"Silonservation” : adaptive reuse strategies for industrial heritage in Hong Kong : the case of Kowloon Flour Mills

Abstract

Industrial heritage is a neglected heritage category in Hong Kong, and as a result, many potential industrial heritage buildings and structures have disappeared. As such, this dissertation will focus on one of the last iconic industrial heritage buildings in Hong Kong for future conservation – Kowloon Flour Mills. Industrial heritage is the topic of this dissertation, with the focus specifically on the Kowloon Flour Mills, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, and the scope is to identify the heritage values and character-defining elements so that an appropriate adaptive-reuse strategy for the building can be adopted. For the history of Kowloon Flour Mills and the Kwun Tong area, there is research on the historical background of Kwun Tong as an industrial estate, but it focuses on the historical aspects of the neighborhood and none focuses on the background or history of the Kowloon Flour Mills to establish its heritage significance. For the silo industrial buildings like Kowloon Flour Mills, there is also a lack of good examples of reconstruction and reuse in Hong Kong. This dissertation will fill this research gap by systematically collating the basic data of Kowloon Flour Mills and analyzing its importance and value. It also analyzes and sorts out the examples of silo building transformation at home and abroad, and puts forward the possibility of reasonable transformation and protection for the future applicability of silo industrial buildings such as Kowloon Flour Mills.