Title: Public City
Synopsis
Description of the theme and subject matter
In the early 2000s, when enclosed malls were the standard, architect Chris Law of the Oval Partnership proposed an “open city” concept for San Li Tun, an area in Beijing’s central business district. He proposed to inject the “big box” with a heavy dose of public space. He says people had a common reaction to his plan: “You guys are crazy.”
Back to the present, Hong Kong, as a typical “mall city”, has fully realized Chris Law’s concept to a certain extent. It is because, in Hong Kong, a mall is never just a mall: it is one of the essential building blocks of the public city.
“[The mall’s] tentacles reach deep into the ground to attach to subway systems, or bind to other malls with an ivy-like mesh of sky bridges,” writes Stefan Al (2016). Towers sprout from mall rooftops. “The mall provides the skyscrapers with extended entry points, an elevated base, and a private roof deck, while the skyscrapers offer the mall an icon visible from far away and a large economy of residents to feed the mall, and establish a self-sufficient ecosystem.”
The vertical nature of Hong Kong is based on this symbiotic relationship between towers and shopping malls. For millions of people, entering a shopping center has become an inevitable, not a choice. It has established a consumerist culture in which daily life is increasingly carried out on the ground of the shopping center., The private shopping atrium assumes the role of a public square.
In a word, in Hong Kong, a mall is never just a mall: it is one of the essential building blocks of the public city.
References:
Al, S., Cartier, C., Chu, C. L., Lai, T. S., Mathews, G., Nowek, A., Shane, D. G., Shelton, B., & Solomon, J. D. (2016). Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption (Illustrated ed.). University of Hawaii Press.
Dewolf, C. (2019, October 14). Hong Kong is the Most Shopping Mall-Crazy City on Earth. Is That a Bad Thing? Zolima City Magazine. https://zolimacitymag.com/hong-kong-is-the-most-shopping-mall-crazy-city-on-earth-is-that-a-bad-thing/
Douay, N. (2017, September 1). Stefan Al (ed.), Mall City, Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption,. OpenEdition Journals. https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/7431
Reporter, G. S. (2020, September 23). All under one roof: how malls and cities are becoming indistinguishable. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/mar/16/malls-cities-become-one-and-same
Music:
a dark academia playlist to write to ???. (2020, December 13). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQMNer3PwUc&t=143s
Ziye Zhang, 3035771397
How is the privately-owned mall as public space different from before the onset of the pandemic? What insights on publicness have you learnt? From your fieldwork and research, have you discovered character of public space and publicness that surprised you or is different from what you already know before you conduct the research?
Moderately demonstrates an understanding of and the ability to apply and synthesize research, concepts and key issues relating to the topic of public space.
Able to adequately identify the the issue of public though presentation of a competently
articulated analysis and interpretation of the topic can be deepened.
Written articulation are of competent academic standard.
Hmm, your narration… is the overt accenting of key words intentional and has conceptual meaning?