3. History of Koon Tong
• Used to be a place to produce salt
• use bricks and stone to divide the salted land
in to places
• some called 鹽塘
• controlled by the government => 官塘
• as the people hate to associate to the
government=> 觀塘
4. Existing problems of Koon Tong
• Pollution=> air/water
• Lack of facilities- e.g hospital/ recreational areas
• Crowded living area-poor urban planning in the
past=> too many high rise buildings=>Wall effect=>
more pollution
• Traffic congestion=> road are too narrow; so many
vehicles and pedestrians
• Poor-maintenance in old buildings: most are built
in post-war period
• rent out the flats=> low incentive to refurnish the
building
6. Project details
•The middle part of the study site will be developed into a leisure and
entertainment activities center, retail, dining and entertainment facilities,
and recommended the use of the design of the pedestrian area, to avoid
conflicts between vehicle and pedestrian.
• built in 250 meters above Principal Datum slope stage gazebo and dining
facilities, allowing visitors to admire the views of East Kowloon and
Victoria Harbour in their meals
• Green Corridor along the south-west of the study site expanded to the
quarry park with an area of over 15 hectares, and offers a variety of
recreational and sports facilities in the park, provide a good place of
holiday for the people of Kwun Tong, Sai Kung, even the whole Hong
Kong.
• Some in the residential area of the northwestern side of the study sites
benefits from the openness of the Quarry Park environment.
8. Project details
• The middle part of the study sites for the main purpose
community facilities and open space, which will be the
construction of an outdoor recreational / large event
plaza, so that residents have a gathering place.
• For the convenience of residents, day-to-day
commercial facilities will be located in residential estates,
therefore, reserved for only the two smaller land for
commercial development.
• Set aside more land for the purposes of government,
institution or community facilities to meet the needs of
the residents, and to provide land for the shortage of
community facilities in the region.
9. Problems before finishing the
development project
• The arrangement of traffic may be
troublesome
• => as the core part of the traffic of Kowloon
East
• => a large number of buses, mini-buses to the
northern New Territories, Sha Tin; public
transport are all concentrated in the city
center
10. The problem of “public space”
• As the proposal says, the town center will be
divided into six different quadrants
• => half are marked as private open space
• Like the garden of private properties
• => there will be security guarding the place
• => normal citizens may have difficulties in
entering there
11. Lost of local culture
• After building the grand shopping malls, the
local culture of low prices living and diverse
types of shops are difficult to preserved
• Like the traditional local stores of shoe-
repairing, watch-fixing and clothes-alteration
will disappear
12. Problems of redeveloping Koon
Tong
• Existing residence can not buy back the newly
developed buildings
• Big shopping malls (100%) vs local stores (1%)
• No celebration of local festival 盂蘭節 by the
hawkers (as listed in the heritage)
• Coverage >5 football pitches, new shopping
mall: 4 times bigger than Langham Place
• => lost of local culture
18. Tokyo
• The big screen TV shows the prosperity of the
place/ country=> showing off
• Brain –washing of the pedestrians
=> tell them what they “need” and their
“desire”
• City without the night=> Broadcast for 24
hours => light pollution
20. To the tourists…
• Becomes a characteristic of the place
=> tourists spot
• According to a tourist called Erin who visited
Mong Kok in 2011
• “What I loved most about nights in Mong Kok
were the neon lights. I don’t think I’ve ever
seen so many crammed into one street.”
Source: http://www.neverendingvoyage.com/mong-kok-hong-kong-photo-
essay/
21. But to the locals…
• An harassment: lights are on for 24 hours
every day
• Even the people living there use blinds to
shade from the strong light => futile attempts
• Have difficulty to rest &
sleep
=> high mental pressure
=> prone to stress-related
emotion diseaes
23. • Similar to the writings that “ ”九龍皇帝 (曾灶
財) painted on the walls in HK
• Became a cultural heritage of HK
• Street Graffiti => valuable art work ( his work was used
by the local fashion designer, 鄧達智)
24. Dark City
Every night when the clock strikes 12:00am , the city stops.
Everyone falls asleep.
25. “Let the tuning commence!”
• Tuning: make things change by will power
• => alteration of existing buildings
• (00:39:56-0:41:27)
26. Aliens as Land developers
• Build up the new buildings and demolish the
others all for self interests
=> not for the benefit of the whole society
• “The rich gets richer” (00:43:21)
27. Aliens as land developers (2)
• Aliens: no “life” ; no “soul” => cruel ;inhumane
• Afraid of sunlight and water
=> the city is always at night
=> Shell Beach never exists, but a poster
28. Aliens as land developers (3)
• The aliens grasp the chance to exploit the
possessions of the citizens as much as possible
• They take out jewels and other valuable goods
in a row => exploitation to the people