Publicness of elevated public space in Central, Hong Kong: an inquiry into the publicness of elevated pedestrian walkway systems asplaces and non-places

Abstract

The transformation of Hong Kong into a high-density city has created a unique three-dimensional

urban fabric defined through networks of urban activity and infrastructure within

tight spatial constraints of mountainous slopes and the island shoreline. In Hong Kong urban

development, the government performs a dual role both as landlord and as administrator

determining the development agenda. With limited space available for development high

land price policies have restricted land supplies and priority is given to ‘economic space’

rather than ‘life space’. This has created a city of mobility based on consumption where

privatized public spaces such as shopping malls, corporate plazas and elevated walkways are

linked primarily to promote shopping. Public spaces are increasingly managed by private

parties, and the degree of publicness of such spaces is often not clearly distinguishable to

their potential users. Due to Hong Kong’s population density of approximately 33,000

persons/km2, practices of everyday life are increasingly limited by multiple restrictions

controlling the use of spaces that only seem to be public.

The district of Central, Hong Kong features an urban network of both publicly and privately

maintained elevated pedestrian walkways that provide a secondary circulation space.

Designed according to commercial priorities, the walkway system in Central typically links

privately owned second floor lobbies with similar owners to promote consumption. Although

these regulated spaces are required to allow public access 24 hours a day, pedestrian

connectivity seems merely an after thought. In such private public spaces, pedestrians move

between consumption nodes through a maze of displays and windows filled with luxury

consumer goods. This study takes focus on the walkways in Central thus investigating

publicness specifically within the context of Hong Kong's high-density urban fabric, then

within a wider context of elevated pedestrian walkway systems in Asian Pacific cities. To

this end, this thesis employs an empirical case study methodology consisting of a series of

observational studies. Each of these studies publicness transcribed through observations of

use, users and use patterns. This study identifies a distinction that underlies the discussion of

publicness: that of non-place as opposed to place. The distinction of space and place relates

to whether users establish personal relationships to the spaces they use and has drawn much

critical attention in urban studies over the past several decades. Places typically provide the

stage for social practices. The relationship between place and mobility at an elevated level

has however, not been studied in detail yet. As mobile urban populations pass through places

more than we dwell in them, a new type of space has emerged to facilitate a ‘frictionless

passage’, or non-place. Within this realm of non-place pedestrians pass through zones of

movement like passengers experiencing a lack of relationship or disconnectivity with a space.

This leads to the question whether elevated pedestrian walkways consisting of spatial flows,

movement and transitional zones are only capable of performing as non-places? Can

relationships develop between the walkways and their users, making them more than non-places,

but places?

A case study forms the main part of this thesis and specifically focuses on observing aspect of

movement and circulation within Central that determine perceptions of publicness. Findings

resulting from this study provide an understanding of the ambiguous nature of spaces in

Central. From a background study of elevated pedestrian walkways in six Asian Pacific

cities, indicators of publicness are established that provide a framework to distinguish

characteristics of elevated pedestrian walkways. In Central, gatherings among domestic

helpers are found to contribute to the success of the elevated pedestrian walkway system into

urban context. Results of this study indicate that elevated pedestrian walkways can be both

places and non-places depending on the publicness of space and suggest how a transition of

publicness can occur within such spaces.