Me Ronn Chua Chang Yeong is soon-to-be graduate architect who practise in Malaysia. I define my worldview of architecture as philosophy of Balance between tectonic, typology and topograpy which, by having a good balance, circumstances tend to cooperate to make things turn out fruitfully.
| Brithday | 02-01-1994 |
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| Call | +6017-6993495 |
| ronnchua@hotmail.com | |
| Website | ronnchua.blogspot.com |
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| Photos by RIBA-nominated architectural photographer Finbarr Fallon |
'I have always been intrigued by how city-specific cemetery design can be. While death is universal, its memorialization practices are not. I found it fascinating that extreme density and verticality continue to be a defining characteristic of Hong Kong’s dwellings for both the living and the dead.' -Finbarr Fallon , 2019As acccording to Fallon, the images juxtapose residences for two diametrically opposed groups—the residential building for the live, and vertical graveyard for the dead. However, there is a conceptual tension between both environments, the geometric patterns that are reflected in both the skyscrapers’ gridded details and the cemetery’s uniform tombstones create a shared visual language.
The graveyards occupy the area's mountainsides as a response to its extreme urban density, as well as Chinese Feng Shui traditions. As congested as these tiered terraces may seem, but the graveyards are in fact extremely over-priced, making them unattainable to many. In addition to the expenses, there is also the obstacle of space constraints, which is why the Hong Kong government is now encouraging cremation instead of burials. Today, these graveyards represent an abstract intersection between tradition, eternal life, and modern-day demands. -Dima Stouhi , 2019Despite the extremely cost of burial plots, the Hong Kong citizen still prefer the traditional burial. The people are willing to spend the expenses, as well as to make the arduous climb up to the burial terrace to pay their respect for their ancestors. It is believed that the uppermost grave plots are generally the most auspicious, one has to spare a thought for the relatives who must endure the long and difficult climb to reach the top!
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| The Coffin/Cage Home |
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| Land Use Map of Hong Kong |
Is it really that Hong Kong is running out of lands? By referring the land use map of Hong Kong, it's showing that the very densely developed urban landscape but yet there's still 75% of non-built-up area which is not developed. Again the question, is the pricey housing in Hong Kong result of the land scarcity? The answer is NO.
From the research, the problem of such high price housing isn't the shortage of land but the bad land management. The truth is, there's just 3.7% out of all the land in Hong Kong is zoned for urban housing due to the inefficient policy. With such scarce and valuable urban housing land zones, more and more competitive developers from mainland China bid in the auction process, and ends up the land is leased out with astronomical prove.
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| Percentage of Government Revenue related to Land Leases in Hong Kong |
Besides, the other reason is the low taxes policy in Hong Kong. It's a great place to do business in Hong Kong because of its low corporate taxes, no sales tax and free market economics. The government of Hong Kong isn't getting revenue from taxes, which means that they have to get it from somewhere else. The study shows that lots of the government revenue is driven by land revenue and it's about 30% of government public financing income.
The way the government zones and leases the land, as well as the low taxes policy allows them to make tons of revenue and proud to be top of the ranking of world's freest economy. However, I think it's really less human-centered for Hong Kong citizen and missing of sense of home for the people. Hopefully, the government of Hong Kong should look into less profitable solution and zoning reform, and put the interest of people above interest of market to be socially sustainable!
reference:
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| Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong |
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| Rem Koolhaas. 2014: What remains of national style today? How did we get there? |
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| Rem Koolhaas. 1914: National architecture still recognizable. |
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| sun-loving pup and its bed |
Dog are mankind's eternal partners, and at the same time an animal whose many varieties have been produced by human intervention in the form of interbreeding different lineages. - Kenya Hara, Architecture for DogsI think architecture for dogs should be reconsidered, to be looked into a different perspective to change the way human interact with their pet dogs in order to improve the owner and canine well-being. A good shelter for the canine able to decide its emotional feeling where the happiness or sadness can then be delivered to our emotional feeling too. I remembered there's once my dog, Apple was there to comfort me after the terrible fighting with my sibling. Apple was there listened to me, which actually calmed me down and stopped me from making worse decision. As a dog lover, I definitely support the architecture for dog as I think human should be selfless and being lovely towards not only just the dogs, but all kind of life in the world! Rather than being anthropocentric,I have been indoctrinated into believing that my worldview is to embrace the ecological concern through architectural design.
Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style, but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture. - WikipediaAs mentioned, the emerge of ‘critical regionalism’ is to counter the placelessness and lack of meaning in modern architecture. Critical regionalism adopt modern architecture critically in order to show its progressive qualities of development in one place, but at the same time it does show respond to the context.
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| Ningbo Museum in China by Wang Shu |
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| Local Traditional 'wapan' Construction Technique |
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| Quarantined residents in Spain take to their balconies for group exercise |
“A good city is like a good party – people stay longer than really necessary, because they are enjoying themselves.” – Jan GehlAs during the frustrated quarantine, the people are trying to break the stressful atmosphere with a positive and healthy 'party' by utilizing the courtyard within the apartments. The community activate the public space,creating positive physical environment and providing opportunity for meetings and interaction. Here, you can meet a new friend or greet an old friend. Such a low-intensity contact is an outset for growth of higher intensity interaction as well as to maintain an established contact.
Need a professional advices from Ronn? Ronn's here to answer any question you might have. Look forward to hearing from you.