ARC4304

Studies of Cities: Form and Fabric--City Borders: Border Cities

Faculty

Mr. Joshua Bolchover

Miss Esther Lorenz


Peter Hasdell (Tutor from UK)


Sandra Parvu (Tutor from Switzerland)


Eunate Torres (Tutor from Spain)

Course Description
Hong Kong and its region, the Pearl River Delta exhibits many extreme boundary conditions.  These boundary relationships create polarities of development and dramatic variations in urban conditions. Cities within the Pearl River Delta each characterise different types of border condition whether they are natural (Hong Kong Island), political (Macao), economic (Shenzhen) or programmatic (Donguan). Some deal with large scale political issues such as the Special Administrative Regions of Macao and Hong Kong whilst others address the effect of physical boundaries caused by infrastructure such as canals or super-highways. In each situation the boundary creates a dichotomous relationship and inherent tension between one side and the other. This also has generated huge shifts in economic flow and migration. These flows result in emergent typologies such as the urban, walled villages of migrant workers found in Dongguan and Shenzhen.

The intention of the summer school is to explore and document these border conditions as well as to propose and design new architectural projects that emerge from these specific urban conditions.  The exploration will operate at different scales moving from the macro, geo-political scale to the micro scale of human occupation.

Note:
Students who need a China visa for the field trip are advised to apply for the visa in their home country before coming to Hong Kong.  They must ensure that the China visa validity period covers the period of their entry to China for the field trip.  Please refer to the tentative syllabus for details about the field trip.