Are industrial buildings a good shelter to cultural and creative industries in Hong Kong?

Abstract

Purpose The government has shown strong interest in revitalizing old industrial buildings for the development of cultural and creative industries (Lands Department, 2021). Although many scholars have analyzed the development of creative spaces and the revitalization of old industrial buildings separately, they seldom link the two areas for discussion. Hence, this study aims to link the development of creative spaces with the revitalization of industrial buildings and examine the current situation of creative spaces in the revitalization of industrial buildings. For example, the study will explore reasons why artists choose to use revitalized industrial buildings and identify challenges artists face when using revitalized industrial buildings for artistic purposes. Besides, according to statistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2010), fewer art practitioners rely on normal industrial buildings as their workplace. Hence, this study aims to investigate the current situation of creative and cultural industries in normal industrial buildings. The clustering effects of creative spaces with other case studies would be discussed. Moreover, this study aims to examine whether the clustering effects of creative spaces apply in both normal IB and revitalized IB and a comparison between them would be conducted. Based on the current situation of creative and cultural industries in normal industrial buildings and revitalized industrial buildings, as well as the clustering effects of creative spaces examined through studies of case background, it is hoped that recommendations can be suggested to the government to adjust the 'Revitalization Schemes for Industrial Buildings 2.0' to improve the development of cultural and creative industries. Methodology and Findings A diverse qualitative approach comprising studies of case background, interviews, and site visits is adopted. It aims to enhance the comprehensiveness and validity of the study by adopting several approaches. Using multiple approaches enhances the effectiveness of the study because each approach has its advantages. For the studies of case background. By examining the background of the cases that represents the three types of IB, the real-life situations of CCI in both normal IB and revitalized IB in Hong Kong are investigating. After filtering the different possible cases, the cultural cluster in Fo Tan industrial site, JCCAC, and Art Space in Genesis is selected to be the case and they are investigated in the parameters set up in the Literature Review. In addition, 20 interviews were carried out of which 16 interviewees are an artist (end-users) from both normal and revitalized IB, and 4 interviewees are real estate experts. In the study, the reasons for artists to choose normal IB can be attributed to ‘Low Rent in IB compared to other types of buildings’, ‘Favorable physical conditions’, and ‘Art atmosphere with clustering effect’. Similarly, the reasons for artists to choose revitalized IB can be attributed to ‘Subsidized Rent with aid of government’, ‘Availability of art facilities’, and ‘Art atmosphere with clustering effect’. However, the challenges faced by the artists in normal IB and revitalized IB is different. The artists in normal IB face the challenges of ‘unfavorable planning controls and lease controls’ and ‘unsustainable government funding’ while the artists in revitalized IB face the challenges of ‘uneven distribution of resources between small groups and large groups’, ‘inflexibility in planning, regulations and use of space’, ‘limited access of resources for marginalized groups and unwanted types of art’. Corresponding suggestions to tackle the challenges are provided in Chapter 6, Discussion. Research Limitation There are only three cases in Hong Kong that are investigated which are Cultural Cluster in Fo Tan Industrial Site, JCCAC, and Art Space in Genesis. Other cases under both RSIB 1.0 and RSIB 2.0 are yet to be discussed. Moreover, the numbers of the interview are only 20 and therefore the scale of the sample size is limited. The accuracy of the finding in this research can be enhanced by increasing the sample size.