Cultural Infrastructure in new New Towns 

Within this framework the studio will focus on cultural facilities and their function within a community. We will consider the status of cultural infrastructure as an indicator of urban political relationships due to its public status and review how cultural development was addressed in urban policies over time. Older New Towns in Hong Kong were designed around a ‘cultural and commercial center’, but the new New Towns seem to be practically void of cultural venues. To create a conceptual frame, we will look at critical literature from the fields of Political Economy and Social Sciences and take a close look at relevant case studies. 

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Following a research-by-design process, we will look in detail at the status of cultural facilities in Tung Chung, a new town that is currently under development. Taking the current Outline Zoning Plan for the Tung Chung Extension area as a base, the studio will begin with a strategic research phase and then develop a series of visionary scenarios to reframe the approach for cultural development within this newly developed area that is currently being reclaimed. These collaborative exercises will form the masterplan within which several projects will be developed into studio projects. 

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Throughout the studio, we will aim to answer the following questions: What is the status and the role of cultural infrastructure in Hong Kong, and how do New Towns fit in? How can we (re)formulate the needs for cultural infrastructure for a New Town, so that it is representative of the needs and desires of a wide array of stakeholders? What are the opportunities of cultural buildings within such an expansion? And how can this be formulated as a design?