“Interstitial Hong Kong” presents an interactive exhibit showcasing these unique places as a network of physical, cultural, and ecological assets. We invite the public to share their experiences of small-space urbanism and to reimagine the Sitting-out Area’s potential within our city. The exhibition is shown at PMQ from 22.04.2018 – 20.05.2018.
From the introduction:
In Hong Kong, a tightly-controlled supply of land and great demand for development sustains some of the highest land values in the world and drives a notoriously dense form of urbanism. At a granular level, however, density, land-value, and land use are unevenly absorbed into the planning and development of the city. In the not-quite-meeting edges of introverted residential complexes, tethered to the unbuildable spaces of flyovers and on-ramps, clinging to steep hillsides and in the odd lots traded by planners and developers as they aggregate density, a counterpart urban form emerges: one of the in-between spaces revealing gaps and discontinuities in the urban fabric of the city. Studies about Hong Kong’s urban public space often contort definitions of publicness and openness to include the ambiguous, the informal, the hybrid, the quazi-, the fleeting, or the accidental. Hyperbole and phenomena notwithstanding, it is possible to see much of the city’s public realm as the straightforward spatial consequence of three circumstances of Hong Kong: its geology, ecology, and political economy.
Acknowledgements:
Initial research was supported by the Division of Landscape Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. The exhibition was funded by 2018 Design Trust Seed Grant.