Category: 2022 Blog

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on Peter Wong

“Space and Place” and “Map and Tour” To articulate the relationship between Space and Place by merely expressing one is stable and the other is mobile is a bit ambiguous because geographically these two are nailed in a solid spot. To illustrate place is mobile we need to consider the intersection of mobile element in present or of a particular time in which represented an ensemble of different occupational activities, happening or happened, in that place. For example, the third floor of HKU main library is a place for people to nurture their mind or sitting on the chair leisurely

Continue readingReading Response: Michel de Certeau

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on u3583842@connect.hku.hk

It was only after reading the text that I was able to differentiate “space” from “place”, with the former related to time and mobility, and the later associated with location and stability. The interchangeability between the two accentuates the important role people play in spatial practices. Our circulation and movements are vital to activate places into spaces, and in turn, spaces are transformed into places through common cultural recognitions and activities. For instance, the Sai Wan Instagram Pier was once a “place” for cargo transportation, but was transformed into a “space” when there were operations of leisure activities and creations

Continue readingReading response: Michel de Certeau

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on u3593044@connect.hku.hk

This reading material talk about the different method of describe those space. For different people, they may use different method, such as “map” and “tour”. This difference is also appear in stories of journeys and actions. For the modern science side, map is always leave the “tour”, but for long time ago, the map always use the method of tour to describe a position. The “log” is also always shows, but not the route. Those are the description  in describe space and from a space to another. The operation of space always with marking out boundaries. This reading shows the

Continue readingReading Response: Michel de Certeau

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on Laurence

Taking de Certeau’s insight further, space is a continuum of flowing places, an inescapable narrative. Thus every street is a book or a film, and every great city should be a great archive library. How do we read the street? By ‘practicing’ the places that constitute it, gazing at its vocabulary (vehicles, pedestrians, buildings), punctuation (signs, intersections), tone (colors, styles) are all clever ways of appreciating it, like what Perec practiced in Species of spaces. But the crucial thing is the syntax: how an elegant space is organized, just as a brilliant story is told. This brings me back to

Continue readingReading Response: Michel de Certeau

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on u3593487@connect.hku.hk

Place is stable, limited by the boundaries that are set by the authorities such as the government and usually be symbolised. While space is defined by the users’ experiences and movements, different users have their personal interpretation towards a space, so space is more flexible. When a movement takes place in a place, it turns into space due to the increasing spatial quality. When there is an undefined empty space, people apply different usages to it, and finally give a name to the space due to the usage, the space turns into a place. It is crucial to distinguish space

Continue readingReading Response: Michel de Certeau

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Jennifer Yoos and Vincent James

Posted on u3594775@connect.hku.hk

It’s worth embracing a length of critical history of the multilevel urbanisms by knowing so many talented designers and architects who have made contributions to the experiments of multilevel urban transformation. The authors introduce to us several cities which first deployed multilevel urbanism by telling the stories of some great architects. Then, they took Manhattan and Hong Kong as two specific examples of three-dimensional urban complexity. These great architects, the creators who master the tools of public policy, all had a shrewd understanding on urban economics, and this would be the reason why they are so trusted to “create” and

Continue readingReading Response: Jennifer Yoos and Vincent James

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event, Uncategorized

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on u3583530@connect.hku.hk

After I read this book, I can understand the difference between place and space. Place refers to order based on distribution of emlements in relationships with coexistence. Therefore, place seems to be static concept. It can be found everywhere in our mundane life such as stadium. Meanwhile, a space can be explained as a practiced place. It can be created by factors of mobility. This mobility is someimtes involved in memories of the past. In other words, people give special meanings to a place. In the case of the national cemetry, it is created to commeorate people who sacrifice for

Continue readingReading Response: Michel de Certeau

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on u3594825@connect.hku.hk

This article illustrates and explains the difference between “spaces” and “places”, and further gives information about tours and maps. Moreover, by considering “boundaries”, gives a more precise definition of “narrate”.   A place is the order in accord with elements are distributed in relationship of coexistence, it seems like a “statical” concept, which implies an indication of stability. Inversely, space is composed of intersections of mobile elements, and it seems like a “dynamical” concept, it has thus none of the stability. Nevertheless, they are complements of each other, which means that these two concepts can constantly transform through a connection,

Continue readingReading Response: Michel de Certeau

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Jennifer Yoos and Vincent James

Posted on txy524@connect.hku.hk

Yoos and James explore the evolving history of the architectural idea behind the design of pedestrian systems under distinct social, geographic, and political contexts. The skywalk is not only a tool for connecting the interior spaces in the cities for improving pedestrian convenience and managing traffic flow but also could be seen as a product of accelerating urbanization, fast-paced economic development, or used to foster social cohesion. I am particularly interested in Gruen’s idea and totally agree with what was praised by Jane Jacobs, the urban design should be ‘bottom-up,’ which focuses on society and human activities. Gruen’s vision went

Continue readingReading Response: Jennifer Yoos and Vincent James

Cat Links 2022 Blog, Fieldwork

[Field Report] Henan building

Posted on u3585440@connect.hku.hk

The film that I have selected which is set in Hong Kong for the field trip is ‘Love Undercover’ (2002) by director Joe Ma. The film is about a young police trainee who works as an undercover to get close to a gangster’s son to detect whether he was doing illegal business, but finally falling in love with him with a happy end. (IMDb, 2022) My choice of the building site which is also a critical element in the film is the Henan building located in at 90 Jaffe Road,Wan Chai District. (Prime property, 2022) This building appeared in the

Continue reading[Field Report] Henan building