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An appropriate urban density is a vital part of a sustainable urban fabric. However, when it comes to measuring the built urban fabric and how people walk through it and use, a difficulty has been observed in defining applicable measurement tools. With the intention of identifying the variables that will allow the best characterization of this fabric and movement, a multi-variable analysis methodology from the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is proposed. The main objective of this paper is to prove the capacity of AI as an evolving research method in urban morphology and specifically to evaluate the capacity of such a methodology to measure the way in which people travel through defined multi-levels of typologies of public urban space. The research uses the case of Hong Kong as a dense city that is three-dimensionally activated in terms of its public realm, not just at street level, but also via below ground subways and upper-level walkways, public and quasipublic spaces. This includes the three-dimensional volumetric assessment of public and quasi-public space typologies within a highly dense city. For the purpose of the study, a characterization and term definition of these spaces has been further developed: "Junctions", "Landmarks", "Intersections", "Districts", "Passages" and "Lobbies" (both outdoor and indoor) based on Lynch's 5 main key elements (District, landmark, path, edges, node). The results obtained using AI prove to be more robust and rational than those based on a more limited range of tools, evidencing that using AI can offer operational opportunities for better understanding of morphological and typological evolution within the vertical and volumetric built urban fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the character of multi-level pedestrian accessibility and walkability within the public and quasi-public realm in Hong Kong, using the particular case of the redevelopment of Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay. In an era when the value of public space as a space for public activity and debate is coming under increasing scrutiny, both in Hong Kong and internationally, this paper explores multi-level interior and exterior public and quasi-public realm, as a hybrid form of interior open and transit space in a commercial setting that has becomes a central part of the city's planning, designed to both serve and profit from the high level of pedestrian traffic. This paper draws on empirical research of pedestrian behaviour patterns to interrogate the value and significance of linked-spaces within commercial districts, both to the users and the real estate travelled through, using the city of Hong Kong as a reference and the specific case of Taikoo Place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian urbanization is characterized by complex processes of extensive densification. Fuelled by rapid economic growth, Asian cities’ size, scale, and physical dimensions remain incomparable to any Western setting. During the past thirty years alone, various concepts have attempted to define hyperdensity, layering, and intensity as core principles of Asian urban development. Although these concepts explore the physical properties of development, few examples provide insights into the behavioural and social dimensions of such complex morphological settings. This paper examines the effects of urban compaction and volumetric urbanism on liveability in East Asian cities. Hong Kong exemplifies an extreme scale and rate of densification. Podium developments – commercial plinths elevated above street level that connect large residential towers to commercial complexes – are one of the city’s most common development types. The hypothesis is that the combination of different types of podium development results in the interiorization of the urban realm, which compresses public services, social engagements, and behavioural conditions into diverse privatized and fragmented ‘public interiors’. To explore these conditions, this paper first outlines the conceptual premise of reading urban sett ings through the lens of volumetric urban compaction. This framework combines urban compaction and volumetric urbanism. Second, the paper discusses theories that deal with the links between spatial settings and behavioural traits. Privatization is of particular interest here, including those processes in which the private and the public become interchangeable conditions or where the temporary occupation of functions occurs. The different concepts – volumetric urban compaction and interiority – are studied within Olympian City, a podium development in Kowloon (Hong Kong). Through fieldwork, the case is investigated in terms of the elements that make up Olympian City’s spatial configuration and how different groups use space at different times of the day and week. The case study shows that Hong Kong’s development follows an economically driven model of volumetric urban compaction; it supports a larger privatization strategy that depends on the interiorization of the city to the extent that makes the overall structure highly exclusive, static, and controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While cities have become gradually more vertical and complex over the past century, our methods for conceptualising their characteristics and measuring their forms and functions are still largely based in a horizontal mindset. Recent work has sought to shift urban discourse towards understanding cities according to their volumetric properties. Moving the debate further, this paper approaches volumetric urbanism from a morphological perspective, setting out a research agenda that operationalises the concept as a means of better capturing the morphological characteristics of cities as volumetric entities. First, we deconstruct volumetric urbanism into the five basic building blocks that define volumetric morphologies: density, functional mix, compaction and compression, complex networks and interaction intensity. Next, we propose two methods for capturing the urban volumetrics of cities based on spatial and network interaction and apply them to a hypothetical case and a preliminary study of Hong Kong. We conclude by arguing that a volumetric approach is required to capture the complex form of compressed, multi-layered and highly connected cities. In response, urban morphological and planning discourses must move away from the horizontal analytical mindset, embrace a multi-layered three-dimensional view of cities and place greater emphasis on spatial configurations and network relations by measuring interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong is one of the most 'public' open space challenged cities in the world. As a result of the city's 'patchwork' planning practices, the privatisation of all space has become a means of control that directly impacts developmental typologies and social mobility. It remains a landscape which is more opportunistic than strategic, resulting in spatial compression for the sake of profitability. Through over privatisation, the multi-utilities of 'spaces for the public' constitutes negotiated spatial norms, a process whereby space is re-claimed through tactical means. This paper focuses on how the social mechanises the concept of spatial piracy of accessible (in and exterior) space to define what we term 'lateral-privatisation', in the lieu of a civic-spatial relationship. The argument presents two examples that expedite lateral-privatisation, discussing the umbrella movement and weekly takeover of open space by foreign domestic helpers. Conclusions are made by arguing that lateral-privatisation should be viewed as a spatial alternative, an informal design mechanism that advocates socially driven, spatially situated social justice. Through examining 'by who', 'for whom' and 'where', the lateral-privatisation concept positions an alternative model, between the privatisation of cities and the social (re)claims made within dense landscapes that promotes social dis-inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]