Site background
Stair culture, the emergence of this new concept gives a more functional meaning to an often overlooked outdoor space. Because of the peculiarities of Hong Kong’s topography, flat areas are scattered by hills. In the oldest neighbourhoods, they play a dual role as streets and link the various areas. Stairs act as a public space and urban landscape, a successful case could provide the chances of social interaction and be regarded as an architectural typology. Before the rapid development of modern transport, metro and bus, most commuting was done on foot or by bicycle. But in hilly areas like Hong Kong, walking becomes the primary option. According to the StairMap by Stair Centre, most of the stairs are located in Kenndy Town, Sheung Wan, Central and Wan Chai. It’s not hard to find the distribution of the population is similar to the stairways. In other words, stairs are the foundation of travel, and the saying ‘To become rich, first build roads’ is also true in Hong Kong, but in the form of a ladder.
Inspiration of site selection
Stairs are the chosen theme for this video. The inspiration for this came from an artistic study on stairs called Stair Culture: Digging Into the Past and Present of Hong Kong’s Ladder Streets I had previously read. One of the concepts repeatedly mentioned in this report was very interesting to me – Hong Kong’s landscape and culture are shaped by many stairways. Hundreds of staircases form the so-called ‘ladder streets’ and even is regarded as living heritage. After reading the words, I subconsciously pay more attention to the frequency, location and people who use the stairs.
Most of the material was collected at the link between Western Central and Kennedy Town. These two areas have a large drop-off, one halfway up a hill and one on flatter ground. In this area, there are staircases of various shapes and sizes. As the text within the video, ‘the shape of the stairs varies as the terrain changes. Straight, winding, flat and steady’. During the field trip, I found several interesting staircase designs and forms, some of which have been phased out of use, which we call ‘Thomasson’. In the process, I also gained a lot of design ideas.
Production of video
Firstly, I put the camera in a stationary position to record the people passing by the chosen staircase in different time slots to find out the imparity of pedestrians. While reviewing the video recordings, they are more like information-gathering statistics for anthropological research than video footage. Fortunately, I had new inspiration from those resources. I adjusted the camera from the height of an adult’s viewpoint to that of a dog’s to focus on the pace of the pedestrians as they pass through the different staircases. This novel perspective was chosen for this shoot, observing the walk up-and-down process from the dog’s point of view could provide a chance to focus on the distinctive paces of pedestrians with different destinations.
While editing the video, different identities of pedestrians were intentionally placed together. The aim is to create a stronger visual contrast, as they are all walking up the same staircase, but with very distinct differences in dress, pace and temperament.
The opportunities for character interaction offered by public spaces are innumerable. As the rhythm of the background music becomes more intense, more and more characters appear on the video screen. Representing a tight commute, and a gradual reduction in the social distance between people.
Then at the end, the mood slowly subsides back to the initial years of quietness. A solitary stroll up the winding staircase reveals more creatures and details than one would normally miss.
This assignment has given me a great way to think about looking at life. When framing all the details in the camera, they become the main character of the whole picture. At the same time, I learned that there is beauty as far as the eye can see
References
Cate Christ, Melissa. (2017). Stair Culture and the commons. HKIA Journal. Occupy: Commons. 78-79.
Chek, H. Y. G., Ong, M. S. R., & Lee, H. (2018, May 7). Social steps – public staircases as a social architecture typology. Issuu. https://issuu.com/gabrielchek/docs/social_steps
Dewolf, C. (2021, May 11). Stair culture: Digging into the past and present of Hong Kong’s Ladder Streets. Zolima City Magazine. https://zolimacitymag.com/stair-culture-digging-into-the-past-and-present-of-hong-kongs-ladder-streets/
GuDian, Ella 3036103066
Your video includes a good spatial analysis of your subject matter – the stairs, demonstrating the spatial qualities this component has to bring impacts on people’s social behaviours and how people adopt the stairs for social occasions.
To improve, it will be great if you can expand your research scope to compare escalators and stairs, just like what you have briefly mentioned in your video. You also have found some good references as listed in your bibliography but you have not made good use of them. Include them in your text to support your ideas.