Category: 2023 Blog

Cat Links Final Video Essay

[Video Essay]: The Vibrant City: Use of Lighting in Hong Kong

Posted on howeck@connect.hku.hk

Video Link: https://youtu.be/-1TqZZ490D0 Background It was a bright day in May as I hung out in Central Hong Kong at night. I slipped into a shopping district and realized that Central looks a lot different compared to daylight. Unlike during the daytime, where I can only see simple enormous office buildings in Central, the building looks more colourful and vibrant as big screens with moving pictures and lighting are switched on when dusk falls. I kept thinking about this question, and I found the answer finally. Under the colourful lighting, the building would be more attractive to the viewers. Lighting

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Cat Links 2023 Blog, Final Video Essay

Video Essay: Public City

Posted on pennyw@connect.hku.hk

  Public City   In this research, a housing estate called Wo Che Estate is going to be investigated. Wo Che Estate is located in Shatin, and it is the second housing estate constructed in Shatin district. Most of its building were constructed in 1980s and have a relatively long history compared to other housing estate in Shatin. Apart from that, the architectural features of Wo Che Estate are distinctive. There are five types of buildings in the estate including Twin Tower, H Block, Double H Block, Old slab Block and New Cruciform Block. This investigation is going to focus

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Cat Links Final Video Essay

The Public-Private City

Posted on bramverh@connect.hku.hk

What defines the city? As an interplay of flowing public masses and hidden private spaces. But also of the indistinct in between, its alleyways and exits – transitory spaces between public and private with. Attributes from both, yet not fully belonging to either. Research on cities and social lives has typically focused on producing and analysing a distinct public-private binary. Studies analysing the home have emphasised the role of privacy, as a space protected from the intrusion of others, as a place to develop the self (Denov & Akesson, 2013). On the other hand, urban design literature has sought to

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Cat Links 2023 Blog, Final Video Essay

[Video Essay]:hybrid city, Nathan Road, Mongkok

Posted on u3610204@connect.hku.hk

https://youtu.be/z2ignwdN3Ao Around the theme of this essay， Hybrid City， Nathan Road located on the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong is the main space for research. Nathan Road, one of the main arterial roads in Kowloon City, has taken on the responsibility of being a commercial street and a transport hub. It is street composition and architectural structure is a mix of commercial, cultural and recreational diversity, creating a hybrid street. The bustle of Nathan Road can therefore be seen as a microcosm of the bustle of Hong Kong, which is facilitated by its hybridity. In order to better reflect the

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Cat Links 2023 Blog, Final Video Essay

[Video Essay]: The Hong Kong Alleyway

Posted on lopa2022@connect.hku.hk

Alleyways are a staple of the Hong Kong urban landscape, and through this essay I aim to value them as an important element of the cityscape of the city. The video is a short take on alleyways, how they are a lot more than simple narrow passageways if one takes the time to reflect upon them.   My original plan was to film the streets of Hong Kong and discuss their diversity in terms of looks and quantity of sights to be seen on them. The streets in Hong Kong truly are a unique identifier of the city’s landscape which

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Cat Links 2023 Blog, Final Video Essay, Uncategorized

[Field-Homework 3] Hybrid City

Posted on u3610052@connect.hku.hk

Hybrid City      Hong Kong, a hybrid city, has long been known for its diversity. The University of Hong Kong, as a representative place of Hong Kong, demonstrates this characteristic. The short essay and video will focus on the Chong yuet Ming Building on campus and explain the “hybrid” feature. The importance of the Chong Yuet Ming Building as a building connecting the main campus to the Chong Yuet Ming Chemistry Building is self-evident. it is a modernist building located on a sloping hillside. At the entrance below the hillside are lush trees and lotus ponds. At the exit

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Cat Links 2023 Blog, Final Video Essay

[Video Essay]: Overhead Bridge: Public City

Posted on fudi2459@connect.hku.hk

  Theme:   The theme of my video is the overhead bridge in the public city. As a Hongkonger living in Tsuen Wan, I am proud to have the footbridge network that connects me to wherever I want to go. On rainy days, I can return home without getting wet, even without an umbrella. Therefore, the video is set at the Tsuen Wan Town Footbridge Network, capturing the daily lives of Tsuen Wan residents as they use the footbridge network.    People from all walks of life and different age groups all benefit from the footbridge network. As we can

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Cat Links 2023 Blog, Final Video Essay

[Field-Homework 3] Bonding City – Shop Fronts by the Streets

Posted on u3598731@connect.hku.hk

Theme  In a dense urban city like Hong Kong, many buildings are shophouses or a more integrated version of shophouses: cake-buildings (shopping malls with housing buildings on top). Shops are grounded so that they connect to the street where people walk by and pay attention to what the shops have to offer. I believe this space is where the neighbourhood creates bonding. The local shopkeepers watch the children in the neighbourhood grow up. These shopfronts are what make each street unique and fill the street with the spirit of the neighbourhood. It is a place to peek inside a shop;

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Cat Links Final Video Essay

[Field-Homework 3] Disappearing City

Posted on u3583434@connect.hku.hk

The theme of my video is the “disappearing city”. The inspiration of this is on Ackbar Abbas’s comments on building on disappearances that Hong Kong is going through (Abbas, 1997). As its main arguments, Abbas was criticizing heavily on how quick Hong Kong changes and does not let what has been built to mature. And so, I conjectured that there are probably some places in Hong Kong where its architecture is very much distinct from its surroundings and its preservation of context had failed. The Chi Lin nunnery fit this search of mine. The name and the location it was

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Cat Links Final Video Essay

[Field-Homework 3]:Hybrid City-HK

Posted on u3609755@connect.hku.hk

Description of the theme: Hypothesis statement: Hong Kong is a hybrid city combining elements from different eras and spaces into a single image. Every time I walk through the streets of Hong Kong, I see traditional HongKong tramways and modern buses passing side by side; I see dilapidated tenement  buildings next to new modern skyscrapers; I hear the different languages the pedestrians speak on the road; I smell the flavors of regional cuisines emanating from the various national restaurants. My experiences in Hongkong streets made me feel that Hong Kong is a hybrid city combining elements from different eras and

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