ARCH5110/6110F

Advanced Architectural Design Studio I & II – Learning from New York

Target Students MArch1, MArch2

Course Term 1 & 2

Course Type Required

Venue Studio

Teacher(s) HSU, Simon / LAW, Sebastian

AIR RIGHTS
Air rights guidelines currently do not exist in Hong Kong. However, they do exist in many cities around the world, nowhere more prominently than in New York City. This concept has played an important factor in New York City’s streetscape and vertical development for many decades (since its 1961 zoning regulations). As real estate prices continue to supersede construction costs, ever more creative structural solutions in recent years take advantage of air rights guidelines to forge a new era in urban development.

POPS (PRIVATELY-OWNED PUBLIC SPACES)
Students will use New York City as a site of initial investigation and research. They will look at specific case studies for air rights and related development incentives, such as POPS (privately-owned public spaces). How have these guidelines allowed development to preserve valuable architecture while amplifying public spaces and communities? This 2-student group research will focus on a one-block radius to analyze the massing, program, open spaces, and zoning implications. Air rights development ultimately forces students to understand the city not just in plan, but more specifically in section and three-dimension. Students will therefore use massing models and section drawings to illustrate their findings.

HK SITE AND PROJECT
Learning from New York, students will then implement these design strategies for urban regeneration contained to a one-block radius of their choice in Hong Kong. We will define together a neighborhood such as Sham Shui Po, To Kwa Wan or Sai Ying Pun as the focus of our studio
investigation. The individual student project will consist of developing a program and brief based on site research and analysis, and culminating in a comprehensive design proposal. This studio is not looking at urban regeneration from a nostalgic point of view. The design project should be of significant size (to be determined but not less than 50,000sm), to address realities of the market, and the mix of amenities and community facilities to support the neighborhood. Emphasis will also be placed on section drawings as a tool for site analysis as well as design implementation.