Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/sbMDH83IxQs
Theme:
The theme of the video is to introduce the International Commerce Centre. It is Hong Kong’s highest modern building which located at the most developed part of Hong Kong. Nearby the MTR station, people can travel from here to other important facilities such as Central ,Hong Kong airport or Shen Zhen within 30 minutes.(1) In ICC, there are office units, tenants settled in such as banks, hotels , and many international companies.(2) However, since 2010, tourists are not allowed to enter office lobby or take photos.(3)
It is so unfortunate that ICC could be a more poplular attraction in Hong Kong than now. Since tourists are not allowed to enter and take photos freely and it is located near the harbour, most of the tourists can only take photos from the ground and there are even more tourists at the shopping centre under the ICC. Being a building that can represent Hong Kong, ICC should be more different since it fullfill the special modern building that Hong Kong need. Therefore, its limitation for tourists is an unfortuante fact. Considering Tai Kwun and General post office, building that are going to renew, rebuild or remove could be preserved or remembered by people is not only because of their special building style, but also their linkages to people daily life and memories. From Spatial Stories, place are different to space because people in the city can give it meanings. However, what we can observe is that ICC is just becoming a background, like a mountain, very high but there is nobody can reach its top.
Although ICC is not a very cultural valuable, it is special that it represent Hong Kong’s modern side. The theme is to raise people’s aweareness and interest toward ICC.
Method:
To introduce how convenient the transportation of ICC is, I started the video from screening the MTR station. For the whole video, I use 1st person view to improve the empathy of a “tourist”. Coming next is the element shopping centre and restaurants and bars that most of the tourists visiting at. By looking upward, the video can show how tall is the ICC is.
Following up is long, unchanged camera towards the harbour views surrounding the ICC. It is to emphasize the deserted environment nearby the ICC, getting close to the theme “ICC is high but being isolated by public and tourists”
At the end, the camera come close to the ICC and look though the window. It is to show that the world in the ICC and the Hong Kong are seperated. “Tourists are not allowed to enter freely”.
Finally, watcher of the video follow the camera to leave by going down stairs to the shopping centre. Look back again to show that the ICC is so far from us.
Reflection:
It is understandable that a commercial building is not design for tourism. However, it is still sad to know that a building located at the centre of Hong Kong, having the best view of Victoria Harbour, transportation and highest design in Hong Kong, is not that popular I think. Due to Hong Kong special history and complex society, Hong Kong has many historical heritages and many of them are conserved and protected in different ways. No matter what the quality of the renewing process is, they are having enough attention from the public and public have knew their meaning and value at last. However, for ICC, when it is built, many Hong Kong people are proud and proactive to visit it but since it is not that cultural meaningful and many news and accidences of ICC, it became so “common”. When it becomes old and is going to reconstucted, will there be people to protect and preserve the history of it? Is that the cultural meaning, history is the only way for us to determine the value of a building? Or come back to this moment, do ICC worth this situation? It has the best location and have represent Hong Kong’s modern side but lost its name because of its function and limitation.
Considerate the Hong Kong people in reality, many of them know about Hong Kong’s tourism and business but they cannot really talk about the information. When the poor hear that the ICC is built and broke the record of highest building of Hong Kong, they would be happy but it doesn’t matter many for them. So, is that ICC is meaningless? No, it’s meaning is shown on its function, it is a way to attract more international companies to Hong Kong, it is a representation of Hong Kong’s development.
To be concluded, the International Commerce Centre is good but not enough now. Although it is not a cultural heritage, it could have more potential to be digged out. And people should think more about the definatin of value of a building. The difference between place and space is the reaction between poeple, so what we can do to improve our linkages with those building that means a lot but not that old? Every building will have its ending in future.
Reference:
1. 環球貿易廣場簡介 https://sky100.com.hk/zh-hant/more/about-us/icc-story/
2.環球貿易廣場 / INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE CENTRE https://www.venuechain.com/tc/venue/detail/?name=%E7%92%B0%E7%90%83%E8%B2%BF%E6%98%93%E5%BB%A3%E5%A0%B4%20%2F%20INTERNATIONAL%20COMMERCE%20CENTRE
3.環球貿易廣場 https://go.liontravel.com/zh-tw/attraction/hong_kong-international_commerce_centre-q317034
Name:Wong Tsz Cheuk
UID:3036224365