ARCH5110/6210N
Advanced Architectural Design Studio I & II: EDGES – Grafting The Edge Façade and Memory in Urban Renewal
Target Students MArch1, MArch2
Course Term 1 & 2
Course Type Studio
Venue Studio
Teacher(s) HSU, Simon / LAW, Sebastian
Building on the investigation of the last two years, our studio will continue to challenge the tabula rasa conventions of urban renewal in Hong Kong. While previous investigations looked at zoning guidelines, such as transferable air rights, to incentivize heritage-conscious development, this year we deepen our inquiry by focusing on the confluence of two distinct yet interconnected types of edges:
1. The tangible architectural edge, comprising facades and street walls, which reflect the public face of the city, and
2. The intangible edge of memory, encompassing both the vague, often unreliable personal recollection and the all-encompassing collective urban consciousness.
Students will begin the research with a close reading of architectural edges. The analysis will focus intensely on edge conditions, investigating facade composition, fenestration patterns and scale, material transitions, proportions, setbacks, signage that define these urban thresholds and documenting evidence of time and age in the building's skin.
This material analysis will be paralleled by an exploration of memory as a formative design lens - asking how individual and shared narratives, whether drawn from art, literature, film, or lived experience, inform spatial understanding and cultivate a subliminal, culturally-grounded approach to design. Emphasis will be placed on the understanding, inspiration and presentation of these sources of material.
The synthesis of these tangible and intangible analyses will inform speculative urban regeneration proposals that reimagine architectural edges as active sites of dialogue between past and future. Projects will negotiate innovatively between preservation and intervention, ultimately demonstrating how memory can be spatially grafted into the city’s evolving fabric.
Site: Students will select a site of their choice, focusing on one to three lots within neighborhood undergoing transformation in Hong Kong.
Program: Mixed-use program, which must include a “living urban archive” - a space dedicated to the collection and on-going interpretation of
local narratives, as defined by student.
Size: Not to exceed 20,000sm
