Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2016

Mall City

Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption

Edited by: Stefan Al
With contributions by: Carolyn Cartier , Cecilia L. Chu , Tung-Yiu Stan Lai , Gordon Mathews , Adam Nowek , David Grahame Shane , Barrie Shelton and Jonathan D. Solomon

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824855444

Overview
Contents

About this book

Hong Kong is the twenty-first-century paradigmatic capital of consumerism. Of all places, it has the densest and tallest concentration of malls, reaching tens of stories. Hong Kong’s malls are also the most visited, sandwiched between subways and skyscrapers. These mall complexes have become cities in and of themselves, accommodating tens of thousands of people who live, work, and play within a single structure. Mall City features Hong Kong as a unique rendering of an advanced consumer society. Retail space has come a long way since the nineteenth-century covered passages of Paris, which once awed the bourgeoisie with glass roofs and gaslights. It has morphed from the arcade to the department store, and from the mall into the “mall city”—where “expresscalators” crisscross mesmerizing atriums. Highlighting the effects of this development in Hong Kong, this book raises questions about architecture, city planning, culture, and urban life.

Author / Editor information

Al Stefan :

Stefan Al is a Dutch architect and associate professor of Urban Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Al has worked as a practicing architect on renowned projects such as the 600-meter-high Canton Tower in Guangzhou and the preservation of world heritage in Latin America at the World Heritage Center of UNESCO. While in Hong Kong, he served as a founding member of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design and an advisor to the Harbourfront Commission and Environment Bureau of Hong Kong government. He is the editor of Factory Towns of South China: An Illustrated Guidebook and Villages in the City: A Guide to South China’s Informal Settlements.Stefan Al is a Dutch architect and associate professor of Urban Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Al has worked as a practicing architect on renowned projects such as the 600-meter-high Canton Tower in Guangzhou and the preservation of world heritage in Latin America at the World Heritage Center of UNESCO. While in Hong Kong, he served as a founding member of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design and an advisor to the Harbourfront Commission and Environment Bureau of Hong Kong government. He is the editor of Factory Towns of South China: An Illustrated Guidebook and Villages in the City: A Guide to South China’s Informal Settlements.

Reviews

Brian McGrath, Professor of Urban Design and Dean of Constructed Environments, Parsons School of Design:
Stefan Al has again produced a book that provides a sharp lens on radically new urban forms that are emerging in China. While his previous books, Villages in the City and Factory Towns of South China introduced the site of production and housing for the migrant labor of the Pearl River Delta, here we enter the phantasmagoria of the enormous interconnected free-trade shopping zone of the Hong Kong Special Administration. Mall City dissects the basic unit of this climate-controlled consumer landscape—the mall. This ongoing experiment in a continuous architecture of consumption reaches its horizontal tentacles to all corners of the mountainous island city through an efficient mass transit system, and ascends vertiginous heights through towering expresscalators climbing vast atria. This beautifully illustrated book is a must-read for those who wish to understand the future of public space in high-density cities.

Clifford Pearson, Director of USC American Academy in China:
Hong Kong may be packed with the most shopping malls per square kilometer in the world, but Mall City is packed with the most drawings, information, and fascinating mall facts. The book dissects, categorizes, and displays all kinds of intriguing data on the city-state’s shopping complexes and culture. Its richly layered analysis perfectly matches Hong Kong’s multi-story machines for consumption.

Michael Sorkin, Distinguished Professor of Architecture of the City University of New York:
At the nexus of density, humidity, topography, and shopping, Hong Kong has spawned more malls per square mile than any place on earth. This fantastic book decodes and graphically depicts an environment both apart and ubiquitous; a convulsive form of public space in a liquid territory where intensely contested politics, commerce, and sociability weirdly merge like no other city.

The book is so chock-full of information and imagery . . . Mall City is a great book for those who want to get lost in the shopping meccas of a fascinating world city, without actually getting lost.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	x
INTRODUCTION Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption Stefan Al Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1: ESSAYS
1. Predisposed towards Mall Cities Barrie Shelton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Barrie Shelton 2. A Short History of Hong Kong Malls and Towers David Grahame Shane Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
3. The Rise of Tall Podia and Vertical Malls Tung-Yiu Stan Lai Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
4. Restructuring Urban Space: The Mall in Mixed-Use Developments Carolyn Cartier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
5. Mall Cities in Hong Kong: Chungking Mansions Gordon Mathews Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
6. Narrating the Mall City Cecilia L. Chu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
7. It Makes a Village Jonathan D. Solomon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Part 2: CATALOG
The Prescience of Malls: A GLIMPSE INSIDE OF HONG KONG’S UNIQUE “PUBLIC” SPACES Adam Nowek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Footprints Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
Cross-sections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
312 Malls in Hong Kong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
17 Mall City Case Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
F.A.R. (Floor Area Ratio) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Blank Wall Ratio Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Type 1: Residential / Commercial Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
Type 2: Mall / Residential Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Type 3 : Mall / Office Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Type 4 : Hybrid Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
CREDITS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 246
Illustrations
- Other: approx. 150 color, 50 b&w illustrations

eBook

Published: November 30, 2016
ISBN: 9780824855444