Presentation- Slums of Hong Kong

Basic Facts on Hong Kong

• Population: 7,112,688 million
• 3 million people/19.6 percent below the poverty line
• 114,000 millionaires live in Hong Kong as of 2012
• One of the most densely populated places- 6,650 persons per square kilometer
• The poorest 20% of Hong Kong- 6% of society’s income versus the Rich take up 43%
• The median cost of a flat in Hong Kong is almost 15 times the annual household income
• 2012 property prices jumped 20%

An article regarding 85000 policy in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Housing Game:
Four Giants vs. Seven Million Commons

Jane Li*
Abstract: Hong Kong’s economic wealth relies disproportionately on
the prosperity of her real estate market. Four property conglomerates
dominate the market. Together, these “Hongs” or conglomerates, have
extensive power and control over the economy. Yet, the vast majority of
citizens work some of the longest hours to pay off extraordinarily high
mortgages. This article examines the basic structure of the Hong Kong
economy and addresses the attendant problems of economic fairness and
justice.

Click to access The-Game-on-Housing-final-with-cites.pdf

Unequal Access to Beautiful Housing in Paris

When we polled the 3 features that we considered essential for a city to be just, most of us included housing as an important element. We described this housing as “proper”, “affordable”, “public”, “livable” or “accesible”. Before we did the polling I had already been thinking of housing for a while, from the ideas I drew from the readings and my personal experience since I got to housing. But, esentially, I had been thinking a lot on inequality. During the polling I used the adjective “livable” as a neutral synonim for “beautiful” because I believe that if a city has to be just, it is not enough to have shelter, everyone needs to have equal access to a place they can call home. During my presentation I tried to justify this choice through a presentation of the theoretical background, the implications I drew from those readings, how this background can be applied to the current situation in Paris and, finally, my conclusions.

The Discussion of Hong Kong case

Sorry for fucking the the discussion. I was too nervous as part of the content was overlapped and I was too nervous switching what too say and eventually got laggy and ruined the discussion. Anyway, let’s continue here. The slides: Hong Kong

The last slide was intentionally made to be the discussion part.

Some questions, (an optional recap/summary is also at the end of this post)

1) What do you think would be a good solution,technically,  to the problem chain since it is sophisticated and pathetically inter-related? At least possible solution ensuring everyone can have a better place to live?

– about welfare, increased subsidised housing supply, policies discouraging speculating, migrating policy or anything

2)The root:  Is the current form of market pathological shape, which leads/converge us  to an inevitable inequality similar to hong kong?

3)And followed, what is the role of the government and to what extend should the government intervene to ensure the fairness & everyone has the basic rights one deserves?

A compilation of events surrounding Stuttgart 21

Cost Overruns in Stuttgart: German Rail Admits Station Was a Mistake

An internal document shows that the German national railway is only planning to finish a massive new train station project because abandoning it would be more expensive than completing it. Executives have conceded that they would not have approved of the construction at the current price tag.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-railway-admits-massive-stuttgart-station-was-a-mistake-a-886099.html

Activist architects: Designing social change

Architecture culture has changed, but challenges facing the 21st century city cannot be addressed by architects alone

In Caracas, Venezuela, the architecture practice Urban-Think

It is remarkable how the tone of architecture culture has changed in only a few years. In the heady days of the 2000s, architects were in furious competition to produce “iconic” buildings for a global market. Virtuosi such as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster kept the media fed with fabulous images of museums and corporate headquarters, earning the moniker “starchitects”. But after the financial crash of 2008, it became clear that the social value of so much of that starchitecture was nil. And there was a correction, to borrow a stock market term, in the architect’s image.

The Last Days of a Slum

I recently stumbled upon an article in “Le 13 Du Mois” which is an independent magazine for the 13th arrondissement, where I live.  This article is “Les Derniers Jours d’un Bidonville” which translates to “The Last Days of a Slum.”  My neighborhood appears to be a very average area and I was completely unaware that there was an entire community of Roma living on the periphery that will be forcibly evacuated soon.  My host family, who has lived there for 20 years, was also unaware.  I’ve translated the article (below, sorry for any errors in translation) and would love to hear a few things in particular:

1. If I were to focus on the people of this community for my final paper/video, what specific question/theory of social justice should I primarily cover?

2. What do you think is important to consider when approaching a community like this?  I know that I have to cultivate trust and actually form relationships (as opposed to rolling in with a camera and shooting immediately), but what are some other factors I should consider or be aware of?

This is the link for the article, only an excerpt of which is available online: http://www.le13dumois.fr/component/content/article/51-43/460-reportage-les-derniers-jours-dun-bidonville

“The Last Days of a Slum”

Jérôme Hoff

An article on explaining the basics of our discussion

This article is quite useful in terms of bringing us back to basics and putting on a clear frame in our discussion. It is good to keep in mind when posting and blogging in our social media platforms to keep everything within context and relevant.

“The specific term “spatial justice” has not been commonly used until very recently, and even today there are tendencies among geographers and planners to avoid the explicit use of the adjective “spatial” in describing the search for justice and democracy in contemporary societies. Either the spatiality of justice is ignored or it is absorbed (and often drained of its specificity) into such related concepts as territorial justice, environmental justice, the urbanization of injustice, the reduction of regional inequalities, or even more broadly in the generic search for a just city and a just society”

Click to access JSSJ1-1en4.pdf