Residual Thinking:
Reclaiming Hong Kong’s Lost Urban Spaces
Hong Kong is an extreme city: extreme consumerism set against intense urban inhabitation, radical authenticity juxtaposed to severe topography, whichever way you read Hong Kong there are never any half measures. Compiled to this vertiginous density, Hong Kong is an amalgam of conditions, that came into existence due to a hostility settlement between China and Britain over the trading of narcotics, and developed from a “barren rock”, into a 7 million plus metropolis with the 8th largest trading economy in the world. Throughout its history, Hong Kong has always adapted, mitigating territorial as well as political situations to produce a concentrated and vertical city. Residual thinking relates to interpreting our present urban environment for what it really is, vis-à-vis the convergence of natural and artificial forces that jostle for control. From the Latin “residuus”, meaning left over, the word residual has become synonymous with a number of terms that describe the status of our contemporary city: non-spaces, anti-spaces and vacant spaces. The residual condition, it can be argued, has become the common lexicon through which we discuss and read our urban environment, a different form of waste that relates to the opportunities, not problems.
Author:
Peter W. Ferretto
Conference:
PLEA 2018: Smart and Healthy within the 2-Degree Limit,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
10-12 December 2018