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Hong Kong is “a shopper’s paradise,” and its shopping malls are flooded with customers every day (Lam, 2023). Malls in Hong Kong have always been part of the daily lives of its citizens as they provide a wide range of retail shops and restaurants. Not to mention that they also contain elements of entertainment, ranging from cinemas to game centers. Malls in Hong Kong symbolize the city’s unique mix of diverse cultures, including the countless fashion brands from international designers. Their architectural designs are also unique as they pursue maximum mobility, allowing citizens to move from one to another efficiently by escalators and elevators. In recent years, the trend of Hong Kong malls appeared to pursue artistic appearances as shops put more effort into their interior designs for visual aesthetics, so their product would look more compelling (Lam, 2023). One of the malls in Hong Kong that is aesthetically appealing and has a unique architectural design is The Langham Place in Mong Kok.
Langham Place
The Langham Place is located in Mong Kok and “is a quintessential 15-storey fashionable landmark of the Kowloon district,” comprised of an area of up to 600,000 square feet. (Klook, n.d.). I chose this mall for my video essay because I visit Mong Kok often whenever I date my friends for shopping or have meals, and Langham Place is often the perfect place for citizens to hang around when passing by. I have always been wanting to do something about exploring this shopping mall with a camera on because of its futuristic ambiance and the floor designs. Every time I walk on the upper floors of Langham Place, I feel amazed by the lively atmosphere in the glass atrium and the view of the Mong Kok streets. Whenever I reached the sky terrace during the daytime, I would feel the vibrant energy coming from the glass walls. When nighttime arrives, lights and reflections can offer visitors a unique fantasy-like experience, as multi-media shows would project onto the ceiling of the atrium (Jerde, n.d.).
Method of conducting the research
I conducted my research on Langham Place by doing site visits and online research. By doing site visits, I visited the entire mall, excluding the office tower, and took some pictures, videos, and time-lapsed videos for video editing. The underground and the podium in the architecture had supermarkets and ordinary retail stores, while the glass atrium gave me the second-best visiting experience. I thought the glass walls allowed the mall to have that bright ambiance, and some of the art added complexity to the internal view of the building. Thus, I decided to record myself taking the escalator to the 12th floor and a time-lapse video capturing the view from the 12th floor. The time-lapse video technique helps me accelerate the frame rate of real-time videos, allowing me to capture Langham Place in a creative way with more visual impact (Olbinski & Bars, n.d.). Then, I recorded myself walking from the 11th floor to the entrance of Cinema City because of its contrasting futuristic vibe. Also, I wanted to capture the design of stairs and escalators in between platforms since they have different levels and create a spacious layout, thus attaching everything in a complex way.
Video production
For video editing, I used all my recordings for the mall content and the time-lapsed videos for transitions. I used subtitles to match my thoughts when showing my recording. I have also used the wide-angle mode (0.5x) in my iPhone 11 Pro to capture the most out of Langham Place. The first part of the video shows the inside view from taking the long escalator in the glass atrium to the 12th floor. After playing another time-lapsed video of the glass atrium from the 12th floor, the video transits to the part where I walk from the 11th floor to Cinema City, which is my favorite part, showcasing the design of the stairs connecting different levels of platforms.
Reflections
The title is construction city, as Hong Kong is constructed by thriving cultural centers, skyscrapers, and overall architectural innovations. While transportation networks and cultural landmarks would be what comes to mind first when mentioning architecture, I chose malls as my topic because they appear more often in our daily lives. For instance, Langham Place has become the iconic destination in Mong Kok due to its striking and innovative design. The fact that it has so many retail stores from international brands, we just cannot seem to live without shopping malls. There are other popular shopping malls that have magnificent architectural designs, ranging from Times Square in Causeway Bay to K11 Musea in Trim Sha Tsui. Please do visit them and pay attention to their creative designs.
References
Jerde. (n.d.). Langham place. Jerde. https://www.jerde.com/projects/8033/langham-place
Klook. (n.d.). Things to do at Langham Place Shopping Mall. Klook. https://www.klook.com/en-HK/poi/50042423-langham-place-shopping-mall/
Lam, J. (2023, February 1). Hidden hong kong: A history of shopping malls in Hong
Kong. Localiiz. https://www.localiiz.com/post/culture-history-shopping-malls-hong-kong
Leung, J. (2022, August 4). Your ultimate guide to hong kong’s best shopping malls.
Time Out Hong Kong. https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/shopping/the-ultimate-hong-kong-mall-guide
Olbinski, M. & Bars, E. L. (n.d.). Time lapse video. Adobe.
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/video/discover/time-lapse-video.html
Credit
Student Name: Lam Ho Yin
UID: 3036108391