Description of the theme and subject matter
Hong Kong, a subdivided city with serious social cleavage in wealth, political stance, and even flats. The city has been divided into several pieces by the steep hillside terrain. And the overhead bridge is the one that connected this subdivided city and those subdivided areas: “a multilevel city with elevated public spaces connecting housing, businesses, offices, and parking in a single megastructure elevated above a mass 18 transit line.” In the meantime, the overhead bridge can somehow subdivide the city. And the space on the bridge can also be subdivided by the citizens. Under the Covid-19, cleavage had been intensified. Lots of changes happened. Overhead bridge, a public transportation area somehow being subdivided into a private chatroom by the domestic helper, had also changed a lot.
Take some of the overhead bridges I visited as an example. The first one is in HKU. This overhead bridge connects the subdivided area of the study area and public transportation, which is the MTR and Centennial Campus. Standing on the bridge, I also took a time-lapse photo for Pok Fu Lam Road. The second one is the Mong Kok Pedestrian Footbridge System. The footbridge system subdivided the traffic and pedestrian, ensuring people’s safety and connect the several public community centers. At the weekend, the public area on the bridge may also be subdivided into private chatrooms by the domestic helpers and the walking area.
Method of research & Documentation and making of the video
In the video essay, I visited a total of 5 overhead bridges, mainly in Pok Fu Lam, Mong Kok, and Causeway Bay. I bring a Fujifilm X-S10 camera with a 15-45mm lens to film all the video clips, ensuring the resolution of the video can be high, so that audience can really empathize with what I observed.
These five overhead bridges all have their own special features. So I tried to find the best position on or off the bridge to present all their features from different angles.
And my task is to record the “events” that subdivided the bridges. And also how those overhead bridges connect, divide, or be divided in this city.
Reflection:
During the research, I’ve learnt a lot the design ideas of the skyways, and how they connect the whole city above citizens’ head. I researched lots of footage bridge system in Hong Kong and found so many amazing hidden places that I never expected, or to observe a familiar place from different angle on the bridge, gaining a brand new experience.
— LAU Kong Ngai, 3035822756
Reference:
1. Yoos, J. and V. James. (2016). The Multilevel Metropolis: On the radical origins – and mundane deployment – of the urban skyway. Places Journal (May).
hello!! About the content of the film, I agree with what you’ve mentioned about how overhead bridges are able to connect our subdivided city, including different buildings and areas. Also, I like your choice of example about how the habit of domestic helpers changed due to pandemics, in which they should maintain social distancing and cannot gather at the bridge as before. It is successful to link pandemic, the connection of our city with a down-to-earth example!
Hi, I really like how you see the role of overhead bridge in the city as subdividing different parties. I believe most of us may only think of its function of connecting different buildings in the city as the definition you have mentioned. The contrast between the overhead bridge connecting the city and subdividing the people in the city is significant. Moreover, I agree that Covid-19 has subdivided more the city into more pieces, which has intensified the social cleavage. However, I think you can use more original sound of the video to see how different parties on the overhead bridge are living in a subdivided city.
Thank you for sharing your amazing video.
You maintained a fairly good control of techniques and organisation of the form/content and narration. The written and verbal articulation are of competent academic standard, however, the features described in the text is not visualised / presented in the video. It would benefit from more documentation and elaboration of the elevated walkways’ design – what they are connected to and how they subdivide the city. At present, it is more of a walk-through of a random selection of overhead bridges.