installation | axis of development by dominique cheng
topography air rights spectacle development affection
planespotting
the Kai Tak project
1 Cities are inevitably shaped by historical events and urban phenomena. This project examines a site’s capacity to resuscitate the memory of a spectacle in the absence of the architecture that generated it, and asks whether or not this can reverse the effects of what Robert Smithson described as the entropic city. The Kai Tak Project positions the individual as its primary focus by engaging the culture of casual aircraft spectatorship, or planespotting, that once existed in the city of Kowloon, to evoke an alternative reading of the cityscape. 2 The history of Kowloon and the evolution of its first airport can be characterised as one of transience and constant change resulting from inadvertent shifts in the political and economic landscape. During its 73-year long tenure of the airfield (1925-1998), the site, located on an ocean inlet between Hong Kong Island to the south and Kowloon to the north, endured numerous ownership changes and one world war punctuated by a Japanese invasion. 1 Its initial formation as an aerodrome was happenstance in nature and its subsequent development was driven by piecemeal urbanism in the 1 ‘Hong Kong (China) - History’ in T. Ngo, editor. Hong Kong’s History: State and Society Under Colonial Rule . London: Routledge, 1999. p80 2 Choa, G. The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Ka i, second edition. Sha Tin, New Territories: The Chinese University Press, 2000. pp. 31-32 3 Kai Tak Airport 1925-1998. (2013, October 4). www.cad.gov.hk/ english/kaitak
absence of a comprehensive master plan. At the point that a transaction between two investors intent on developing the vacant lands dissolved, the government recognised the site’s potential to become an airfield that could be extended and expanded as needed into Kowloon Bay. 2 Over the following decades, the site underwent several transformations, from an aviation school in the 1920s to a naval air base modified in the 1950s to suit commercial aviation. 3 Inevitably, the growth of South Kowloon was defined by a constant negotiation of space – urban space to air space. The approach path to Runway 13/31 in particular left an indelible impression on the urban fabric, inscribing a distinct path of low-rise buildings as a result of both aviation clearance requirements and the city’s natural topography of rugged hills and valleys. Landings at the airport, which grew increasingly more difficult, were a dramatic spectacle of aerial gymnastics – aviation enthusiasts grew accustomed to watching commercial aircraft sweep across the city at dangerously low altitudes during descent. Planespotting was a term coined to define this culture of casual spectatorship of aircraft, akin to watching birds in an aviary. Building rooftops and hillside plateaus evolved into makeshift observatories as other buildings and landmarks (designated by checkered signs and beacon lights) served as visual cues for pilots during final descent. South Kowloon was a Mecca for planespotters up until the airport could no longer sustain the pressures imposed by both population and infrastructural growth.
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M H: I grew up across the street from Kai Tak airport. I remember the excitement of planespotting when I was a child the playground, and later, the adults’ relief that with the construction of Chek Lap Kwok, city congestion would decrease, and best of all, their apartments would no longer be subject to the incessant noise of airplanes flying by. We were all excited to take the subway to Lantou Island (previously a rural island of fishing villages, only skyline once more through the spotters. Perhaps that is the reason I like this project.
J L: What an intriguing proposition! Evoking a memory on such a large and yet intimate scale is a tall order. To do it in three dimensions and play with the fourth is most commendable. I have a soft spot for Kai Tak Airport It was my first airport, literally my gateway to the outside world. My memory of it was through my experience of departing and arriving. Like a true 24/7 city, Hong Kong was full of bright lights. Unlike any other city however, the Kai Tak airport was not away from the action, like the current Chek Lap Kok airpot. From Kai
Tak, you departed with the lights of the city celebrating, as if it was the old days on a ship, with crowds waving and cheering. It made it that much harder to leave every time, even as we became airborne. Arriving was similar. I knew I was back on Hong Kong soil when the sliding doors opened after customs and there was a massive landing leading to a long ramp. The landing acted as a stage and most people would naturally pause. It was on that landing that I would reconnect with Hong Kong, and let the place infuse my being. Crowds clustered around the ramp,
anxiously and excitedly waiting to wave to their loved ones. In my mind, it is still the most monumental arrival moment created in any airport around the world. With ever tighter security requirements, higher safety standards, and more goods and people to process through our national gateways, departures and arrivals have lost their lustre. To experience again that grandeur, the excitement, the anticipation, is only possible in memory. A smile spread across my face as I imagined a plane across the Hong Kong
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