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Housing in Aerial Negotiation

Part 1 Project 2022
Jason Setiawan
University of Hong Kong | China
‘Housing in Aerial Negotiation’ questions the practice of air rights in Hong Kong, whereby the airspace of adjacent plots are rented or acquired, leading to an unproportionate emphasis on space efficiency in built environment. The consequent close-proximity between buildings produces dark alleys, lack of ventilation, and privacy issues presented throughout Hong Kong’s urban fabric.

This project carefully minimized intrusiveness towards the neighbours by defining a slender boundary as its limit. Contrary to Hong Kong’s podium tower, a typology that impedes walkability, social interaction, ventilation, and light in the neighbourhood – this design dispersed the podium functions vertically, leaving generous light-filled open spaces with minimum obstruction at ground level. This results in a series of needle-like towers, composed of staggered pockets of communal space with distinct characters; sculpted through collaborative aerial negotiation with its surroundings.

The structure needed to support such a tower poses the immediate challenge of bulkiness, rigidity, and murk. In response, a system of radial shear walls is implemented to allow the long edges of the building to remain open to natural light. Shear walls briefly mutate into a system of columns splitting each segment vertically, introducing porosity and creating opportunities for a string of bright communal spaces.


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2022
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