Public city: Connection across spaces – Overhead bridge
Theme
Walking is a fundamental element of all modes of transportation and an essential subsystem of public transit. With a network of 24-hour overhead pedestrian bridges throughout the city, Hong Kong has provided its citizens with a comprehensive and superior transport system. Therefore, this video essay is conducted around the hypothesis that overhead bridges serve as a connector across public and private urban spaces.
Subject Matter
Places
Central Elevated Walkway, Central-Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System and Mong Kok Pedestrian Footbridge System.
Components
Under the hypothesis, the connection across spaces is divided into three parts:
- Among public spaces
The elevated walkway system can create a separate human-vehicle transportation structure for urban development, a multi-functional sightseeing platform for urban landscapes, and a networked composite public space. It significantly improves the business zone’s aggregate service level by optimizing resource integration and intensive use.
Not only the elevated walkway system links spaces physically, including commercial buildings, transportation, and streets, but also is designed to provide a visual connection and a sense of extension (香港電台 “立體都市”, 2010).
2. Privatized public space
It is interesting to see the public space privatized for different uses. As long as people do not think their privacy is invaded and do not offend others who are also using footbridges, treating public space for private interest is widely accepted in Hong Kong.
3. Publicized private space
Some private place is connected to the public so closely that the boundary is almost blurred. However, the overhead bridge creates a unique urban landscape based on that, as people can observe different stories of life when sceneries sweep away in front of their eyes.
Methods of Conducting the Research and Producing the Video
Method
A literature investigation was conducted as preparation, and field research using the observation method was adopted to produce the video. I was inspired to focus on public-private interest by studies of Juliana Rotmeyer (2010), Zheng Tan and Charlie Q. L. Xue (2015). Then, I chose three locations to carry out my field research. By recording what I saw and experienced, this video is more like a documentary of what the overhead bridges are functioning as. Some filming angles were inspired by the analysis of illustrations (Siu et al., 2015).
Filming techniques
- Point of View
When filming the process of walking through four shopping malls, I shot in the first-person perspective to provide the audience with an immersive experience to show the effectiveness of overhead bridges across spaces.
2. Composition
To be more aesthetic, I adopted a few composition methods in photography, including the rule of thirds, centered composition and symmetry, leading lines, Frame within the Frame, and Diagonals and Triangles.
3. Shooting angles
Plenty of eye-level shots were used to provide a first-person perspective to provide what can be seen from the footbridges. High-level shots and ground-level shots were also used to shoot complete bridges.
4. Accelerating
Some video clips were accelerated to reflect the flow of population and traffic.
Reflection
At first, I was surprised by the theme “overhead bridge” provided in the space list. I had never thought about why there are so many overhead bridges here before, although I often used them. After reading some materials explaining their reasons, I felt very interested and chose this theme.
Shooting the video gave me the first chance to walk through the whole route of both the Central and Mong Kok walkway systems. Then I fully experienced the advantages those infrastructures have brought us and understood the urban structure of Hong Kong better as well. That inspired me to describe the system’s functions as ” a separate human-vehicle transportation structure, a multi-functional sightseeing platform, and a networked composite public space” in the video. The urban space is divided into multi-levels, which is also the wisdom of designers to use as much vertical space intensively as possible, compared with the limited land area.
Nevertheless, this video only reflects the effectiveness or advantages of connecting and blurring boundaries between public and private spaces without the disadvantages. For example, some residents living beside the Central-Mid-Levels escalator feel disturbed because there are too many tourists and too much noise in their ordinary life. This indicates the public invades privacy instead of harmony. Another common problem of overhead bridges needing to be mentioned is overpassing. For example, I want to cross the road, which is very straightforward on the ground, but I have to go up, then down and even turn back from the exit downstairs. In this situation, the footbridge brings more trouble than convenience to pedestrians. Therefore, there is still room for supplementary discussion.
Bibliography
Cuthbert, AR. “The Right to the City: Surveillance, Private Interest and the Public Domain in Hong Kong.” Cities 12, no. 5 (1995): 293–310.
Leung, Edward. “Case Study 4: Footbridge Systems in Central.” In Development of Modern Architecture in Hong Kong. 2013. https://docomomo.hk/pedestrian-footbridge-system-central/
Rotmeyer, J. A.. (2010). Publicness of elevated public space in Central, Hong Kong : an inquiry into the publicness of elevated pedestrian walkway systems as places and non-places. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b4730029
Siu, Kin Wai Michael, Weijia Wang, and Kacey Wong Kwok Choi. “Pedestrian Bridges and Urban Landscape: A Case Study of Hong Kong Pedestrian Bridges’ Aesthetics and their Effects on the Urban Landscape.” The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design 9, no. 4 (2015): 35-53. doi:https://doi.org/10.18848/2325-1662/CGP/v09i04/38400. http://eproxy.lib.hku.hk/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/pedestrian-bridges-urban-landscape-case-study/docview/2712942788/se-2.
Wilmott, Clancy. “Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook by Adam Frampton, Jonathan D. Solomon, and Clara Wong (review).” Cartographica 48, no. 3 (2013): 254–255.
陸素嫻., 鍾嘉慧., and 李志剛. 立體都市. 香港: 香港電台, 2010.
Tan Qianxu
3036097750
I really appreciated the shots and soundtrack of the video, the combination of pedestrians and facilities with the soothing music took me to connect the city from general to detailed gradually.
Your organization is excellent, the whole is divided into three sections that clearly show the different roles and connections of the overhead bridges in public and private spaces. I was impressed by the opening scene, with night market vendors surrounding pedestrians on the lower side of the frame, a bus driving by in the middle, residential buildings on either side, and the overhead bridge on the upper side with original sound. This image directly shows the private area connected by the overhead bridge to the general site underneath, marking the complementary nature of life and urban amenities.
Also, I loved the long shot with the first view of walking through the overhead bridge to reach the destination. The convenience of the bridge is more visually evident.
The video not only captures the macro view of the overhead bridges but also deals with the people and activities that will be seen on it, combining and contrasting the city’s stillness with the dynamics of life.
Your video examines overhead pedestrian bridges and how it connects spaces of varying privacy at different instances of the city. The structure of the video investigating three different types of contexts for the bridges is clear. Your topic can be more in-depth if you chose to only explore one pedestrian bridge system and the different conditions in it. Please be aware of the music volume, it gets louder than your narration making it difficult to hear.