Alternative Reclamation - The Vertical Floating City

Architecture is a tangible representation responding to a place’s urgencies and also the aspiration of our living quality. Under the crisis of land scarcity, architecture should show autonomy to adapt, move and transform in order to survive the reality. Revolution of architecture is needed to consider the environment and fulfill the human quest that reverberates through decades.

Reclamation has been a prevalent land solution since the British colonization of Hong Kong in 1841. The project explored how do the urgencies of land crisis and reclamation problem in Hong Kong become connected into the urban and architectural problems. It is a research and design process in a bottom up approach from criticising the conventional reclamation methods and technologies to the design intervention of generative floating architecture and urban aggregation through a serious of research, design and testing processes. A proposal of alternative reclamation which is a vertical floating city by a concept of creating permanent dwellings at the sea was established. Under the land scarcity in Hong Kong, architecture is a representation responding to a place’s urgencies/conditions and also the aspiration of human living quality. The proposal of floating architectures shown certain autonomy to adapt, move and transform responding to the environment, economic and ecology. It is a revolution of architecture engaging with the environment and human fulfillments that reverberates to the present day. Therefore, it is a methodical proposal speculating the innovative land formation and urban development in coming 20 to 50 years - an alternative sustainable land solution and a new type of expandable urban development by revolution of floating architecture. As a result, architecture becomes a leading instrument of social change.

Location: Hong Kong
Institute: The University of Hong Kong
Advisors: Ulrich Kirchhoff, Fai Au
Keywords: Alternative Reclamation, Speculative Environments, Generative Floating Structure , Carbon Neutral Architecture, Urban Transformation

Alternative Reclamation - The Vertical Floating City by Tsz Yeung Liu in Hong Kong won the WA Award Cycle 38. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.