Portfolio 2019_Jeffrey, Chun-kit LEUNG

Jeffrey’s Portfolio Work review since 2012

2019 Spring

Migrating to Mountain Borders Thesis - A City on Slopes

My thesis dissects the conflicts between development needs and geological constrains at mountain edges on the North of Hong Kong Island, and demonstrates possibilities of living on the slopes through redistributing the current urban mass.

Throughout the history of urbanization on Hong Kong Island, constant urban encroachments at these edges incrementally tarnish the foot-hill areas. Natural mountain surfaces are engineered into grey artificial slope patches and retaining walls. As a result, urban fringes are stitched to the mountain edges by a spectrum of controlled slope surfaces. This process of infringement is untold in the current densification model of our city.

By studying the geological specificity of Hong Kong Island regarding these constantly receding mountain borders, I propose new modes of demarcation at these unregistered edges to protect the intrinsic boundaries and prevent them from being unnoticeably dissolved in the process of urbanization. This architectural demarcation is manifested into spatial qualities specific to foot-hill conditions, and possible narratives of a livable environment for the migrated mass.

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2018 Fall

The 1.5-Meter-wide City

Infrastructural Upgrades in the spaces In-between The ongoing change of the urban villages all over Shenzhen is said to be for the better of the current inhabitants, but the way the developers are executing the renovations, tells a different story. Taking a look at the imagery of the materials provided by the developers, it is easy to tell, that the target audience is somewhere else.

The current model of renewal is just focusing on the most visible and easily accessible buildings, streets and public spaces. It is the easiest, fastest and cheapest way for the developers to achieve a new image for the village. What’s inside of the densest and more difficulty accessible part and can not be seen from the main streets, seems not to be as relevant for the developers to take into account.

The back alleys are where the everyday-life happens, so in order to preserve the best qualities of the village, the renovations must focus on improving the living conditions of the current inhabitants. These improvements should be started from the most basic level - infrastructure. In our project we present a possible way to solve some of these problems, and to define these unique network spaces in combination of alleyways, corners and surfaces, which are assembling and capturing the daily life of residents.

Collaboration: INKERI, Hilkka Maria Kankkunen

2017 Fall

Western Market – Performance – Living Hong Kong Memory

This project looks into the history of Sheung Wan and the possibility of transforming the district into an urban performance stage. With an initiative in freeing up the long suffocated Western Market in the district, the design aims to create an urban ground where the Western Market can, once again, stand up to be the city’s backdrop to recall people of the history and identity of the district, at the same time, introduce new types of living-working spaces for performers to activate the district with performance for the public.

Collaboration: QU, Tao

Type B

Type D

Inter-(dia)Logue Rethinking Housing Prototypes in Hong Kong My project, Inter-(dia)Logue, is dealing with a re-creation of platforms at different levels so as to rekindle the human dialogue in the district. This is to seek both visual and physical interactions among people from all walks of lives, as the district is resided with school children, the middle-class and the elderly. These people are raised up with different cultures and social backgrounds, but their dialogue is missing. This project tried to initiate the dialogue of people from all ages, so that a miniature of the whole city can be captured.

2015 Spring

Village House

A New House in an Old Village This exercise was a villa design for a client that I proposed. The scene was set in a village in Conghua, China. The villages were undergoing a transformation, and looked for new design ideas for abandoned village houses that could incorporate the essence of the traditional houses and contemporary building methods. A more primary approach of study was adopted in terms of light and shadows, sections and axonometrics, with an array of models tested in different materials.

2013 Spring

Graphics Work Freelance

Before getting into the archi-tectural world, I am fond of producing 2D-graphics including print-layouts, poster design and illustrations. This exposure to a 2D-media helps enrich my design experience, and open up new perspectives to look at architecture. The 2D plans and sections is fundamental for a 3D buildings. By looking into 2D setup and getting innovative 2D illustrations, it is relevant for me to produce better architectural diagrams to explain my design intention of a project, as well as graphics skill enhancement.

Since 2012

Work Experience Submission Drawings and Competition Entries My first full-time job in architectural field acted as a trainee in the architectural department of a local surveying and design-built company after my bachelor study. I mainly focused on a masterplanning project in Halong Bay, Vietnam, in both preliminary inception stages and general feasibility tests for a hotel resort.

In the meantime, I was helping in the drawing production for AIP submission to the government and tender documents, and coordinating with Production House for rendering outputs. My second job in RMJM Red as a trainee in the design team. I mainly assisted in work including construction drawings amendments, and report preparation for several architectural competitions (MLP, renderings, diagrams and presentation booklet layouts).

2015 Fall - 2017 Summer

Green Academy Paper Factory Redevelopment and Transformation Transformation of an old paper factory requires understanding of its structural core. To create a flexible and sustainable environment while preserving and adapting to the existing column system is the ultimate goal of the project. With the movable module system in the existing architecture, flexible space is created making the design proposal economically sustainable. Sustainability is also introduced to the design to foster the sense of environmental awareness. Besides renovating the existing architecture, a new block is introduced on the West side of the existing block serving as a business incubator.

2016 Summer Collaboration: LUI, Ho-yin YIP, Yi-kwan

2017 Spring

Sunken Spectrum

2017 EVOLO Skyscraper Competition Admiralty, located at the heart of Hong Kong, serves the largest occupation in the city for over 150,000 population flow every day. In history, over-development of skyscrapers has done harm to the existing area by blocking natural light and resulting in an over-occupied environment. The lack of open space and natural light source are the current issues that needed to be addressed.

The project takes the opportunity of the current re-developing metro station as a starting point to introduce a prototype - an open zone of natural lighting environment for the local area. The project is highly inspired by the iron and steel structure from the Eiffel Tower, a construction of bridge system has created a success in sustainability and aesthetic appearance for the tower. The project translates the structural language into a functional prototype, by introducing magnifying lens in-between voids of structure to re-direct sunlight into the tube station, and encapsulating green programmes into the tower for benefits of future generations.

Considering the designated site is situated near to the Victoria Harbour, where it is widely exposed to natural light, it is the best opportunity to test out the prototype.

Collaboration: LUI, Ho-yin, HOHO

2018 Spring

Post-WKCD Cultural Rethink Dispersion

The West Kowloon Cultural District(WKCD) project finally proceeds to a visible completion within 2 years.

Still, the public is debating over the resources thrown into the projects, and the government is trying to answer by the policy address and budget.

West Kowloon, like Chek Lap Kok where the airport is sitting, is a reclamation area that is empty in original value and culture in relation to history. Yet the absence in history will require a new definition, and the government is now assigning it with cultural values.

It is the best place to test out the feasibility of opening up a new cultural realm in Hong Kong, a blank site without the burden or contamination of any inherited culture or value from an old district.

The blankness, on the flip side, is dangerous, by taking on its own high-end and world-class cultural names and facilities that eventually becomes pure commercial, under a cultural skin. Culture is understood by multiple loci. When such a big cultural engine is set up, it is shifting the city cultural realm by all billboards advertisements, TV commercials, publications, etc. How well would all these collide with everyday localized culture?

Architects might have to pick up all objects of culture and memory that constitutes cultural locality before they are hit and blown by the cultural tsunami from West Kowloon.