Articulating the composite city: the case of Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong, with its dense verticality, public-private function mixes, and cultural mix of East and West, has long been the world model of hybrid metropolitan development. But how is this hybrid condition currently working out? In Hybrid Hong Kong Stephen Yiu-wai Chu argues that the efforts to brand Hong Kong as ‘Asia’s world city’ have led to the loss of Hong Kong’s unique hybridity, which is being replaced by a Central Business District identity in which there is little or no place for vernacular and creative cultures. This paper explores how urban planners in Hong Kong are fighting this tendency, which can also be recognized in other world capitals, using a unique hybrid model which exemplifies top-down bureaucracy meeting bottom-up initiatives to create an urban transaction between government interventions and urban entrepreneurship to foster a composite city. © EURAU2014