some recent rehabilitation projects like the PMQ and JCCAC in Hong Kong are both fantastic at first sight. Turning an old dormitory or warehouse into artist shops and studio is very sustainable idea. After these initial successes, the Hong Kong government are planning to do more. I originally thought it was great until I talked to a factory owner who makes paper product. I never realize that there are still a lot of active industrial businesses in Hong Kong. He said his company and other businesses are being forced out of the industrial buildings, because the government is planning to re-purpose the building. Landlord and govenment both thinks that they will make more money by renting to technology company than factory. Why can’t Hong Kong accept the diversity of business as a healthy economy? Why can’t people think it is awesome to have a paper factory as their neighbor?

Architecture is a type of design and investment closely related to politics. The worst political mentality of Hong Kong is as soon as Hong Kong see one business model as a money-making model, they will destroy the old one and get to the next big idea as soon as they can. Building and business that is no longer making big bucks are being demolished. I just don’t think this is how a big city should grow. I always admire Mayor Bloomberg from New York City and his effort to diversify businesses in New York after the 2008 Wall Street Crisis. In order to make the city less dependent on the financial institute, he introduced well-known university, like Cornell and other tech giants, like facebook and twitter, to establish campus in New York City. The amount of Start-up in New York beats Silicon Valley. More impressively, the TAMI (technology, advertising, media and information) industry created 425,000 jobs in New York City since 2010. The architecture is of course reflecting these creative industries, such as campus on Roosevelt Island and the Gehry’s facebook office. I think this is the type of mentality that Hong Kong need. It is not able the GDP, but it is about diversifying a city’s portfolio by giving every business an opportunity to grow and survive. Good architecture will soon follow.

Breakazine documented some of the urban development in Hong Kong throughout 2014 in their 035 issue. I do think planners, developers, city officials and the general public in Hong Kong can become more conscious about what they are building, planning or willing to accept as a norm. The get-rich-quick mentality already occupy the city and are destroying the human quality of Hong Kong. If we continue like business as usual, we will end up with a singular city with a singular economy. Who really wants to live in an identical box as an identical family having their windows facing into another family doing the same thing?

: map of Whampoa Garden

Urban Planning / October 9, 2014

Old Street with Retails

Kiyomizu Dera Temple, Osaka, Japan ::

We went to Osaka, Japan to do research on urban planning and old street design. It is quite lovely to experience their asymmetrical urban planning, not just the design but also the culture.

The design of the temple is symmetrical, but the planning of the complex is far away from symmetry. See diagram below for its planning. The old street is leading uphill to the first gate which marks the beginning of the temple complex. The street is flanged by retail on both sides. The front gate is not visible from the bottom of the hill but it started to reveals itself as an off-center focus near the last quarter of the retail street. The temple complex continues uphill with different smaller buildings. The grand hall is located off center again but at the top of the mountain overlooking the city. This organic growth may be partly due to the topography, but it certainly feels very modern. It added a sense of discovery to the whole touring process. More information about the temple can be seen on The True Japan.

The best part of this tour is that Japaneses appreciate their own culture. Without proper stats, we saw at least 70% of local visitors at the temple. This UNESCO site is not just for tourist. So many other tourist spots in the world are crowded with foreigners, but local people are not exactly excited about their local landmark. It is also amazing to see how local Japanese come to the temple for fun and worship. Their love for their own heritage make this place so successful and attractive. This is exactly what I think planners, architects and politicians should do for their cities and spaces. We can be purely depends on the attractive designs. We need the ongoing education to teach the young generation to love their city. This kind of culture can almost makes any place enjoyable and alive. I think most people prefer to walk into a culture rather than a textbook photo.

osaka, japan, temple, Kiyomizu Dera Temple

Osaka Aerial

Kiyomizu Dera Temple

Ruins of Saint Paul’s, Macau, China ::

The retail layout in front of Cathedral of Saint Paul is also very similar. The historic facade is at the top of the hill. Curvilinear street with retail on both sides leads people uphill to the grand finale. Of course, there is not much to see behind the ruins. It will be fantastic if the church can be rebuilt to provide additional cultural program.

ruin of st pauls

Macau Map