The discussion of “distributed city” is particularly interesting in spatial sociology and also demonstrated by science fiction. By separating the functional districts into physical spaces that distant from each other, will the production model of the city remain similar as before? Saskia Sassen’s answer might be denial, for she argued that with the growth of demand for highly professional labor, the requirement of nearby related infrastructure and service will also increase. For example, around the agglomeration of banks and finance companies in Central, where people work for a high salary and long hours, hospitals, parks, and malls guaranteed their basic life quality. Additionally, low-wage laborers are wanted in the sphere of primary production, which might explain the special phenomenon of domestic helpers in Hong Kong. What might be curious is that after the rocketing development of internet technology since Sassen’s putting forward of “global city”, many big cities are still pursuing the standard to be global and prosperous, like Hong Kong, building its cultural center to excel also in cultural development. Consequently, whether in Cybercity, the functional districted can really be physically distributed, or any area can be lifted out, is worth considering not only in science fiction.
CHEN Quanchi 3035637385
The distributed city model will alter and affect many aspects, for sure. You pointed out one of the aspects quite well, i.e., the production-consumption chain in the city. The concept of the distributed city with specialised functions, distant from one another, was even already been introduced in the late 19th century through the concept of “Garden City” by Ebenezer Howard. Throughout time, this concept has been part of an active discourse within the urbanism/urban planning field. Picking up from your points on how the critique toward the distributed city, you could give a more detailed explanation of how do you see Hong Kong fitting to this development type. If Hong Kong were a distributed city, what would the interests and challenges be?