Our lab has invited Melissa Cate Christ to give a talk about stairs as public places in Hong Kong. This lecture is included in the courses Urbanisation and Social Change in East Asia, and Theory of Urban and Regional Sociology.
Melissa is a doctoral candidate and casual academic at the University of New South Wales, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, and at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. She’s also the director of transversestudio, and has previously worked as an assistant professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and University of Hong Kong. Melissa holds master in landscape architecture from the University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Her art and design research and practice explores mechanisms of critical intervention at the juncture of landscape, culture, urbanism, and infrastructure.
The talk ‘Stairs as public places: investigation, collaboration, and celebration along Shung Fung Lane, Hong Kong’ will take place online on Friday, December 8th, 2023 (11:30-13:30). Below is a brief description of her talk.
Due in part to historical street and development patterns, topography, and building restrictions, Hong Kong Island’s urban development and population density is one of the highest in the world. Within this densely populated hilly area, stairs are a crucial typology of vernacular pedestrian infrastructure that sustain Hong Kong as a walkable city with a unique ‘Stair Culture’. Stairs act not only as movement corridors which allow access to areas otherwise inaccessible, but also as vibrant public places with crucial social, cultural, environmental, and heritage value. This talk presents one example of this in the context of Magic Lanes, a placemaking project which was located along Sheung Fung Lane, a set of alley stairs in the Sai Ying Pun neighbourhood in the Central and Western District of Hong Kong Island. This project, which was funded by the HKSAR Urban Renewal Fund and developed by two NGOs, aimed to create places for intergenerational activities and community engagement, and to improve the environment through green and blue infrastructure. The talk reflects on how the project provided challenges and opportunities for investigation, collaboration, and celebration, and the potential role of these places in the creation of a more inclusive and healthier environment in Hong Kong.
Magic Lanes placemaking project along Sheung Fung Lane in Hong Kong (Photo: Magic Lanes Project)
The reviewer Yung Lin provides an overview of contributions for each city and argues that the book makes an important contribution in understanding democratisation of state-led development in East Asia, as well as of expanding role of civic urbanism in building sustainable cities. Moreover, the reviewer acknowledges importance of civic urbanism for education and civic engagement of university students. Thank you for positive review, Yung Lin.
Blaž will join Alban Mannisi and Zoh Kyung-jin in discussing alternative exploratory strategies in mapping human and non-human communities. Discussion Exploratory Strategy on Alternative Habitat Groundwork will take place in 1 Euro Project/1유로 프로젝트, 서울 성동구 송정 18길 1-1 on Friday, Nov 10th, 2023 (18:00-20:00).
Blaž는 Alban Mannisi, 조경진교수과 함께 인간과 비인간 커뮤니티 매핑에 사용되는 대안-탐색적 전략에 대한 토의에 참여할 예정입니다.
His contribution will explore opportunities of editorial work as exploratory strategy to map resilient communities in Asian and European urban contexts by drawing from his experiences as the co-editor of book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia.
Registration is required to attend the discussion.
Moving day in 서울 옥인아프트 (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2010)
Institute for Spatial Policies from Ljubljana has published a review of our book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyond Developmental Urbanization. The short review argues that emerging civic urbanisms in Asia offer answers to the challenges to local communities and bear relevance for the public, planners and decision-makers beyond Asia.
류블라냐 공간정책연구소에서 책 ‘아시아의 떠오르는 시민 중심 도시론 : 발전주의 도시화 너머의 홍콩, 서울, 싱가포르 그리고 타이페이’에 대해 다음과 같이 평론함. 아시아의 시민 중심 도시론이 지역 사회가 마주한 어려움에 대해 해답을 제시하고, 공공, 계획가와 아시아 너머의 결정권자들 간의 관계 조성에 기여함을 잘 보여주는 책.
In 2017, our institute published a publication Policies of space: Challenges to local communities between Ljubljana and Seoul, where we presented and compared best practices of community building and local initiatives that we had encountered through our work. We argued that despite significant differences between both cities, local communities in Ljubljana and Seoul are facing similar challenges due to limited democratisation of decision–making in neighbourhoods.
The authors of the recently published book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyond Developmental Urbanization discuss similar topics and come to similar conclusions.
The edited volume compares eighteen cases of community building and local initiatives from social movements for the preservation of the Lo-Sheng Sanatorium in Taipei or Choi Yuen Village in Hong Kong to urban walks in Singaporean neighbourhoods of Queenstown and Geylang, and urban regeneration in To Kwa Wan in Hong Kong or Seowon Maeul, Samdeok Maeul as well as Haebangchon in Seoul. It compares self-organised local communities in Seoul’s Songhak Maeul and Seongmisan Maeul, the urban gardens of Singapore’s Foodscape Collective, the activism of female migrant workers in Hong Kong and collaboration of residents and municipalities in placemaking in Changwen and Gufeng neighbourhoods in Taipei, and Limbang, Tampines and Woodgrove neighbourhoods in Singapore.
Although the cases represent different forms of community building and local initiatives, which are strongly embedded in specific local and national contexts, they are also characterised by successful civic participation and collaboration between local communities and municipal or national governments.
Such collaboration is not always a given one. In Songhak Maeul, for instance, the relationship between the local community and municipal government evolved from conflict towards partnership as a result of successful anti-eviction and housing rights struggles, activism for self-organised producer and consumer cooperatives, and local initiatives for stronger neighbourhood autonomy. In many other cases collaboration between local communities, civil society and public administration was to an important extent an outcome of successful social mobilisation in neighbourhoods.
Such collaboration between local communities and municipal or national governments is what distinguishes emerging civic urbanisms in Asia from existing state-led or market-driven approaches. This makes emerging civic urbanisms a new spatial and symbolic expression of democratic decision-making in neighbourhoods.
Many contributing authors were actively involved in community building and local initiatives that are discussed in the book. They emphasise the practical importance of community building and local initiatives for strengthening civic participation, collaboration between the public, experts and decision-makers, as well as coalition building between residents, local communities, civil society and public administration. Thus, the authors focus on emerging civic urbanisms not only for their theoretical relevance to better understand the social, spatial and political change in Asia but also for practical value as successful cases of building more democratic, sustainable and resilient neighbourhoods and cities.
In this sense, the relevance of emerging civic urbanisms goes beyond Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore or Taipei, since the cases bear relevance for the public, planners and decision-makers in Slovenia too. As best practices of community building and local initiatives, they offer possible answers to the challenges to local communities that were discussed in our publication Policies of space.
We are back to Singapore where it all started. Join us for the launch of our new book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei Beyond Developmental Urbanization. The book was edited by Im Sik Cho, Blaž Križnik, and Jeffrey Hou and published by Amsterdam University Press and International Institute for Asian Studies.
The book launch will take place as a hybrid event that can be attended online and at the National University of Singapore, Department of Architecture, SDE 1 school conference room on Saturday, December 17th, 2022 (15:00 to 17:00 hrs Singapore time).
Our lab has invited Dr. Igor Rogelja to deliver a lecture on urban regeneration of Treasure Hill in Taipei. The lecture is a part of Urban Regeneration and Social Sustainability, and Urban and Regional Sociology courses.
우리 연구실은 Igor Rogelja 박사를 초빙해 타이베이 Tressure Hill (寶藏巖)의 도시재생에 대한 강의를 듣고자 합니다. 이 강의는 도시재생과사회적지속가능성과 도시·지역사회학 수업의 일부로서 기획된 것입니다.
Igor is Lecturer in Global Politics at University College London. He was previously based at the Lau China Institute at King’s College London and completed his doctoral studies at SOAS, University of London, with a study on ‘creative city’ interventions in marginal urban spaces in China and Taiwan. He remains interested in the politics of space and is currently involved in several research projects examining the role of infrastructure and materials like coal and steel in global politics.
His lecture ‘Taipei’s ‘Treasure Hill’: from a marginal space to an outdoor museum’ will take place online on Friday, December 9th, 2022 (17:00-19:00). Following is the lecture’s summary:
‘Close to Taipei’s bustling university area, a small hill facing the Xindian River has been home to a small neighbourhood of illegally constructed houses that originally housed former military personnel that were evacuated to Taiwan after the Republic of China lost the civil war against the Communists. Existing on the margins of a developmental city, the small neighbourhood was meant to be demolished, but interventions by activists, the mobilisation of residents and input from experts transformed the once ‘illegal’ settlement into a hybrid social-creative project managed by the city’s cultural affairs bureau.
The transition was however not as smooth as the city’s version of the history suggests. This talk will outline the struggles and negotiations that led to the creation of this outdoor museum. Specifically it will explore why and how more radical visions of cohabitation between artist-activists and elderly veterans were sidelined in favour of a more top-down design that has been (somewhat inaccurately) denounced as ‘gentrification’ by Taiwan’s critical audience. The experience of Treasure Hill, while in some ways unique to Taipei, nevertheless presents a compelling case study that points at the limits of ‘creative redevelopment’ of marginal urban spaces.’
블라쉬는 2022년 11월 14일 월요일 제주국제유니버설디자인엑스포과 2022년 12월 16일 금요일 서울에서 열리는 더나은도시디자인포럼에서 시민적 어바니즘, 지역 사회 디자인 및 지속 가능한 이웃과 도시에 대해 이야기 할 것이다. 2022년 11월 16일 수요일 서울대학교에서 열리는 도시인문학포럼-국제포럼에 토론자로 참여한다.
‘In parts of Asia, citizens are increasingly involved in shaping their neighbourhoods and cities, representing a significant departure from earlier state-led or market-driven urban development. These emerging civic urbanisms are a result of an evolving relationship between the state and civil society. […] Exploring how citizen participation and state–civil society partnerships contribute to more resilient and participatory neighbourhoods and cities, the authors use the concept of civic urbanisms not only as a conceptual framework to understand the ongoing social and urban change but as an aspirational model of urban governance for cities in Asia and beyond.’
This collaboration has brought together twenty-two contributors from Asia, Europe and the United States with many of them having a direct first-hand experience with civic urbanism. Blaž was involved as one of the book editors, organised the Cities after Development workshop and coauthored three book chapters.
‘아시아 곳곳에서는 도시 만들기 과정에 시민 참여의 기회가 점점 확대되고 있다. 이는 오늘날 도시 만들기방식이 예전의 국가/시장주도 도시개발과는 다른 방향으로 진화해가고 있다는 반증이기도 하다. 아시아에서 등장하고 있는 시민 중심 도시론은 국가와 시민사회의 관계의 변화에서 얻어진 부산물이다…이 책에서는 이러한 시민 참여와 국가-시민사회의 새로운 협력관계가 마을 그리고 도시의 회복력과 포용력에 어떠한 기여를 하는지 살펴보면서, 저자는 시민 중심 도시론 개념을 아시아 도시에서 현재 진행 중인 다양한 변화를 이해하는데 필요한 개념 틀로 활용하는 동시에 아시아 밖 도시에서는 미래지향적 도시 거버넌스 모델을 상상하는데 도움 줄 수 있는 개념 틀로 제안하고자 한다.’
이 책은 아시아 외에도 유럽 및 미국 등지에서 아시아의 시민 중심 도시론 관련 연구/사업 경험이 있는 22명의 연구자와 실무자들이 모여 협력하면서 출판의 여정이 시작되었습니다. 블라쉬는 공동 편집자로 책 출판을 위한 워크숍 ‘개발 이후의 도시들(Cities after Development)’을 개최하였으며, 총 3개 챕터의 공동저자로 참여하였습니다. 그리고 이 책은 네덜란드 국제 아시아학 연구원(IIAS)의 Asian Cities북시리즈물의 일환으로 기획되었으며 출판은 암스테르담대학교 출판부(AUP)가 맡아 진행했습니다.
옥인 오픈 사이트: civic urbanism as resistance (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2010)
