Reflections on 'criticality' in Hong Kong

Critical architectural practice in Hong Kong is part and parcel to offer both engagement with and resistance to a development model based heavily on land-economy. A phenomenon created by the overlapping of three conditions: land shortage, planning policy and influx of legal and illegal immigrants. The first and major policy to affect this evolving and challenging practice was defined in the “Colony Outline Plan” published in 1965 where large scale New Town planning was advanced to expand the limits of the colonial territory.

Through the reclamation of lands and construction of infrastructures and buildings, the execution of policy consequently has increased the construction output of the city for decades to come. However, under this directive the production of architecture is largely synonymous with and diminishable to the financial bottom line where form follows faithfully the buildable area, across scales from urban spaces, public buildings to private dwellings. The distress of these three conditions has given rise to a number of building typologies and spatial praxis reflective of the constraints.

One such example is the Municipal Services Building, which began surfacing in 1978 as a government-led effort to provide district-based enhancement of the public life through work, leisure and intellectual development in a self-contained architectural form. This paper examines its performance, and the possibility to transgress within a system formulated upon a capital-driven land-economy.

Critical architecture as enunciated by the architectural provocateurs of —Manfredo Tafuri, Michael Hays and Peter Eisenman— as having the ambition to critique the normative practice by resisting market-driven forces (Tafuri)[i] and; to search for an abstract and autonomous perfection of form to express the architectural truth (Hays)[ii]or; concerns the possibility of knowledge against any accommodation with the status quo (Eisenman)[iii], I would argue does not exist in Hong Kong, or within the sphere of its pursuits. Michael Speaks made a similar observation when he pointedly announced “theory was interesting or at least not harmful when there was no work; but now that we have work we must leave thinking for later.”[iv]

The uninterrupted investment provided ample construction opportunities for the greater architectural industry, giving no impetus to confront the notion of a utopian architecture as described by Tafuri where he claims, in order to achieve an utopian architecture, architects must bring an end to capitalism.[v] Well, in the case of Hong Kong, the marketization is so engrained and pervasive that the discussion of the "critical architecture" has never entered into the debate. Autonomous perfection of form instead is driven by the knowledge of the spreadsheet, a kind of architectural form mutated from the criterion of carpetable and non-carpetable areas, where architecture is analyzed by its effective efficiency. Eisenman attributes this absence of criticality to the lacking of an enabling mechanism to support critical architecture, hence “to build in emerging countries requires accommodation rather than transgression.”[vi]

Critical spatial practice when defined as the “modes of self-reflective artistic and architectural practice which seek to question and to transform the social conditions of the sites into which they intervene”[vii] can be detected in reinterpreted forms within this densely populated, capital-conscious and land-scarce city. Productive ways of appropriating unfavorable conditions have emerged from under-privileged sites for those living on the fringe. For example, a barber who sets up a temporary business alongside a construction hoarding is one of the many scenes one could find in this city where critical praxis exist, see Figure 2. It begs the question what is the minimal sheltering one need to operate a barbershop? In this instance, an overhang, a mirror, chair, pair of scissors, a ritual calendar and an entrepreneurial spirit is all one needs to set up a barbershop. In the older fabrics of Kowloon, tactics are parasitically deployed to appropriate residual spaces underneath stairs, in between alleyways, where small business operates such as a shoe or watch repair store. The business-minded spirit is typically supported by an inventive use of constrained spaces. In the touristy neighborhoods of Tsim Sha Tsui, it is not difficult to find diminutive money exchange booths, some of which measure less than 0.5 meters deep by 1 meter wide.  The miniscule scale of the exchange stalls over shadows the fact that shops like these play an extremely important role in not only servicing the tourists, but those Foreign Domestic Workers who sent their remittance to the Philippines and Indonesia annually, estimated at 800 million U.S. dollars[viii].

The implicit critique to the normative and the accepted practices can be understood, I would argue as a conditional situation forced upon those on the fringe by the developmental policy hence, the critical spatial practice is the practiced act of survival.

[i] Michael Speaks, "After Theory." Architectural Record, June 2005: 72-75.

[ii] K. Michael Hays,. "Critical Architecture: Between Culture and Form." Perspecta Vol. 21, 1984: 14-29.

[iii] Peter Eisenman, "Autonomy and the Will to the Critical." Assemblage, No. 41, 2000: 90-91.

[iv] Michael Speaks, Architectural Theory and Education at the Millennium, Part 3, Theory Practice and Pragmatism, A+U: Architecture and Urbanism 372 no.

[v] Manfredo Tafuri, Architecture and Utopia, Design and Capitalist Development. Cambridge, Massachusettes: MIT Press, 1976.

[vi] Peter Eisenman, "Critical Architecture in a Geopolitical World." Edited by Cynthia C. Davidson and Ismaïl Serageldin. Architecture Beyond Architecture (Academy Editions), 1995: 78-81.

[vii] Jane Randell, "A Place Between Art, Architecture and Critical Theory." Place and Location. Tallinn, 2003. 221-233.

[viii] According to a 2006 report conducted by Asian Development Bank, Workers' Remittance Flows in Southeast Asia.

Drawings by Lam Man Millyan

Creating scientific knowledge in architecture?

 

J.N.L. Durand

Durand, like his teacher Boullée, did not practiced but contributed to architecture instead as a theoretician and educator through developing specific methods and systems of reading, theorising and teaching.

According to Durand, Architecture is a science and an art at the same time: like a science, architecture demands knowledge; like art, it requires talent. Talent is none other than the just and easy application of knowledge. This correctness and facility cannot be acquired except by sustained exercise and multiple applications. In the sciences, one can know something perfectly after having done it a single time. But in the arts, one cannot know how to execute something well without having done so a considerable number of times.

Long before Koolhaas's 'Elements of Architecture', there was Durand's attempt to determine the fundamental principles of architecture. For Durand it was first necessary to establish the basic elements that characterize it as a discipline. Just as Euclidean geometry begins with the definition of the point and the line, architecture also needed to have its own ascertainable elements. The fundamental elements of a building and, by extension, of architecture were for Durand those that can be found in any building, regardless of its style. His theoretical objective was to systematize architectural knowledge in order to establish a rational way of design buildings. As result, he developed a science of architecture, perhaps as an attempt to match those scientific disciplines rising rapidly during his time. Précis des leçons (Accurate Lessons) which was published in 1802 to articulate his position.

Kicked a Project Lately?

Essay on architectural criticism in the school of architecture.

The title of this essay rephrases Kicked a Building Lately? the 1973 book written by the late architectural critic Ada-Louise Huxtable. It aims to offer observations found in today’s architectural criticism in the school of architecture, particularly through the lens of Hong Kong where I currently teach. Kicked a Project Lately? is meant to illustrate the idiosyncrasy and  nuanced exchanges that occur between the studio instructor, the guest critic, the student, and the audience during the design review.

What does it take to be the first?

Excerpts from the University newsletter:

As part of the University’s internationalisation initiatives, the Bilateral Teaching Exchange Programme encourages faculty members to participate in teaching exchange at universities overseas. Mr. Patrick Hwang of the School of Architecture at CUHK and Mr. Stefano Milani of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), the Netherlands were the first pair of faculty members awarded under the programme.

Original article >>

To be the first, sometimes just means a bit of naivete, persistence and luck.

 

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CORNERS, curves, deep spaces, details, Elevations, and places

  1. What is the architecture corner?
  2. Is the architecture corner necessary to form a building?
  3. Is it possible to perceive an architectural idea through the architecture corner?
  4. Is it possible to conceive an architectural idea through the architecture corner?
  5. Is the architecture corner an inevitable part of the whole, or could it be identified as it own discrete entity? Or made indistinguishable?
  6. If a building possesses an expression through the articulation of its facades and form, what is the role of the architecture corner within this premise?
  7. In what ways does the architecture corner affect, or contributes to the perception of the architecture facade?
  8. What is the aesthetic relevance of the architecture corner?
  9. Could the perception of the same architecture corner differ due to its interior and exterior context?
  10. What is the relationship, if any, between inside corner and outside corner in architecture?
  11. What are the technical functions of the architecture corner?
  12. Is the architecture corner different from the eaves of a building?
  13. Is the architecture corner only possible through an autonomous setting or does it also occur in an infilled site?
  14. Why is theorizing the architecture corner necessary?

Digital cultural heritage Future Visions Conference - The University of Queensland, School of Architecture

Between 1780 and 1797 French architect Etienne-Louis Boullée began projecting a vision of the architectural monuments during his twilight years through the use of ink-wash drawings on hot-pressed straw paper.   The visionary projects, embraces both formal simplicity and expressivity simultaneously.  While simplicity of form was believed to be the key for ease of apprehending the work, expressivity was seen as necessary to convey the meaning of the form itself.  This research presents a study on one particular project produced during this period: Cenotaph of Turenne 1782 (Figure 1) by reconstructing and analysing the unbuilt paper architecture through physical and digital modeling.  It seeks to provide an alternative frame of reference to the discourse that evaluates the metaphoric or the iconographic aspects of Boullée’s project.  The goal of this study is to unfold the stereometric forms and examine the reciprocal relationship between the project’s conceptual intention as conceived by Boullée with the affect of the spaces as perceived by the viewer (Figure 2).  It proposes to investigate Boullée’s Cenotaph through the chasm between:

1.     Concept of the work and its representative images;

2.     the apparent and the literal solidity of structure;

3.     the idealized form and the perceived form by the viewer. 

The research methodology is organized in four phases.  The first two phases aim to forensically deconstruct the guiding principles of Boullée’s Cenotaph in order to reveal how the Cenotaph is conceived, while the third and fourth phases enable the reading of how the work is perceived.  Although the project is well-publicized in books on Boullée through the five known orthographic drawings, very little has been written about the project. 

ON THE FRINGE - In a Crowded City

The compact-city land-use policy of Hong Kong has resulted in a number of positive outcomes: from having a low per capita carbon-footprint; to a highly efficient and viable transit network system; and to the protection of its country parks, allowing 70% of its territories from being overtaken by real estate development. However, such an ideal model has occurred with adverse consequences for those living and working along the fringes of the society, particularly those that possess fewer means to climb up the established regime. One affected group is foreign domestic workers, essentially lived-in maids, who have become an indispensable part of the social fabric in Hong Kong. 

Part of the InDeSem International Design Seminar at TU Delft, this lecture presents a study that analyses the use of residual spaces in Hong Kong by domestic workers as a temporary extension of their social commune.

Student works cited: Eunice Tsui, AY2015-16 U5 Studio.

Mr. Sou Fujimoto

To be different is what architects that achieved notoriety says when describing their projects. It is the aim of what they hope to do and accomplish. It's also why their lectures are usually less inspiring that anticipated. Typically organised linearly with pictures and drawings of their design. The simple fact is, it is precisely because of their visual difference that we recognised their work in the first place. Therefore as an audience we go to the lecture to be enlightened by a narrative, to discover a revelation of a rigorous process, perhaps an unique methodology. But instead we learned about intuition, a particular feeling to react, an eureka moment, and we hear the use of metaphors. Therefore we leave the lecture room knowing nothing more than when we entered 60 minutes prior.

But like all things in life there is a positive side to it. Mr. Fujimoto revealed to us, when responding to a question from the audience, that during the seven years of inactivity between his graduation from Tokyo University and the inception of his firm in 2000, he was 'thinking'. He was, as he described a shy and young person without much confidence. He worried about being rejected by two of his heros, Ito and Sejima. Two people with whom he wanted to work for but never applied. It wasn't until when he received the second prize in a competition that Ito wrote in an essay about Fujimoto's work that he discovers his confidence. This was an encouraging confession useful in future desk crits.

Architecture Synthesis : Mirror and Window

Under the premise of looking out and mirroring ones inner self, the lecture discusses the means and end to the path of education in preparation for the evolving world, specifically in the field of architecture.  In the age of de-territorialized architecture practice, the end is not about producing students with knowledge catered to a particular industry or locality.  Instead, it is for them to develop architectural intelligence and skills that are mobile and fluid so they can contribute and manoeuvre reflectively according to the situations.  Therefore I would like to argue that architecture education must create the conditions that enable this potential.  

The lecture aims to offer a pedagogical framework addressing the challenge of evolving practice.  Four keywords are selected to reflect the notion of mirror and window: Position, Transmutation, Communication and De-territorialization.  The four categories are examined through design problems from the School of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

POSITION_As argued by architect Michiel Riedijk Position is used to define the ground through which the work is operated on.  The position an architect adopts with regard to a given assignment is fundamental to the design of an architecture.  The nature of the position is utterly important particularly due to the permanence of the building and its impact to the city and the society at large.  Forming a position in architecture is not exclusively a matter for the practice.  It is something that is advocated in School of architecture, and particularly important when it comes to the Thesis Project. Unlike design studios where the briefs are given by professors.  Thesis, for the most part is self initiated in a one year long research and design project. It could be summarized with the following key principles: Define, Delve, Deduce, Develop and Defend.

TRANSMUTATION_To design is to imagine and synthesize, it often involves taking one form of thought and mutated into something other than its origin.  Be it turning paper into a cup or wood into musical instrument, or more in recent times an idea into a functional app.  In architecture, imagination means transforming a given circumstance by giving a new purpose, form and life.  This given circumstance is at times abstract and formless (such as a schedule of accommodation, a client’s vision or instinct for a project), while other times it starts with the concrete matter (of an existing building or the specific conditions of a site).  Transmutation therefore could be understood as the means through which imaginations are materialised.

COMMUNICATION_Architectural communication is understood as a means to an end: lines, notations in a series of steps from idea toward built realization, the projected building-to-be. Reinforcing the distance between the concrete/ low-level codification of the building form to the abstract/ highly codified drawing.  Representation therefore could be understood as a series of provisional strategies to mediate between the two different worlds, the imagined and the built.  Representation in short is a vehicle; a mediator; an in-between of the two fields.  

DETERRITORIALIZATION_Deterritorialization is the norm to practice today; it is not an exception but an expectation. Students of architecture in droves will either work in an unfamiliar territory or on projects with which its disposition is foreign.  Not only are buildings being designed from across the globe, but parts of a building could be manufactured and sourced from all over the world.  This ease of border-crossing has resulted in cities becoming monotonous for their lack of differentiation, where cities are at risk of becoming more like one another rather than carrying its unique identity and lineage.  Because of this inevitable trend, I have been doing a number of collaborative studios on the MArch level, that exposes students to the broader set of concerns in the practice of architecture.

Student works cited: Jisoo Park, Eunice Tsui, Larry Liu, Thomas Chee, Sophia Au, Shirley Cheung, Kitty Zhou, Cyrus Chan, Doris Leung, Cindy Ng, Wayne Wan, Tiffanny Wong, Magenta Kietkhajornsiri, Kattie Yau, Derek Pang, Christy Lee, and students from the National Chiao Tung University of Taiwan.

2017 Thesis Foreword

ENDING AS A BEGINNING

What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning
T.S. Eliot

THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION

In her TED Talk, Grace Lin -a children’s book illustrator and writer- describes the need for children to have two types of books on their shelves.  On one level, books that provides a window to see the immense world out and beyond, with another serving as mirror for discovering who they are deep inside.  Lin warned of the deficiency for having books of one kind, which she argues will either overemphasize the singular interpretation of the world through their narrow point of view, or amassing great knowledge of the world without knowing how to contextualize it through their personal experience.  

I believe this articulation also applies to architectural education, particularly now, at a time when the practice of architecture has become increasingly global. Not only are buildings being designed from across the globe, but parts of a building could be manufactured and sourced from all over the world.  This ease of border-crossing has resulted in cities becoming monotonous for their lack of differentiation, where cities are at risk of becoming more like one another rather than carrying its unique identity and lineage.  

A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

At the School of Architecture, the discovery of the world and one’s inner self occurs in different degrees and levels.  It is as important for teachers to share with our students, ideas conceived by influential figures such as Ebenezer Howard, whose 19th century idea of Garden City have, for better or worse, indirectly reshaped our cities.  But equally relevant, is for them to draw from their surroundings, the important lessons of vernacular settlement and architecture without architects such as Tai O village, whose strong sense of community are often absent from modern societies.  It is this combination of self-confidence to extract from their own context and keen awareness to acquire knowledge through others, that we wish to instill in our students.

THESIS AS A PROJECTION

Master of Architecture students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong has been, for the last 21 years, authored, designed and produced a graduation book, much like the one you are holding now which contains the architectural production of their Thesis Project, concise distillation of their intellectual and design pursuit.

Our school offers one of the few architectural programmes in the world which is affiliated with a Faculty of Social Science rather than with art and design or technically-driven institution.  What this implicitly means is that our students are keenly aware of their role as socially-oriented cultural producers enabled by their disciplinary knowledge of architecture.  This is evident from the graduating class’s Thesis Projects.

The source of their inspiration comes from the city they inhabit, Hong Kong: ranging from climate change, social inequality, ineffective housing and health care policies, ageing urban fabric, phenomenological discovery, privacy protection, spaces of production and display, and more.  Despite such drastic variations, there is a common ambition among these projects.  It is to provoke and elevate these pertinent issues to the public’s consciousness.  For some students, it is an opportunity to offer their answers to these complex set of issues.

Thesis Project is the last major required course in the School of Architecture, yet it is the first time students are given the chance to define their architectural supposition and to defend the position they take.  The process pertained involves defining a topic that is curious to the individual students but also relevant to the discipline of architecture; of deciphering through the overwhelming research to distill its core knowledge; of thinking independently without the safety net previously expected from the studio instructors; of choosing the tools and methods to develop the work; of developing the patience to sustain the thesis for two semesters; of staying the course during many temptations to deviate from the crux of their intent; or simply, to figure out which first steps to begin.  It is, I hope, not only the course that consummated the students formal architectural study but the commencement of their life-long project.

The Funeral of Jan Palach

John Hejduk’s House of the Suicide and House of the Mother of the Suicide, remembers the fatal act of a Czech philosophy student Jan Palach, whose 1968 self-immolation in protest against the Soviet occupation became a symbol for national resistance.  The memorial formed by two nine-by-nine-foot steel cubes is situated at the edge of the Jan Palach Square Prague.  If House of the Suicide expresses confrontation and resistance through its reflective brushed stainless steel and sharp thorny tentacles. House of the Mother of the Suicide on the other convey ‘a corresponding rage tempered with steely resolve’ through the use of Cor-ten steel with chamfered tentacles.  The structure is complimented by a poem written by David Shapiro dedicated to the memorial.

 

The Funeral of Jan Palach

 

                          When I entered the first meditation

                                                                                escaped the gravity of the object

                                   I experienced the emptiness,

                                                                                And I have been dead a long time.

              When I had a voice you could call a voice,

                                                                                My mother wept to me:My son,

                                                       my beloved son,

                                                                                I never thought this possible

                                                I’ll follow you on foot.

                                                                                Halfway in mud and slush the microphones picked up. It was raining on the houses;

                                                                                It was snowing on the police-cars.

                                   The astronauts were weeping,

                                                                                Going neither up nor out.

And my own mother was brave enough she looked

                                                                                And it was alright I was dead.


—David Shapiro

Didactical program disposition in a space of learning

After a blaze that burned down the 'old' modernist building designed by Jaap Bakema which housed the architecture programme at TU Delft in 2008, a design competition was organized shortly after to re-shelter its 4,000 students and professors.  Within one year, an existing building originally intended for students of chemistry was transformed into “BK City” for architectural studies.   Having visited the building many times since arriving NL, one interesting observation to note for this transformed structure.  The shape of the original 19th century building is formed by the alphabets of “E” and opposite-hand “F” connected by a rotated “I”.  In between the strokes are courtyard spaces for leisure activities and to allow for light to enter the interior spaces.  Two of these exterior courtyards was transformed  through the insertion of  two large, volumetric and light filled multi-purpose spaces. While one of these halls function as the great orange lecture hall plus socializing and gallery space; another is a 6,000 square meter “greenhouse workshop" (metaphorically speaking)  positioned across from the bibliotheek (library).   These two critical programmes representing anchors for the faculty is diametrically situated along the main entry axis of the building.  The disposition of these two important spaces establishes an interesting dialectical synthesis between the production of the body with the production of the mind, providing a clear pedagogical position for the Faculty of Architecture.  The walls along the library is lined with the names of those architects with whom have made significant contributions to the work of architecture.

Contextualism through wielded geometry

The East Wing of National Gallery in DC by I.M. Pei and The Tokyo Forum by Rafael Viñoly are two classic examples of matter-of-fact contextual response through their clarity of parti. Both projects are situated on a trapezoidal site with two particular elements of reference. For the East Wing, it is the West Wing designed by John Russell Pope in the beginning of the 20th century and the diagonal boulevard from L'Enfant's master plan; for The Tokyo Forum, it is the busy and bustling JR railway and the gridded urban context. Through the murmur of the site, both projects achieved its clarity of form through its simplicity of reinterpreted geometry. Most revealing is that, Pei was one of the judges -together with Kenzo Tange, Vittorio Gregotti- who selected Viñoly's scheme through an international architectural competition. The similarity between their approach to generate an architectural form through the site is quite profound.

Devil is in the narrative

Two buildings from two different continents and local conditions sharing similar idea on the making of public space and formal expression. Left is the Polytechnic University Community College designed by Hong Kong firm of AD/RG, right is the Museum aan de Stroom by Neutling Riedijk Architects from Holland.

Idea for the PUCC building derives from a reinterpreted ideal of the Chinese courtyard house. Instead of having courtyard in the center, it rotates upward around the edges of the building volume. This new interpretation takes place in the high dense urban condition of Hong Kong. Peripheral courtyard thus becomes the internalized cavity that engages the public realm.  While the PUCC refers to its context by making historic and typological references, the MAS engages its context in another way.

The concept of the design competition for MAS goes something like this. In a low profile city-scape of Antwerpen, there were three iconic towers that overlooks it. A tower of religion: the cathedral; a tower of power: the police central; a tower commerce: the bank headquarter, yet, none of the three offer its citizens a public access, or view from a high vantage point.  While most of the other submissions attempted to "respect" the context by staying low, Neutling and Riedijk proposes the fourth tower: a tower of culture. Not only does it symbolizes the fourth order, but it pushes the idea for creating a path where the public could circulate through the building in a quarterly view up to the roof terrace without the need to purchase a ticket. A cultural building with public space that its citizens could appropriate, freely.

In Pursuit of a Project

Creation really is a patient (re)search. Two of the most significant projects in the last twenty years took decades for its full fruition. Centripetal organising principle of the Guggenheim Bilbao (1997) was clearly visible in the Winton Guest House (1987). Across scale and functionality, entering the vertically inclined living room at the house is equivalent to that of the lobby at the museum, the central element gathers the family members and the museum visitors alike. Also the elongated garage at the house is reminiscent to the Richard Serra wing at the museum. For Koolhaas, the making of the Seattle Central Library (2004) was the result of two unsuccessful competition attempts to reimagine the "moral goodness" of the library typology through strategy of the void 2.0 of the Tres Grande Bibliotheque (1989) and the diagonal strategy of the Deux Bibliothèque Jussieu (1992). The first strategy being an attempt to establish a dialectical relationship between the stable (determine) and the unstable (indetermine) programs, while the second is to blur the programmatic and spatial boundaries.

Another project of significance, the Bruder Klaus Chapel by Peter Zumthor (2001-2007), a widely circulated and visited building. A building that serve less a practical purpose than a spiritual need. As important as it is, very little was known about its beginning. The final building constructed in the field on a gentle slope was the result of two projects previously designed but unbuild by Zumthor. Herz Jesu Church, Munich (1997) and Poetic landscape, Bad Salzuflen (1998—1999). In Zumthor’s own words, “The germ cell of the design for Bruder Klaus Chapel can be found in the “Poetry House” (individual structures designed to relate to a specific poem).” It is a design in search of the elemental: light and shade, water and fire, material and transcendence, the earth below and the open sky above. The same affinity is said of the Herz Jesu Church. A project embody the tension between dark and bright, earth and light, protection and exposure in vibrant lightness and darkness.

Cantonese Opera as an EXPERIENCE of confluence between subject and object

It is with great sadness to learn about Bing Thom's passing this morning. Although I never had the fortune to work with him, his lecture at CUHK four years ago, and the metro ride after was a memorable and enlightening experience that I will not forget.

He spoke about the particularity of the theatrical experience in the Cantonese opera, as the theatre of life, that the everyday experience is needed to be brought into the art form, where the subject experience is invited to immerge into the object of the play. This contrasting notion of the art form, from the European opera, set apart his design from others for the Xiqu Centre competition here in Hong Kong. In his proposal, the boundary of the architecture is meant to be porous, the everyday events of whispering, tea drinking and snacking are meant to be part of the threatre experience. All of it combined to soften the distinction between inside and out, to entangle the reality of the everyday from the fantasy of the theatre. It was a simple and clearly articulated concept.

Our thesis students were anticipating his Master Class last week, only to learn that he had fell ill during a client's meeting. What a lost.

HKIA- Past Present Future- Tracking Hong Kong Architecture

Between early 1960s and 1990s, and as part of the Four Asian Tigers, Taiwan and Hong Kong have witnessed a rapid economic development, consistently maintaining between 7 to 8 percent growth each year.  Propelled by a low-cost labor force, during the infancy stage both regions established itself on an export economy manufacturing consumer goods of its day.  Beginning in the 1980s, while Hong Kong demonstrated its transformation from manufacturing to a world-leading international financial center, Taiwan on the other hand, have proven itself for contributing towards the information technology revolution.  After the three decades of growth focusing on economic transformation lifting itself from the “Third-World” categorization, there is an increased awareness on cultural production as a way to further define its identity.  Contextualizing itself within the global community but also struggle to define itself internally seeking a sense of locality. As part of the continuum of economic and cultural development, the purpose of architecture is also being reconsidered in the midst of these changes.  Moving from fundamental necessities of dwelling (residential) and work (office buildings) to an ever growing demand for spaces of cultural production such as museums, theatres and artist villages.  
Through the topical platform of Paradigm Shift of Architecture as a Creative Industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the forum invite speakers to share with the audience on how architecture have been an agency within this continuum of change.

2016 Thesis Foreword

In the martial art of Karate, for instance, the symbol of pride for a black belt is to wear it long enough such that the dye fades to white as to symbolize returning to the beginner state.
John Maeda

 

The Thesis Project, as the last moment in the School of Architecture at which the production of architecture engenders and is engendered by a social, political, material, technological and cultural agenda, aspires to define our graduates as a creator working in between approximation and exactitude, converging creatively the sometimes foreign subject matter with the disciplinary literacy of architecture.  It is also an opportunity where one who can materialize the primary elements of what is at his or her disposal in order to establish criteria whose evaluation is both self-referential and open to debate for those outside of the process.  

The thesis which lends understanding to a thoughtful and reflective act straddled in-between the autonomous and the contingent object of architecture, where ideas and thoughts are expressed through architectural production, not only in abstraction but through spatial agency and ingenuity, which encourages students to critique and contemplate upon them, and is embedded in all decisions that go with producing the work.  

Fast forward eight months, at the conclusion of the thesis also marked the beginning of a new set of questions.  So what now?  Have they achieved what they’ve set out to do in September of last year?  If not, will they continue to find and defind of their search and research of the thesis?  What will they do? Where will they go?


Perhaps as suggested by Maeda in the Law of Simplicity, they could revisit their “thesis” not through the assuming attitude of a black belt, but instead with the beginner’s eyes of curiosity, questioning and fervor.  It is with that passion, that one’s architectural project may be continued to be learned and shaped.

Peep show multi-opticon

Over the past few years, the diagram of the panopticon has often come up, but today I found myself sharing a personal experience on the panopticon with a student. This was not the iconic Bentham panopticon but one involving strippers and peeping Toms (or curious teenagers).

Back in the 90s before NYC's 42nd street was over-taken by Disney Corp, when it was still edgy and interesting, where drug addicts and pimps lined the street. Best friend Wei Tao and I found our way into one of those shops with the sign “Peep Show” on it. Not knowing what to expect, we explored our way into the meandering paths formed by rows of pornographic VHS tapes and ended up in a large space with a circular drum at the end of the room. The cylindrical form was sub-divided into smaller booths, little more than a person’s width, each with an access door.

Upon entering our booths and without any instruction, we knew what to do. Just like a video game, insert the coins and we expected something to show up. But instead of GAME STARTS NOW, the shutter opposite from the booth door was lifted, and right before us were the female performers clad in thin veils if anything at all. The strippers gazed towards me, or us (I can’t be sure) and waved. It was the moment when I realised we weren’t separated by a one-way mirror or other high tech material that I had thought existed. In fact, there was no glass at all. Seeing the other Toms literally “accessing” the strippers, we were shocked, or at least I was. More fascinating than the performers in front of me was the fact that I couldn’t see the facial expression of Wei, one of the shiest people I knew, because he was in the booth besides me. To this day, I don’t know how he reacted when the shuttle first lifted.

There it was, the reversed panopticon where the subject is gazed upon from the periphery by peeping Toms and two curious teenagers. Where the latent geometry helped to prevent embarrassing moments between two friends.