Appropriating Public Space: The Case of Hong Kong's Foreign Domestic Workers

APPROPRIATING PUBLIC SPACE The Case of Hong Kong's Foreign Domestic Workers

APPROPRIATING PUBLIC SPACE The Case of Hong Kong's Foreign Domestic Workers

Global Intensive Studio Hong Kong, Macau & Shenzhen January 2018

5 4 Introduction

6

Participants

8

Workshop Photographs

10

INITIAL RESEARCH Introduction

30

Tracing Class Lines Through Public Space

32

Foreign Domestic Workers & Organized Appropriations of Public Space

36

Organized Occupation of Public Space in Hong Kong

40

Domestication of Public Space

44

Municipal, Private & Civil Service Organizations Addressing Public Space

48

DESIGN PROPOSALS Introduction

52

Identities & Public Space

54

Housing For Domestic Workers

56

An 'Other' Sunday

60

Negotiating Public & Private Spaces: Boundaries, Privacy & Mobility

64

Building Supportive Ecosystems For Foreign Domestic Workers

68

On Air: A Centralized Story Archive & Tool for Domestic Worker Movements

72

Objects of Domestication

76

New Hongkongers' Festival

80

Framework

84

CONTENTS

GLOBAL INTENSIVE STUDIO

The workshop began with fieldwork in Hong Kong on Sunday, January 14: Sundays are important days in the lives of domestic workers in Hong Kong because on that day most are asked to leave their employers’ home and places of work, and spend the day outside. Even though the ‘free day’ is strictly enforced, the prospect of gathering with friends and family, and with larger groups of compatriots, is attractive enough to bring thousands of women together. Given financial limitations, but also the prospects of gathering in larger groups, they have historically chosen to appropriate vast network of streets, passages, alleys and bridges in the Central Business District. Since business are closed for the day, and vehicular traffic is diverted, domestic workers can appropriate the space to their needs without much interference. After all, the Central Business District is heavily surveyed with thousands of security cameras monitoring its public- and privately-owned-public spaces for unlawful activities.

The most humiliating way in which public space is controlled here has simultaneously provided much needed safety to female appropriators given that any other location where they could gather in such numbers would potentially leave them exposed to harassment and violence.

The fifty-six participating students were divided into nine design teams, devised to bring students from the three participating universities together. Each team identified their own specific research topics and subsequently developed design scenario aimed at transforming the found situation(s) into a preferred one. Scenarios were further elaborated through specific strategies and project proposals, as it is evident later in this publication. From designs for the community center and skills sharing programs, to the design of new housing units and settlements, to new events and a mobile theater, to policy proposals and modular furniture systems, student teams courageously and critically contributed to the ongoing discourse on, and practices of, appropriation of public space, the practice of commoning, but also on the government-complicit, modern-day slavery that renders hundreds of thousands of SouthAsian women as cheap, immigrant laborers in the Pearl River Delta and elsewhere in the world.

The methodology employed in this studio is transdisciplinary in approach, specifically designed to bring students with different skills, knowledge and backgrounds together into creative design teams, where they collaborate on equal footing in reframing existing challenges and proposing innovative courses of action and urban transformation.

Miodrag Mitrasinovic

March 2018 | New York City

7 6

INTRODUCTION

In January 2018, eighteen students representing eight different degree programs across The New School (Design and Urban Ecologies, Theories of Urban Practice, Urban and Public Policy, Architecture, Interior Design, Lighting Design, Fine Arts, and Communication Design) traveled to Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen as part of the Global Studio Intensive course. Between 14-19 January 2018, we worked with students from the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as well as from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Shenzhen University, within a workshop organized by Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The workshop focused on different modes and modalities of appropriating public space in the Hong Kong Central Business District specifically by female, foreign domestic workers. Our preliminary research conducted before the workshop, revealed complexities and contradictions involved in global flows of migrant labor, and in particular over 300,000 women from the Philippines and Indonesia to Hong Kong. Strong ethical dimensions (and potential risks) of this work became apparent to us early on, and only exponentially grew when we faced culturally- and geographically-determined notions of social and spatial justice, labor and immigration policies, and gender rights that differed from our own. Working in the face of such complexity has been a challenging journey but also a rewarding learning pursuit.

Yang Xiaochun Wenxiu Gao Alexander Zipprich

Zheng Yushan Zhang Jingwen Liang Shuang Qin Yingfeng Du Yuanyuan Ma Xianming Zhang Zixuan Liu Ying Fu Hanwei Hou Tianyue Tang Weiduo Wang Yixian Luo Bing Liang Xiucheng

Faculty

Students

Laurent Gutierrez

He Mengyang / Joy Yang Fan / Sailing Wang Yue / Wendy Wen Jiangxin Han Ke Zhao Xiang / Cherry Tan Shihui / Helen Liu Kaiyun / Katerine Mai Qinxin / Bonnie Ke Jiawei / Vivian Kopacz Panna Boroka Sharma Saijal Wang Lian Kokorevica Lauma Gavare Nora

9 8 Students

Miodrag Mitrasinovic

Reegan Brown Alexis Chagaris Maria Chung Katherine Dillard Gozalez Fabienne Hierzer Geraldine Kang Siew Lm Tim Nottage Jianfan Lin Isela Lopez Miranda Nelson Elaine Matthias Karina Rodriguez Emily Sloss Matt Spanarkel Ilana Steenkamp Andrew Strong Leonard Yang Lin Zeng

Faculty

Students

PARTICIPANTS

Faculty

WORKSHOP PHOTOGRAPHS

10 11

DESIGN PROPOSALS 19 19

INITIAL RESEARCH 21 21

DESIGN PROPOSALS 23 23

DESIGN PROPOSALS 25 25

INITIAL RESEARCH 27 27

INITIAL RESEARCH 29 29

INITIAL RESEARCH 30 31

INITIAL RESEARCH Before arriving in Hong Kong, New School Students worked in teams of four to conduct preliminary research on the topics of typologies of public space, organized appropriations, organized occuaptions, everday domestication of public space and municipal, private and civil society organizations that deal with public space in Hong Kong. The initial research introduced us not only to the city but also to the complicated and often contradictory relationship between the country and its foreign domestic workers.

TRACING CLASS LINES THROUGH PUBLIC SPACE

Miranda Nelson, Emily Sloss, Matt Spanarkel, Leonard Yang Access to public space is particularly important in Hong Kong because it is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with an average of 161 square feet of living space per person. For comparison, the United States has about 800 sq ft. of living space per capita, while other major Asian cities like Taiwan has 370 sq ft., and Singapore has 323 sq. ft.1 Hong Kong also has the highest income inequality in Asia, hitting a record high in 2017, with the wealthiest households making 44 times more than the poorest households.2 Low-income families living in subdivided apartments have significantly less space than the country average, with only 47 sq. ft of living space per capita, which is about the size of a ping pong table. Cramped living quarters make access to quality public space essential. However, the disparity seen in living spaces extends to public space, where differences in access and quality can clearly be seen along class lines.

Densely populated apartment buildings next to a country park

Open Space: Parks & Recreation Areas Space is Hong Kong’s scarcest resource despite the fact that only 25% of Hong Kong’s land mass is developed, with the remaining 75% in country parks or land reserves. Official government reports boast that Hong Kong residents enjoy an average of 1133 sq. ft. of open space per capita.3 However, a report by independent NGO

INITIAL RESEARCH 32 33

Countable Open Space Per Capita by Neighborhood

6-11 ft2 12-21 ft2 22-27 ft2 28-54 ft2 55-86 ft2 >86 ft2 Country park Undeveloped

Source: Civic Exchange

Civic Exchange argues that, in practice, residents have only an average of 29 sq. ft. per capita of open space. The vast difference in these calculations are due to the inclusion of country parks in the government’s report, while Civic Exchange uses only "countable open space" which excludes country parks, green belts, and coastal protection areas because they are far from residential areas and difficult to access for the average resident.4 Within countable open spaces, which include urban parks and playing fields, there are significant disparities based on socio-economic status. For example, the low-income neighborhood of Mong Kok has access to only 6.5 sq. ft. per capita while residents of the elite Peak have over 100 sq. ft. per capita. Equitable access to public open space is essential for a healthy society. Lower-income residents do not have the resources to dedicate to recreation and exercise and therefore disproportionately benefit from public open space in terms of physical and mental health.

Public Transit The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is the major public transit network serving Hong Kong.

The system currently includes 218.2 km (135.6 mi) of rail with 159 stations as well as a multitude of bus routes. The MTR is incredibly efficient, consistently achieving a 99.9% on-time rate for train journeys and has a farebox recovery ratio of 124%, making it one of the most profitable metro systems in the world.5

Social class divisions are less visable in the MTR compared to other places in Hong Kong. Since it is the dominant form of transportation for the region, the system acts as an equalizer that forces all classes to mix on a daily basis. Ensuring affordable access to the MTR for all residents, regardless of income, is essential for the city to operate. In response to recent fare increases, the government introduced monthly travel stipends for low-income families.6 Behavior on the trains is governed by courtesy rules. Almost every user stands in accordance to signage and arrows demarcated on the platform, entering and exiting trains in an organized manner. Overall, it appears as though etiquette and common courtesy dominates the social actions of all users regardless of social status while in the MTR network.

Walkways, Escalators & Stairways Somewhat unique to the city, Hong Kong has extensive pedestrian transportation infrastructure, with elevated walkways, escalators and stairway helping the population to move on foot around the city and easing traffic and congestion on the streets.Used mainly by office workers on weekdays to commute to and from their workplaces in Central during the morning and evening rush hours elevated walkways and escalators cater to the demands of the white-collared worker. On weekends, elevated walkways serve as a space for foreign domestic workers to appropriate, as they congregate to sit down with friends and family to share a meal, or to simply pass time with their mobile devices in the company of loved ones. Stairways are more difficult to congregate on and are therefore mostly utilised for pedestrian transportation. However, due to the extremely limited space and narrow streets in Hong Kong, some Dai Pu Dongs do extend out of their allocated stall to set up shop along these stairways. There are also numerous stairways situated along the Mid to Upper levels on Hong Kong Island. These stairways function mostly to the convenience of Mid and Upper level residents, allowing them ease of access along the hilled slopes where their residential neighbourhoods are located.

Stairway and the Mid-Level escalators

INITIAL RESEARCH 34 35 Ladies Night Market

Commercial Spaces Hong Kong’s commercial spaces are another important form of public space in the city, serving both as transportation—incorporating both MTR stations and extensive walkways into its many malls—and recreation. Many of these spaces are truly public and accessible to all Hongkongers: informal shops are frequently set up on sidewalks, many food stalls provide windows onto the street around where Hongkongers gather, and night markets provide blocks of space for the population to congregate.

But starting in the 1960s, Hong Kong began building malls, privatizing and interiorizing activities that had previously taken place on the public street. Young people used these new spaces to socialize as well as shop. Some coffee shops even imitated sidewalk cafes, setting up tables on main interior walkways of the malls. This mall space is much less democratic than other Hong Kong spaces since it is private and people can be excluded. These malls quickly began catering to people with different levels of wealth.

High end malls sought out expensive stores and wealthy customers, while cheaper malls sold things at a discount. Some malls were built in public housing complexes, explicitly for working class people. This stratification means that one of the main public spaces utilized by Hongkongers is one where classes fail to mix.

FOREIGN DOMESTIC WORKERS AND ORGANIZED APPROPRIATIONS OF PUBLIC SPACE Tim Nottage, Illana Steenkamo, Maria Chung, Lin Zeng

Domestic Workers At Scale Approximately 352,000 Foreign Domestic Workers (also known as Foreign Domestic Helpers) are employed in Hong Kong as of 2016. Without government supported child or elder care, the government relies on this cheap labor from overseas to drive its economy; with a high cost of living and a shortage of housing, most Hong Kong families have multiple working adults and live in relatively small spaces.

Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW) are the largest group of economic migrants in Hong Kong, accounting for 9% of the total workforce, and with the total population of Hong Kong at 7.3 million, serve approximately 11% of Hong Kong families. The majority emigrate from Philippines and Indonesia, countries that implemented national policies of labor export in the 1970s, purportedly to address high rates of unemployment.

Today, the export of labor is a source of national pride; remittances sent home to account for 10% of the total GDP in the Philippines. Within these local and global contexts, the government of Hong Kong has developed guidelines and restrictions that it claims protects both foreign workers and the local economy.

Legal Restrictions The government of Hong Kong has detailed requirements for the employment of Foreign Domestic Workers. These include both requirements of the host family and regulations targeting the FDWs. In order to hire a FDW, a family must making at least $15,000 HK$/month. Families are usually required by contract to provide free passage to and from HK from the workers' home country; free food or food allowance (currently the suggested allowance is $995), annual paid leave of 12 days, and “health insurance”, meaning household must pay for incidentals/injuries sustained during work.

These clauses are often critiqued as difficult to enforce.

The minimum income of a FDW since September 30 2017 is 4,410 HK$/month ($565 USD). Rather than a minimum, this is often treated as a standard. Furthermore, these already low salaries are often used as repayment for the recruiting services that many domestic workers use in order to find employment in Hong Kong. Any remaining money is often sent back to the country of origin, providing the FDW’s family with an income.

No other form of income is permitted, the FDW is not permitted to perform tasks outside of household duties and cannot carry out duties for any person outside of the household in which they are employed. Regardless of the number of years spent in the city, MDWs are also not eligible for residency in Hong Kong as they are not considered to be “regularly residing” in Hong Kong.

Work Conditions Despite some regulations and suggested guidelines for the standards of living conditions for FDWs, conditions of the domestic workers are alarming. The Practical Guide for Employment of Foreign Domestic Helpers stipulates that the employer is liable to provide “suitable accommodation and with reasonable privacy”; a “separate servant room” is not required. Advocacy groups cite unjust working and living conditions, including the installation of surveillance cameras in the home to police the domestic workers, leading to greater issues surrounding trust and security within the home and relationship between the family and FDW. Many FDW’s lack the privacy of having their own room, sleeping in small, windowless, and generally inhumane spaces such as in the kitchen or bathroom, often with no electrical outlets or fixtures. Some FDW’s are forced to share bedrooms with their employer’s children and have been reported to sleep on mats on the floor. A survey conducted by the Justice Centre Hong Kong found an average work week of 71.4 hours, with over two-thirds of survey respondents working over 12 hours per day. Long working hours and a lack of personal privacy within the home blurs the lines between working and nonworking hours, and for many FDWs, the appropriation of public spaces on Sundays represent, paradoxically, the most privacy they can obtain.

Living conditions of workers

INITIAL RESEARCH 36 37

One of the most restrictive requirements of employment is the “live-in rule”. Domestic workers are required to live, work and sleep at the residence of their employers.

Breaking the live in rule can result in a maximum of HK$150,000 fine and/or 14 years imprisonment for the employer. The worker is usually imprisoned, deported and banned from re-entering Hong Kong. This was requirement was established in 2003 to ensure that FDW did not take up other jobs or compete in the HK job market for work that local Hong Kong residents have access to.

The FDW’s activities exhibit examples of cultural placemaking, connection, and selfexpression, while also participating and driving an informal economy.

With limited income, FDWs utilize everyday objects to construct their spaces, such as cardboards, curtains, umbrellas, and blankets. Most rent corrugated cardboard for HK$10 per day, a major element for comfort, privacy, and the division of space.

They occupy areas along walls or handrails where they can take use of existing structure, while also giving way to the public. Here, the FDWs can freely express their own identity and personal interests, as well as connect with each other. These activities include performance of traditional dance in costumes, hand sewing, guitar tutorial and photography. Food and beauty play a major role, sharing traditional food in groups and applying makeup on one another. In the privacy of numbers, FDWs entertain themselves with their friends by playing cards, chatting, and taking selfies.

Many of them communicate with their family members in their home countries with smartphones and video chat. Since the FDWs are legally restricted from other income sources, an informal micro-economy has emerged. Through second hand selling, vending homemade food, and packaging commodities to be shipped and sold in their home countries, FDWs find and create many informal commercial activities.

INITIAL RESEARCH 38 39

How Space Is Appropriated On a typical Sunday afternoon, domestic workers converge on downtown Hong Kong, gathering in the parks, outdoor walkways connecting luxury shopping malls, public squares, and even the private plazas of international banking corporations. For many, their only day off from work is spent occupying this public space, and returning to the same places with familiar friends, creating an informal micro-economy and engaging in many communal activities. At the end of the day, the space is cleared to near its original state. Locals call this phenomenon ‘Little Manila’ based on the prevalence of Filipinas, but hold conflicting opinions. Regardless, the temporality and efficiency requires a high level of organization among the FDWs and the micro-economies they support.

ORGANIZED OCCUPATION OF PUBLIC SPACE IN HONG KONG

Reegan Brown, Geraldine Kang Siew Lm, Karina Rodriguez, Andrew Stong

In 1984, the Joint Declaration between British and Chinese governments set in motion the one country, two systems principle for which Hong Kong is now known.

Beginning in 1997, control of Hong Kong transferred to Chinese control as a special administrative region until 2047; when the designation would be reviewed. Strife in public sentiment underlies this transition and connects many of the organized forms of occupation in the city. By many of the citizens of Hong Kong, the ability to respond through mobilization in public space is seen as intrinsic to Hong Kong’s core values.1 Prior to the transition of control, a key but violent protest in 1967 led to many reforms that offered better channels of communication between the government and the people. At the same time, it resulted in the Public Ordinance Act which criminalises unsanctioned protests. That is to say that difficulties to mobilize in public space come not only from Chinese rule but also through legislation in the Hong Kong Common Law. Examples below are a selection of key moments of transition around activism and perceptions of organized occupation of public space in the city.2 Tiananmen Square Memorials In 1989 uncertainties about China’s economic and political future post-Mao were felt across the country. Throughout the spring, Hong Kong residents marched in solidarity with students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. On May 28th 1.5 million people in Hong Kong marched in reaction to the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square which is the largest protest in the city to date. The march began in Central and wound its way along a 15km route around the Island. All ages and backgrounds marched. Since then, there have been annual vigils on June 4th commemorating those in Beijing who lost their lives. Attendance to this event has been steadily declining and brings into question the role organized occupation of public space in maintaining a collective memory.

Legal Sector Silent Marches There have been four legal sector silent marches since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Each of these marches was in response to Chinese government challenges to Hong Kong’s state sovereignty. Hong Kong’s sovereignty in itself is ambiguous as result of its political status within China. Each march surrounded what was seen as unprecedented intervention by the Chinese government in Hong Kong’s decision-making and legal practice.3

The nature of each of these marches has taken the form of an occupation of the sidewalks and streets for a set period of time and was about moving a body people to the Court of Final Appeal. These marches reflect Hong Kong residents’ weariness over Beijing intervention in their Common Law.

Legal Sector March

Umbrella Revolution The Umbrella Movement which began on the 26th of September is when students stormed the civic square in an act of civil disobedience responding to a disappointing announcement of “electoral reforms” which still did not grant Hong Kong people the right to vote for their chief executive. This culminated in an all-night sit-in which lasted for 78 days and is the most well-documented and archived protest to date in Hong Kong. Admiralty area grew in numbers rapidly, and spontaneous large protests were also popping up in Causeway Bay, Mongkok and Tsim Sa Tsui. Although most of the drawn-out occupation was very peaceful, some parts of the the protest were violent with pepper spray being used to disperse crowds; protesters defended themselves with umbrellas and cling wrap.

One of the most well known happenings of the protest include the Lennon Wall, which featured thousands of post-it notes that had individual responses towards the issues

INITIAL RESEARCH 40 41

1999: NPSCS (Standing Committee of the National People's Congress) interpretation of the Basic Law: right of abode 2005: NPCSC interpretation of the Basic Law: CE terms of office 2014: Beijing released white paper asserting judges as administrators 2016: Beijing’s intervention to remove democratically elected officials4

being protested. The quote in chinese encourages people to not give up hope. The protest eventually ended when taxi and small bus companies approached High Court to file an injunction, which gave the court a legal justification to authorize a police sweep of the protest site so that traffic could be normalized again. Other reflections of the movement’s failure include a lack of centralized leadership, and a lack of strategic planning beyond the spectacular occupation of space and disrupting the daily grind of Hong Kong.

Umbrella Revolution

Domestic Workers Marches The cultural tolerance of protest in Hong Kong has also made room for foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to mobilize for their rights. Such occupation of public space and vocal expression towards authorities by FDWs is unseen in other countries like Singapore and Malaysia where they face similar plights. This uphill climb towards policy change is motivated firstly by the live-in rule5 which in many cases has led to the overextension of the employee as working hours are not clearly defined. Secondly, FDWs are in the process of pushing for a 27.6% increase in minimum wages from KH$4,310 to a KH$5,500 livable wage in response to insufficient wage increases over the past 18 years.6 Other forms of abuse include physical or emotional mistreatment and malnutrition of employees.

Protests or any form of coordinated organization by FDWs typically take place on Sundays, their rest day of the week. Some of the most recent protests include one on 2 September 2017, during which 450 to 600 FDWs and local supporters marched for

Another form of mass organization in public space involves large-scale public events like the One Billion Rising (OBR) dance occupation held yearly in Hong Kong. OBR is a globally organised movement that seeks to protest violence against women across the world and promote women’s rights across a variety of roles and professions.

The event, aimed at campaigning for the protection of 350,000 female FDWs in Hong Kong, is jointly organised by the Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body (AMCB), GABRIELA Hong Kong and many other local and migrant groups. More than 1000 migrant workers, local women workers, students and supporters of women's rights joined in a whole day program of dance, activism, and solidarity in the One Billion Rising Revolution Hong Kong 2017 on 12 February at Edinburgh Place, Central. The most recent OBR 2018 dance occupation was held again on 11 February.

One Billion Rising

INITIAL RESEARCH 42 43

higher minimum wages. The 1-kilometer procession began at the Exchange Square in Central and culminated in a rally outside the Labour Department building.7 Other causes of the march include FDW safety and scrapping the live-in rule but the main focus remained raising wages food allowances. A similar protest by 50 people was held on 17 December 2017 to protest against the financial and legal exploitation of FDWs and other migrant workers by employment agencies. The march began in Tsim Sha Tsui, near the Nepalese consulate and eventually made its way to the consulates of Thailand, the Philippines and India, before concluding at government headquarters in Admiralty.8 Another instance of the tight allyship between local supporters and FDWs was the protest march on 20 August 2017 which ended at the Court of Final Appeal in Central. FDWs expressed solidarity with arrested leaders of the Umbrella Movement, some of whom were strong supporters of migrant workers’ causes in Hong Kong.9

Cardboard Box

DOMESTICATION OF PUBLIC SPACE Umbrella

Alexis Chagaris, Isela lopez, Fabienne Hierzer, Jianfan Lin

Domestication is a sustained, multigenerational relationship in which one group of 180114_Global Intensive Studio_Hong Hong_Group 4 people assumes a significant degree of influence over the reproduction and care 180114_Global Intensive Studio_Hong Hong_Group 4 180114_Global Intensive Studio_Hong Hong_Group 4 of another group to secure a more predictable supply of resources from-and-to the second group. Within this relationship, people can build systems which (re)produce basic needs. Historically, people learned how to domesticate wild wheat (shatters and falls to ground to reseed itself) into domesticated wheat (seed stays on the stem for easier harvest) in order to harvest efficiently. Along with the process of domestication, people also invented technologies to help them drive the process of domestication.

Analogically, foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong domesticate public space in the Central Business District by using the available technologies: umbrellas to protect them from sun, cardboard to sit more comfortably on the ground, etc. Such tools and technologies help them create different spatial arrangements within which they configure different social and cultural activities. Our group took interest in identifying objects and technologies of of domestication.

We identified three dominant elements of domestication: umbrella, cardboard box, and sheets. What we found interesting was the way in which they used and combined such simple and accessible elements. Our observations revealed the alternative and innovative wayw in which these women were transforming three basic elements into complex systems of domestication. After surveying Statue Square, we began to get a better sense of how these elements were put to use. They were transformed into floors, walls and shelters. It felt as if the women were creating small, temporary homes within the public square. We also found interesting ways in which the domestic workers organized themselves. Upon visiting the Statue Square area, we found three prevailing types of organization of domesticated space: linear arrangements, organic arrangements and clustering arrangements. While linear arrangements are mostly to be found in very constrained and directional spaces (tunnels, walkways, etc.), organic arrangements occur most frequently in bigger and non-directional public spaces such as street corners. Most of the linear implementations that we found, seem to have very clear boundaries. It was unclear to us whether those boundaries are settled by agreements between the Filipino working organizations and the government, or whether these are kept by Filipinos out of respect of the passer-by that has to use these walkways simultaneously.

The clusters are to be found in open plazas. They are randomly scattered across large public spaces, but in most cases domestic workers also prefer places which allow them to use found infrastructure, such as tree planters or fences. Foreign Domestic Workers work 24 hours a day for 6 days a week. Sunday is their day to celebrate and relax. They come together early on Sunday mornings. Many times, these women meet each other through work, family, Sunday mass, or even online. The women find others with similar interests in fan groups and chat groups. Often they meet first to go to Sunday mass before they gather in their own personal spaces. These temporary spaces are created as a home base where they eat, nap, and just hang out together in public squares throughout Central Hong Kong. Boxes, blankets, curtains, and umbrellas are used to set up these spaces to create a little bit of privacy as well as places to set up platters of food or create something to nap on. Throughout the day, they exchange beauty products, food, clothes and give each other manicures and massages. They don’t make a lot of money working as domestic workers during the week, so they save money by entertaining themselves and offering to manicure each other. Their personal spaces are usually just private enough for them to do each other’s hair and nails. The women also play games, dance in groups, watch movies on their phones and sing with karaoke machines. Many of these women have organized themselves in dance groups that they choreograph routines and perform together in these public squares.

Any open space between the arrangements of cardboard boxes and umbrellas serves as a stage. Later in the day they help each other pack up boxes full of goods, such as food, snacks, clothes, toiletries, toys, and money to send home to their families in the Philippines.

INITIAL RESEARCH 44 45

Within these seemingly organic arrangements, we have observed clear spatial order, a dynamic system in the making, and some kind of structure - may it be railing or a wall - which serve as support, either to rest their backs against, or to reinforce structural elements of roofs, tents, and sheds.

The clusters are to be found in open plazas. They are randomly scattered across large public spaces, but in most cases, domestic workers also prefer places which allow them to use found infrastructure - such as tree planters or fences.

Foreign Domestic Workers work 24 hours a day for 6 days a week. Sunday is their day to celebrate and relax. These domestic workers come together early on Sunday mornings. Many times, these women meet each other through work, family, Sunday mass, or even online. The women find others with similar interests in fan groups and chat groups. Many times they meet first to go to Sunday mass before they gather in their own personal spaces. These temporary spaces are created as a home base where they eat, nap, and just hang out together in public squares throughout Central, Hong Kong. Boxes, Blankets, curtains, and umbrellas are used to set up these spaces to create a little bit of privacy as well as places to set up platters of food or create something to nap on. Throughout the day, they exchange beauty products, food, clothes and give each other manicures and massages. They don’t make a lot of money working as domestic workers during the week, so they save money by entertaining themselves and offering to manicure each other. Their personal spaces are usually just private enough for them to do each other’s hair and nails.

The women also play games, dance in groups, watch movies on their phones and sing with karaoke machines. Many of these women have organized themselves in dance groups that they choreograph routines and perform together in these public squares.

Any open space between the arrangements of cardboard boxes and umbrellas serves as a stage. Later in the day they help each other pack up boxes full of goods, such as food, snacks, clothes, toiletries, toys, and money to send home to their families in the Philippines.

1. objects of domestication INITIAL RESEARCH 46 47

Objects of Domestication

2. Arrangement of Domesticated Space

Arrangement of Domestic Space

180114_Global Intensive Stu

180114_Global Intensive Studi

MUNICIPAL, PRIVATE & CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS ADDRESSING PUBLIC SPACE Reegan Brown, Elaine Matthias, Katherine Dillard Gonzalez

Municipal Organizations Public space is an extremely important asset for urban dwellers. It helps enrich the cultural and environmental values of space, and provides a place for people to interact, children to play, breathe fresh air, and enjoy green scenery. Hong Kong is currently a “Special Administrative Region” (SAR), and its’ economy is characterized by free trade, low taxation, and minimum government intervention. Thus, municipal organizations play a limited role in regulating and protecting public space in the city.

Since the 1980s, there has been a significant influx of immigrants from mainland China and elsewhere to Hong Kong. The rapid increase in population was followed by growth in commercialization and privatization within the city. When developers began constructing housing estates to support this growth, the government realized it could outsource the responsibility of providing public open space to developers.

In addition to the increase in privatization of public space, the government no longer requires developers to provide privately owned public space except in special circumstances. The only requirement is that it be attached to an identifiable residential or worker population. However, the populations who are within close proximity to the open space provided by these developers are typically people who can afford memberships to private clubs or privately-owned developments.

According to the government’s “Planning Standards and Guidelines”, it is required that there be 2 square meters of open space per person. Additionally, under the Hong Kong’s 2030 Planning Vision and Strategy, the government has proposed to raise standard open space per person from 2 to 2.5 square meters.

Private Organizations The Central Business District of Hong Kong is the primary government and business center hosting many mutli-national financial corporations. There are a significant number of key landmarks and public spaces arranged to accommodate the volume of traffic that utilizes this area. In addition to business travel and tourism, the public spaces in this district also provides a location for foreign domestic workers to spend their leisure time on Sundays.

The co-location of public spaces, such as Statue Square and Government Hill, alongside the corporate centers for of HSBC and Bank of America among others, provide the backdrop for visitors and residents alike. While many of the buildings are considered private space, their open courtyards and walkways provide the backdrop

Civil Society Organizations In considering the involvement of civic organizations in public space, one of the integral functions is for those that conduct outreach and services for persons identified as street sleepers. Given the rising cost of housing and increasing real estate prices, public space is often used as an alternative to housing. Some estimates have determined there are approximately 1,600 such persons that are utilizing public spaces for sleeping and daily activities. The increasing demand for public housing coupled with the limited inventory available is causing the rise in persons lacking basic shelter.

Coordination between the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Social Welfare Department and civil society organizations in addressing street sleepers indicates there is a cursory interest in providing support services and temporary shelter. However, language identified on a brochure providing services suggests that the onus of the solution is heavily reliant on the individual. Such language includes “enhancing the work motivation and skills of street sleepers so as to persuade them to give up street sleeping and assist them to be self-reliant.”1 This approach assumes that the person has intentionally chosen this living arrangement and is not currently employed, among other assumptions.

While there are organizations, such as the Hong Kong Housing Society, St. James’ Settlement, Salvation Army, and Christian Concern for the Homeless Association, many of these offer temporary housing and other support services, barriers to longterm sustainability persist. The underlying issue of the unavailability of affordable housing options indicates that the use of public space as dwelling space will persist in Hong Kong.

INITIAL RESEARCH 48 49

for engagement of public life. Their cooperation and participation in the layout of the city center integrates the fabric of community living.

INITIAL RESEARCH 50 51

DESIGN PROPOSALS 52 53

DESIGN PROPOSALS Based on our initial research and Sunday field work, teams comprised of students from The New School, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Shenzhen University worked together to propose design interventions. Students from the three universities spent the week together further exploring the issues facing foreign domestic workers and collaborated to produce the following design proposals that might transform the found situations into preferred ones.

IDENTITIES & PUBLIC SPACE Reegan Brown & Karina Rodriguez

Hong Kong’s foreign domestic workers are required by employment law to “live-in” their employers homes. This restrictive employment practice has created several issues regarding quality of life for these workers; including poor living conditions, lack of legal protection, isolation, and legal and economic factors in which they have very few tools to help them understand or combat. Additionally, foreign domestic workers typically lack knowledge about languages, culture, and law, which makes it easier for them to be exploited and less likely to find any legal recourse. including the struggle to gain self-identify in a country that is not home.

The gatherings of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong’s public spaces like Statue Square, Victoria Park and pedestrian walkways throughout the city, reflects the need that these women have to develop their own sense of identity. In the face of strict employment practices and a city that heavily relies on their labor as domestic workers, many of these women struggle to escape this role and find privacy away from their employers. “Over three decades, these women have reinvented the city to substitute their ‘home’ and by appropriation established a spatial network to foster their practical, emotional and cultural needs. The maids not only form a backbone of Hong Kong’s social and economic life: Through their forced exhibitionism they provoke a disruption of the spatial segregation and the related emerging monoculture, which has taken place through urban development in the past thirty years. The impressive scale of this event, its acoustic and visual vitality render life and soul to optimized city spaces, some of which would otherwise be dead on Sundays” (Lorenz). The gatherings of foreign domestic workers in public spaces on Sundays can be defined as a celebration of culture, tradition, and rituals.

While these public spaces offer foreign domestic workers freedom and privacy, there is still a lack of proper venues required to comfortably and safely support many of Hong Kong’s 300,000 foreign workers. “We have 330,000 maids in Hong Kong, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, and the vast majority spend six days a week with very little to no privacy in the cramped confines of their employers’ homes. They get just one day off a week – usually Sunday – and that’s when we see them amassed in Victoria Park, Chater Garden and its surrounding areas in Central, or any available public space outdoors. They sweat it out in summer and huddle together in winter on footbridges and under flyovers in undignified conditions, relishing the precious hours they get to throw off the yoke of servitude and enjoy the company of friends. And yet, to many passers-by, they’re an eyesore or a nuisance” (Can Hong Kong please put a roof over our domestic workers’ heads on their days off?). Drawing on these issues and concerns around Hong Kong’s public spaces and the capacity it has to support these women, we imagined a space that would allow them to celebrate their culture and

What if we transformed public spaces in a way that would provide a sense of empowerment and solidify self-identities for foreign domestic workers? Ultimately, we wanted to consider a spatial setup that enhances their ability to express themselves and combat the isolation and tense relationships that exist at the employer’s household. With these ideas in mind, we proposed that a community center would meet the needs of the foreign domestic workers and would give them the resources needed to help them overcome economic and societal barriers. This community center would primarily be made up of a large gathering area, including a kitchen and bathrooms. Additionally, we imagined a space for job training and language classrooms, as well as a counseling office or meditative space.

Public Identity

Identity to Employer

Self-Identity

• • • •

• • • •

• • • •

Social group Minority Community Vibrant, lively culture

Domestic worker Housekeeper Cleaner Isolation

Culture Religion Traditions Rituals

This community center would operate as a nonprofit and would receive funds either through the city government and/or fundraising initiatives from other community-based agencies. This project would start small, beginning with one community center located in an area that is most densely occupied on Sundays. Eventually, if the center was utilized and funds were available, the initiative could be expanded across the city.

Another option is to turn spaces that are already established, but under-utilized on Sundays, into a community center for the day. An example of this could be a church, school, or other community-based organization. Ultimately, the goal of our project was to identify a way to imagine a more formal spatial setup that could operate as a meaningful and productive space for these women. We believe that a community center meets this criteria, and would serve as a powerful economic and social tool for Hong Kong’s foreign domestic workers.

A Community Center Job Training Classrooms

Kitchen

Counseling Office

Gathering Area

Language Classrooms B athrooms

DESIGN PROPOSALS 54 55

identities more comfortably and safely on their only day off.

HOUSING FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS Miranda Nelson & Leonard Yang

Hong Kong is the fourth-most densely populated region in the world, with around 7.3 million Hongkongers of various nationalities in a territory of 1,104 km2. As of 2016, the number of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Hong Kong was 340,000, and FDWs accounted for 5% of Hong Kong's population.1 Under a 2003 Hong Kong law, foreign domestic workers are not permitted to opt out of their employer-provided accommodations. The initial purpose of the policy was to ensure that foreign domestic workers have no other jobs outside the home that could compete with the local Hong Kong workforce. There was a specific concern over FDWs competing with local domestic workers, but a Caritas study from 2002 found that that was unlikely.3 Also, despite the policy, many workers report that they are forced to work outside the home in employers’ place of business.4 This policy allows employers to exercise control over domestic workers in other ways too. Many workers complain that they are frequently surveilled. With 61% of workers lacking a room for their own exclusive use, it is particularly difficult for them to have any privacy from their employers.5 Moreover, 20% of FDWs report that their employers have installed closed-circuit cameras to watch them, even in bedrooms and bathrooms.6 By living in the employer’s home, employers are also able to enforce long hours, despite legal restrictions. Mission for Migrant Workers found that they are effectively on call 24 hours per day, that family members make demands on them at all hours.

They also found that many workers are not given their full weekly 24-hour rest day, but rather forced to work before or after they go out. And 45% of domestic workers report that living in their employer’s home also makes it harder for FDWs to escape abuse.7

Workers tend to work in Kowloon, the New Territories, or Central and Western2.

But the policy does benefit FDWs in some ways. Workers work long hours, so not having to commute is helpful for them.

Employers are required to provide food (though some report this food is inadequate), so they do not need to have this extra expense. And FDWs do not need to spend the time and effort to search for a home in Hong Kong’s tight housing market. Indeed, all of Hong Kong benefits by keeping FDWs off the housing market, decreasing competition for every one else looking for housing.

Several FDWs we interviewed told us that they appropriated public space on Sundays because they had no other choice. With no private space of their own, they occupy public space instead. Could we work to restore choice to these workers by providing them a place they could call their own?

With relocation of traditional Hong Kong manufacturing activities to mainland China, many industrial buildings are now vacant or underutilized. To facilitate better uses of industrial land, Hong Kong has introduced planning measures such as broadening the permissible uses in industrial buildings and rezoning industrial land for other uses.

Could we choose some of these industrial buildings which are now vacant or underutilised to create new housing for FDWs?

Vacant Industrial Spaces in Kowloon

Residential (A or E)

Other Use

Undetermined

Open Space

Gov't, Institution or Community

Industrial

Residential (B)

Green Belt

Commercial

Vacant Industrial Area

Comprehensive Development Area Residential (C)

DESIGN PROPOSALS 56 57

A survey of FDWs showed that 35% of workers would choose to live outside of their employers’ home if they could.8 And many domestic worker organizations in Hong Kong have called on the government to end the live-in law. Change could be coming: there was a lawsuit filed in Hong Kong court in October 2017 contending that this law is unconstitutional, though a Judge did rule against the domestic worker in that case.9

Multi-purpose rooms on some floors for classes, reading or other related activities.

Communal cooking in the kitchen

Social space for gathering and activities

A modular sleeping pod design will allow for more people to live together on one floor without sacrificing personal space. Amenities such as showers, lockers and washing machines allow for inhabitants to go about their day to day chores. A kitchen allows for groups of FDWs to participate in meal preparation together, facilitating social interaction.

A re will p spac the

epurposed Industrial building provide living areas and social ce on all floors as well as in Courtyard.

Example of a sleeping pod layout that allows room for personal belongings as well as laptop or electtronic device.

Land space in Hong Kong is scarce. A tessellated sleeping pod layout will allow for more occupants to live in one building without compromising quality of life and personal space.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 58 59

Our Proposed Housing Model Most organizations for domestic workers working to end the law mandating that FDWs live in the home simply call for changing the law and raising the minimum wage to allow workers to afford housing. But this approach does not take into account Hong Kong’s tight housing market, the loss of community for domestic workers, or the expense to employers.

Our approach will use underutilized industrial space, reducing the need to lease space at a premium, while improving the city by reducing the number of under-used buildings. Its modular design saves on cost, while still providing communal space for social activities. With the small amount of space proposed, many workers may still choose to live in their employers’ home. This approach simply aims to restore that choice through providing a concrete alternative living arrangement for FDWs.

AN ‘OTHER’ SUNDAY

Maria Chung, Lin Zeng, Boroka Kopacz, Janis Kinasts, Tianyue Hou

In a commerce-oriented city like Hong Kong where natural resources are limited, human resources become the most invaluable primary source of economic growth.

Domestic workers are therefore indispensable to the success of the economy despite their poor treatment and poor social perception. Sundays are more than just one day off, they are symbolic of something far more valuable-- they are a time to gather and socialize with friends and [chosen] family, attend mass, and to partake in activities (i.e. makeovers, dance, trade, etc.). What was evident from that Sunday is that there is a strong sense of community, however, there is also a sense of division among the Filipinas and the Indonesians, who are the two most predominant ethnic groups of domestic workers who make up the 332,000 women.

The Filipinas are primarily situated in Central Square, close to the catholic church while the Indonesians are dispersed throughout Kowloon Park near the mosques.

The objective of this Other Sunday is to provide a new kind of framework, dialogue or bring to light a narrative for these two rather distinctly different ethnic groups of women to come together on one stage what would otherwise only be discussed amongst their separate communities. Instead of having separate stages as it is now, the vision for the Other Sunday is to find alternative days that are not just limited to Sunday but aligned with holidays to allow for this alternative Sunday to take place and in alternative locations such as night markets and community centers. Through this rendering of a stage, there would be a sense of empowerment through storytelling. This alternative model aims to be a driver for bringing certain issues to light and the domestic workers out of hiding. The concept of a stage or an alternative sunday lies both in practice and in theory to build strong new relationships and to re-write histories rather than to remain complacent with what has emerged.

How can a design help the domestic workers to have their voices heard and to dignify their cultural identity in Hong Kong? From a preliminary research as well as the Sunday field work at the Central area, we found that the domestic workers like to openly celebrate their culture by various activities such as food sharing, traditional and pop dancing, costume dress-up and make-up etc. They like to gather in groups, either big or small. Some of them might find talking to friends a way to relieve stress, some of them use this only day off to pursue their own passions, and to learn new skills.

We also evaluate the concept of ‘alternative’ for our proposition both temporally and geographically. Thus we provoke the idea of Sunday and seek alternative solutions such as the other public holidays, and other locations closer to the local community, so they can access more easily and frequently.

Therefore we come to a hypothetical concept of a moving theater that can be constructed by daily modular objects. It also possesses the quality of mobility and weatherproofing. The daily material we use need to be cheap, easy to shape and are reusable. From our observation to what the domestic workers use to make place, such material can include cardboards, shower curtains, bed sheets, umbrellas and be tied together with ropes. They can be made into shades of the theatre, division of space, seatings for the audience or even vehicular carriers with help of bicycles for the transportation.

Origami paper folding is another

DESIGN PROPOSALS 60 61

There are many excellent examples of community theaters where they provide a congregated space for people to tell their stories, to discuss upon a social topic, or simply to have their voices heard, either personally, culturally or politically. Storytelling are proven to have therapeutic effects on people’s psychological well being, which in turn bring in positive energy to a community. Such form of theatrical congregation for expression may refer to Theater of the Oppressed elaborated in 1970s, where theaters are used to promote social and political change. In the Theatre of the Oppressed, the audience becomes active players when they explore, show, analyse and transform the reality in which they are living. Other community-driven facilities we referred to are the transformative architecture in the public space that could engage the public to play and change, by which they express their intuitive needs. Therefore a space of gathering becomes a space of creating. In the case of the domestic workers, how they appropriate the public space with the dailyobjects may represent their voices of what they need. This also inspires us to design the modular facilities in the public space that is flexible enough for the domestic workers to assemble and disassemble themselves.

inspirations we have, as to how the theater can be covered and disassembled quickly.

In addition to the form of theater, programs in space that can motivate engagement are the center of our proposal. Our goal is not only to create bonding within the domestic worker communities, but also engaging the larger local community or tourists to participate, making this an event that is worths celebrating. By studying the SelfDetermination Theory, we aim to turn extrinsic motivation to intrinsic, that is to turn the motivating factors from desire for an outcome to simply enjoying the process itself. We evaluate the existing activities taking place at the most common locations, and classified them in commercial services, leisure and learning, then propose new programs such as drama, concerts, seminars, and material recycling collection for sustainable use by other communities. Series of mapping are also produced to select the geographical location where the moving theater will stop by periodically and in cycles over time, based on analysis of open parklands where this population mostly reside. In a mixed pattern of motivated programs, we hope to perpetuate their interests and provide them a real stage to express through performance, to empower themselves by exchanging and showcasing their skills, and to stand out against social injustice. In making it into a festive event, we also draw a timeline of programs we try to integrate in the moving theater, per both one-year and ten-year perspectives.

Through this new kind of design thinking and methodology the aim is to contribute to a new kind of social practice of inclusion. Through trial and error this practice or experiment with an alternative sunday would at the most minimal level a study that tests practical outcomes for integrating domestic workers in the public light.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 62 63

NEGOTIATING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPACES: BOUNDARIES, PRIVACY, AND MOBILITY

Yushan Zheng, Xianming Ma, Sailing Yang, Lihui Zhong, Eliane Matthias, Katherine Dillard Gonzalez

Public spaces are typically those areas that are commonly shared and open to all people. In the context of this project, we examined the private uses of public space as proxy for reclaiming private space that is not available to foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong as a result of the requirement to live with their employer.

The primary questions that were considered include: • What happens when public space becomes private because work space is someone else’s private space?

• What is the function and purpose of space for families, workers, and the community at large?

• How do people in Hong Kong feel about the appropriation of the space by foreign domestic workers?

Private space not only involves the appropriation of the physical environment, but also refers to the individual’s understanding of the perimeter considered private. The following image provides further understanding of the elements involved.

PUBLIC SPACE SOCIAL SPACE PERSONAL SPACE

INTIMATE SPACE 1.5 ft2

4 ft2

12 ft2 25 ft2

1. A family in the Philippines chooses to send the wife to work as a foreign domestic worker in Hong Kong, thus leaving the private space of the home.

2. The worker now lives in her work space and no longer has access to a private space.

3. The public space becomes the worker’s private space during her day off on Sunday. In this space, activities that are typically conducted within one’s home, are conducted in public. Such activities include cooking, dancing, spending time with friends and family, and shopping.

4. The public space is also used as a retail opportunity to buy and sell goods, as well as ship items back to the country of origin for consumption or private enterprise.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 64 65

As a result of the absence of private enterprise in the areas of childcare and elder care available across Hong Kong, the need to employ foreign domestic workers to assist in the home to meet these needs. In addition, the cost of living in Hong Kong often requires dual-income households to maintain affordability. These workers, therefore, fill these roles within the traditional private sphere of the home. The following image explores the shifting purpose and utilization of space.

In considering the fluidity of space, experiencing intimacy involves emotional and physical closeness, while engaging one another through empathy, understanding, and compassion. In the absence of community and family as experienced at home, foreign domestic workers recreate this experience by gathering in public spaces. The environments created mimic private enclosures to enhance the experience of these new relationships. The classification of public and private space in this context is what allows for this fluidity in what was once considered concrete. The following list illustrates such dynamic.

The expansion of public space within Hong Kong’s Central Business District can provide additional areas for utilization by all city residents. The geography of the Philippines has a central water feature as a result of the clusters of islands that comprise this county. In considering the design for additional public space, the purpose was to integrate a familiar element for foreign domestic workers to spatially feel closer to home. As such, the creation of floating platforms in Hong Kong harbor provides the following advantages: 1. Utilization of available waterways 2. Increased land value in the Central Business District 3. Expansion of available space for civic use The limited availability of public space throughout Hong Kong, coupled with the policy that requires foreign domestic workers to be housed in their employer’s home, creates an environment that limits the options for these workers to maintain their own identities within their own private spaces.

As such, the following policy recommendations are offered for further consideration: • Engage the various communities that comprise foreign domestic workers to determine if the living arrangements should be revised • Increase the requirements for public space allocations across Hong Kong and the New Territories • Increase the availability and accessibility of affordable housing options • Explore alternative solutions for the visa process for foreign domestic workers to limit the potential for abuse

DESIGN PROPOSALS 66 67

BUILDING SUPPORTIVE ECOSYSTEMS FOR FOREIGN DOMESTIC WORKERS Tim Nottage, Ilana Steenkamp, Saijal Sharma, Mai Qinxin

Based on our research of the legal restrictions, working conditions, and appropriation of public space by Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs), we identified one potential sphere of intervention: connecting existing actors and groups by creating an ecosystem of people and places, both online and through physical spaces. This requires a complex logistical framework, connecting existing organizing efforts and elevating them through exposure and acknowledgment.

We pose this question: what if we were to create cooperatives of skill-sharing among immigrants and Foreign Domestic Workers? Our objectives and design criteria in developing these cooperative workshops are that they: 1. Humanize domestic workers and transcend their one-dimensional identity in the public sphere, 2. Enhance the knowledge and skill sets of foreign domestic workers, Hong Kong residents, and other immigrant groups, enriching their lives, and 3. Strengthen social networks in civil society space, being accessible to all or most, especially those with serious constraints on time and money.

The primary resources available to make this happen already exist: the social ties among Foreign Domestic Workers and their embodied expert knowledge. The content of the skill-sharing workshops relies on the specific experiences of the individuals.

It is not hard to imagine classes incorporating music and dance, personal stories and experiences, cooking skills, coding, language or financial literacy, textiles, art, or crafting. By adapting the content to the desires and abilities of Foreign Domestic Workers, they are humanized and respected as complex individuals with diverse backgrounds and life experiences beyond their employment.

Public Parks, Plazas, and Amphitheatres

SUPPORTING POPULATIONS

Hong Kong Locals

Universities

Students Artists

Filipina Foreign Domestic Workers

Cooperative Skillshare events, led by Foreign Domestic Workers

NGOs

(Justice Centre Hong Kong, DWEP)

Religious Institutions Other Immigrants Domestic Worker Labor Unions: PLU, IDWF

Indonesian Foreign Domestic Workers

Overseas Family

Drawing on the local ecosystem, the skill-sharing workshops will be run by and for the workers - although some may be open to Hong Kong residents and other immigrant groups - and supported by the resources of NGOs, universities, religious institutions, activist organizations and The primary resources available to make this happen already exist: the social ties among Foreign Domestic Workers, and their embodied expert knowledge. The content of the skill-sharing workshops relies on the specific experiences of the individuals. It is not hard to imagine classes incorporating music and dance, personal stories and experiences, cooking skills, coding, language or financial literacy, textiles, art, or crafting. By adapting the content to the desires and abilities of Foreign Domestic Workers, they are humanized and respected as complex individuals with diverse backgrounds and life experiences beyond their employment.

Everyone can contribute in proportion to their resources, needs, and ability. These skill-sharing workshops could manifest in a variety of spatial environments: university campuses, houses of worship, public arcades, plazas, gardens, and parks, community centers, and even through cyberspace.

Our intentions are to remove social barriers between different groups that may be spatially segregated along lines of class, gender, ethnicity, and immigration status, to enhance the quality of life and increase the visibility of domestic workers in a way that supports and celebrates their contribution to Hong Kong’s culture and economy. This would be done by hosting programming skill-sharing workshops and events in public and private spaces throughout the city; here, domestic workers will have opportunities to improve social ties.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 68 69

PROTAGONISTS CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS AND SPACES

Scenario 1: "Connect" App A free app could be developed that would offer options for blog writing, event scheduling, and online correspondence for skill-sharing workshops. The app could potentially help social groups collaborate on or find skill-sharing opportunities they wouldn’t regularly be exposed to. Users might offer and enroll in online courses that they would participate in throughout the day. The framework of the app would be responsive to the needs of its users; as such, input from Foreign Domestic Workers would be necessary in the development and testing stages.

Scenario 2: Cooking Class On Traditional Filipino Cuisine Other scenarios would involve collaborations in physical space. One scenario could be a cooking class on traditional Filipino cuisine, led by Filipina domestic workers, and attended by Filipinas, Indonesians, Hong Kong locals, and Bangladeshi immigrants.

Funding for food and supplies comes from local NGOs, and facilities could be provided by a University. The weekly event lasts 3 months, with a new dish being prepared each week; social networks are improved among and between immigrant groups and locals.

Other Immigrants

Universities

Filipina Foreign Domestic Workers

Cooperative Skillshare events, led by Foreign Domestic Workers

NGOs

(Justice Centre Hong Kong, DWEP)

Hong Kong Locals

Public Parks, Plazas, and Amphitheatres

Artists

Hong Kong Locals

Overseas Family

Indonesian Foreign Domestic Workers

Cooperative Skillshare events, led by Foreign Domestic Workers

Scenario 4: Gamelan Orchestra from Java In yet another scenario, a local NGO hosts a gamelan orchestra from Java, a wayang puppet theatre performance, and a Balinese dance troupe to perform free or low-cost concerts for domestic workers at a local amphitheatre; free tickets are distributed through houses of worship that serve FDWs. The costs of such a performance series could be offset by charging admission to wealthier locals, who may see these performances on nights when FDWs would have to work. Or, performances could use a pay-what-you-can structure; however, our design recommendations prioritize free events specifically catered to FDWs. It is incredibly important that the utmost care should be spent prioritizing the needs of FDWs in these skill-share workshops, and that because FDWs are legally restricted from working outside their host family, an in-depth consideration of what FDWs have to gain and what forms of non-monetary compensation they might be able to receive for their time and labor is necessary. Our design recommendations are meant to serve these communities, not exploit them. With intentional dialogue and meaningful collaboration, these skill-sharing workshops could expand the social connections and public realm of Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong in a way that is deeply respectful and celebrates their humanity.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 70 71

Scenario 3: Batik Clothing Workshop and Art Installation Another scenario might involve a skillshare workshop on traditional Batik clothing that inspires an art installation in Central; the artist invites Indonesian domestic workers to pose in traditional Batik costumes from home, and the portraits are printed and displayed throughout the pedestrian walkways of the city, with plaques noting the contribution of Indonesian domestic workers to Hong Kong’s vitality and economy.

Hong Kong’s residents would gain beautiful art in public spaces. The installation could be installed at any time of year.

ON AIR: A CENTRALIZED STORY ARCHIVE AND TOOL FOR DOMESTIC WORKER MOVEMENTS

Geraldine Kang Siew Lm, Andrew Strong, Tan Shi Hu, Luo Bing, Wang Yi Xia, Lauma Kokoreviča

Appropriation of public space by the foreign domestic worker (FDW) community is an active and self-affirming response to underlying inequitable conditions. Improving the structures that reinforce these conditions requires a cultural shift that would then lead to change in policies and behaviors. Imposing suggestions for ways of re-organizing within these sites does not help shift mentalities and also undermines the political agency domestic workers and their support networks have claimed in these spaces. We consider radio and online platforms as another kind of potential public space with the opportunity for central communication channels in which to amplify the personal stories as well as discover and share resources that are being communicated in pockets in physical space. Such a platform serves as a complement to present forms of organization in public space and bridges disparate groups within the domestic worker community.

We propose the development of a recording process to collect stories in the moments of these social exchanges on Sundays when people are coming together. These stories can range from personal anecdotes, songs, or poetry, to promoting stories that resonate as shared experiences or opportunities to seek out resources and assistance.

These stories will then be organized and archived, made accessible on a mobile app as a tool for social empowerment. In an interview, Ma Zai shared the platform’s benefits in “[assisting] foreign domestic workers in terms of exchange of useful information, promotion and education on their own rights, and organizing them as a collective to have a bigger voice, as well as get echoes from other fellow foreign domestic workers who share the same ideas, leading to the opportunity in building solidarity.”

Components of the “On Air” Program 1. “On Air” Booths in Public Spaces for Recording A system of creating and managing recording booths that are either mobile or easily set up and taken down will be developed. These booths will be operated in partnership with existing organizations that have built a rapport within communities across Hong Kong; connecting the various sites of appropriation. The space will be accessible for domestic workers to voluntarily and anonymously share their stories, experiences, and resources.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 72 73 The FDW community is fractured because of limitations in public space, language barriers, cultural differences, and derogatory assumptions. The creation of an archive and story-sharing platform will help to highlight shared experience, increase empathy, and build solidarity. Additionally, it will help to extend the reach of existing resources.

Sundays are an important day to host these recording events because it meets domestic workers where they are without asking too much more of their already limited time and capitalizes on the community orientation already created in these moments of claiming space for themselves in the city.

A system of creating and managing recording booths that are either mobile or easily set up and taken down will be developed. These booths will be operated in partnership with existing organizations that have built a rapport within communities across Hong Kong; connecting the various sites of appropriation. The space will be accessible for domestic workers to voluntarily and anonymously share their stories, experiences, and resources.

Sundays are an important day to host these recording events because it meets domestic workers where they are without asking too much more of their already limited time and capitalizes on the community orientation already created in these moments of claiming space for themselves in the city.

2. App/Archive for Access to Stories The act of asking to record one’s story and preserve them is an affirmation of experience and opens opportunities to share. It has the potential to bridge divides by identifying shared experience and acts as a tool to access advice, support, and and organizations that already have the tools and mechanisms in place to address need

The recording booths will set up at primary sites of public space appropriation by domestic workers around the central neighborhoods of Hong Kong.

but struggle to reach those who need these services.

3. Interaction with Existing Organizations Currently there are two existing radio platforms that cater specifically to the FDW community: Pinoy Life, which is held weekly on Sundays between 4-6pm, and Mission for Migrant Workers' collaboration with Metro radio, which occurs on a monthly basis for a 2-3 hour broadcast. The content of the Pinoy Philippine FDWs in HK, lifestyle interests like cooking and beauty skincare, as well as interviews with politically informed allies. The Metro sessions are typically a mixture of invited speakers and call-ins from the FDW seeking advice on matters.

We plan to build partnerships with these existing platfforms, identifying points for collaboration and extending the reach of the personal stories. One possibility might be that the mobile booth recordings for each week be centeresed aroun a theme relating to the week's radio content on these platforms. Another might be to have the archive as a place from which these stations can currate content. We anticipate that whatever is recorded and shared need not be necessarily stories about problems - they could be poetry or comical antedotes as well, based on what people feel compelled to share.

Implementation and Concerns To implement On Air as a platform, we see the need to first identify an appropriate vehicle design that is mobile enough for the booth to weave in and out of these tight pockets of organized spaces between people, but also capable of supporting decent recording equipment. This could be a modified mototbike with a sidecar that has a

In order to partner successfully with radio stations, a smooth liaison flow has to be established with an efficient method of pre-empting the themes for radio, and then also getting the recordings to the radio studio to air in time for their programs. And most of all we need to think about which Organisations or sources of funds are most appropriate and available to see this through in the long term.

One of the key challenges we anticipate is designing an interface that can accommodate the diverse array of languages amongst different nationalities of domestic workers. Although social reach and greater integration within Hong Kong are important goals, we also have to determine the levels of public and private access within different sections in the app for safety and other social reasons.

The collected stories and resources will be organized as an archive that can then be accessed through a mobile app. Users can browse through or search for specific stories and resources based on categories or subject matter.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 74 75

signboard and some recording tools. And of course we need to find someone to man the vehicles and DJs or volunteers to work the crowd and encourage people to come forward and record their voice.For the app we require a team to design and code an approachable interface that can accommodate sophisticated tagging and search functions for users to be able to find relevant stories and other forms of information. We are also concerned with the maintenance of the platform and needing to come up with a trajectory for the app's evolution of features.

OBJECTS OF DOMESTICATION

Jianfan Lin, Fabienne Hierzer, Vivian Ke Jiawei, Liang Xiucheng, Zhang Jingwen

Scanned by CamScanner Infrastructure of Domestication On Sunday, we observed that domestic workers turned massive public space into their domestic space. From the observation, we found that they were not only simply creating a space, but they were also taking the advantage of the public infrastructure.

To create their own space, they brought in objects such as umbrella, cardboard, blankets etc. Also we found out that the public infrastructure they used and the objects they brought were directly correlating to their activities.

Our project investigated the following key questions: 1. What is infrastructure in common sense?

by CamScanner 2. What are the objects domestic worker brought Scanned in to create private space?

3. What are the activities (social process) that connect the infrastructure and objects?

Scanned

by CamScanner Scanned

by CamScanner 4. A design that can help them interact both infrastructure and object better.

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Infrastructure ˈɪnfrəstrʌktʃə/

The basic physical structures that are essential to a society / group. Structures that are always there and people can rely on.

Sanitary infrastructure, spatial infrastucture, transport infrastructure,...

What does infrastructure mean to us?

Physical Found: - buildings - roofing - public space

Social Brought in: - card board - umbrellas - blankets - curtains

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community language music rituals

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events dance religion trade

What are the common social processes we found?

Micro Economies

Defining Society

Defining Territory

- services (manicure, massage,...)

- selling goods - trading goods - shipping goods

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singing dancing giving speaches rituals celebrations games

building shelters playing music choosing specific locations speaking different languages /accents

Singing PHONE BOOTH

BUS STATION

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS BAGS

MUSIC STAND

SPEAKER

SINGING

DESIGN PROPOSALS 76 77

What is infrastructure in a common sense?

Lunch

HANDRAIL

CARDBOARD SHEET (AS COVER FOR PRIVATE)

COOLER (AS REFRIGERATOR)

PLASTIC CUTLERY

CARDBOARD BOX (AS TRASH BIN)

CARDBOARD BOX (AS TABLE) OWN DRINKS (AS OWN WATER SYSTEM)

PAVEMENT

LUNCH

What if the physical found infrastructure that the workers rely on was no longer disponsible for them?

The Base Satisfying demand for physical infrastructure elements

DESIGN PROPOSALS 78 79

Structure for Privacy

Add-ons Personalization for the backpack

singing

lunch

embroidery

NEW HONGKONGERS' FESTIVAL

Emily Sloss, Matt Spanarkel, Liang Xiucheng, Hannah Ke, Joy He Mengyang On Sundays you’ll find many of Hong Kong’s 300,000 foreign domestic workers gathered in public spaces like Statue Square, Victoria Park and pedestrian walkways throughout the city. Walking through these spaces you’ll notice many women doing each other’s makeup and hair, making costumes and practicing dance routines, which are often times in preparation for beauty pageants. For many years now, beauty pageants have been a popular Sunday activity for the Filipina community and they rely on an extensive network of women to plan, organize, prep, and participate in these competitions.

Thes pageants are impressive in their size and formality, given the women’s limited free time and small budgets. They are largely self-organized but are often sponsored by corporations trying to sell products or services to the Filipina population. The women see the pageants as an important space to make friends, build social networks and make business connections. Participating in the pageants, whether as a contestant, a photographer, a makeup artist or other organizing role, is important for the women to identify as something other than a housekeeper or caretaker1. Six days a week they have a singular identity as an employee but on Sundays they are able to have a more complex and self-enterprising identity. In their jobs, there is little opportunity for upward mobility, but the pageants give the women something to work towards and the opportunity to be recognized by their community for their achievements.

While these events are seen as fun and as generally empowering by the women participating, they can be exclusive of the more conservative or religious women, in particular the Muslim Indonesian community. Additional criticisms of the pageants include their primary valuation of physical beauty, their expensive nature and the false hope that winning the pageants will change employment prospects for the contestants.

We imagine a public event that embraces the positive values of the beauty pageants but is more inclusive of a shared Hongkonger identity. The New Hongkongers Festival would be an annual celebration of the diversity of cultures within the city, showcasing a variety of events including sporting events, dance and music performances, cooking competitions and more. The festival would still include a beauty pageant because it is important to the domestic worker community, but by expanding to more diverse range of event options, more women would be able to participate and demonstrate their skills and talents.

Many of these imagined festival events already occur informally on a weekly basis.

These weekly events would culminate into one annual festival which would serve as a showcase of personal achievement as well as cultural exchange. The festival would still be largely self-organized by the Filipina and Indonesian communities, allowing domestic

The New Hongkongers Festival would take place in public parks throughout the city where the women already gather. Signage and written text for the festival would be in Filipino, Indonesian, English, Cantonese and any other popularly spoken language amongst the domestic workers. The materiality of the festival spaces would be comprised primarily of cardboard and the iconic red-white-blue bags native to Hong Kong, both of which are already associated with domestic workers appropriation of public space as well as being affordable and abundant. Modular cardboard tiles with a slotted design can be used to create a variety of structures including seating, tables, platforms, signage and information kiosks. This design makes structures easy to put together and take apart as well as being lightweight and portable.

The New Honkongers Festival would use modular cardboard tiles with a slotted deisgn, which would allow them to be stacked in order to create everything from seating to displays.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 80 81

workers of different backgrounds to work together to create something they are proud of, as well as strengthen the network of domestic workers, regardless of country of origin. On Sundays, the Filipina, Indonesian and local Hong Kong populations are visibly segregated in public spaces. By creating a more formal, public festival, it would hopefully create an intentional space for the domestic worker and local Hong Kong populations to mix and interact as neighbors rather than as employer and employee.

Performances such as dancing and singing celebrate both tradtional and modern culture.

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New Hongkongers Festival is an imagined annual festival hosted by migrant domestic workers to build important social networks across ethnic groups, celebrate their traditional and modern cultures, and establish their identities as something other than housekeepers.

Cooking competitions would allow women to prepare foods from home that they might not usually get to cook or eat.

Sporting events like volleyball, which is already a popular Sunday activity, value teamwork and cooperation while still demonstrating personal skills.

DESIGN PROPOSALS 82 83

Beauty pageants are an important part of domestic workers' social lives and networks, giving the women an identity beyond housekeepers.

FRAMEWORK

Alexis Chagaris, Isela Lopez, Nora Gavare, Sherry Zhao, Hanwei Ru, Jiangxin Wen

When foreign domestic workers spend their day off in public squares around Central, they appropriate space through the implementation of domestic elements such as umbrellas and cardboard boxes. The women use these elements to create temporary spaces that create a sense of unity. Each shelter is as unique as the group that occupies it, although there is a lot of common ground and sharing between groups.

The lines start to blur where one “shelter” ends and another one begins. Throughout the day the women share stories, food, beauty products and entertainment. They practice dance routines and do each other’s hair and nails while surrounded by friends, food and other treats in celebration of their day off.

We became really interested in this change of space phenomenon and the contradiction between the flexible and concrete arrangements of space and shelter.

While each element of shelter is different, they served similar functions. They typically need to be easy to move and multifunctional. They may be different sizes but should be flat or open. They create barriers or a place to rest or eat, but most of all they define a temporary space.

Our design intervention is to implement these modular elements that work along with an app as a tool to self-organize and create a network where the women can find anything they need. The elements can be arranged in many ways to accommodate their need whether it is a staged space to put on a dance performance or a shelter to gather and learn a new skill. The app aids in mapping out these constructed spaces so the women can search for and find a dance group or even a government sponsored language or reading class.

Workers' Sunday Activities Foreign domestic workers appropriate public space as their own temporary private space, where they engage in trading, cooking, and many kinds of entertainment on Sundays. We investigated how the workers spend their time on Sundays.

Redesign of Activity

DESIGN PROPOSALS 84 85

Locations for Framework

Framework is a modular system and phone app that facilitates the appropriation of public space so that foreign domestic workers have the proper tools to improve themselves and unite their community.

Phone app allows workers to self-organize and create a network where they can find anything they need on Sundays

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INDIVIDUAL USE

PERFORMANCE BACKDROP

GROUP LEARNING

TEACHING TOOL

SHELTER

COOKING SHELTER

The modular system contains elemenets that can be arranged in many ways to accommodate their needs

DESIGN PROPOSALS 86 87 Performance Backdrop

Privacy

Group Learning

INITIAL RESEARCH Tracing Class Lines Through Public Space 1 Lai, Corrine. "Unopened Space: Mapping Equitable Availability of Open Space in Hong Kong” Civic Exchange, Feb 2017.

2 Yau, Cannix and Zhou, Viola. "Wealth gap in Hong Kong hits record high.” South China Morning Post” June 9, 2017.

3 “Hong Kong 2030+: Towards a Planning Vision and Strategy Transcending 2030.”

October 2016.

4 Lai, Corrine.

5 Min Kok, Lee. “Dubbed ‘the best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong’s MTR rail system.” The Straits Times. Oct 29 2015.

6 Padukeone, Neil. "The Unique Genius of Hong Kong's Public Transportation System."

The Atlantic. Sep 10 2013.

Foreign Domestic Workers and Organized Appropriations of Public Space 1 Liang, Chenyu. “Maid in Hong Kong: Protecting Foreign Domestic Workers.” Migration Policy Institute. October 20 2016.

2 “Coming Clean: The Prevalence Of Forced Labour And Human Trafficking For The Purpose Of Forced Labour Amongst Migrant Domestic Workers In Hong Kong.” Justice Centre Hong Kong. March 2018.

3 “Foreign Domestic Helpers | Immigration Department.” Immigration Department Website. 2018.

4 “Labour Department - Policy Support.” Labour Department Website. 2018.

5 “Foreign domestic helpers and evolving care duties in Hong Kong.” Legislative Council Secretariat. Research Brief Issue No. 4 2016 – 2017.

Organized Occupation of Public Space in Hong Kong 1 Dapiran, Antony. “City of Protest: A Recent History of Dissent in Hong Kong.” Penguin Books China, 2017.

2 Ibid.

3 Ng, Ellie. "Hong Kong lawyers to hold silent march over Beijing's decision to intervene in LegCo oath row." Hong Kong Free Press. Nov 4 2016.

4 Ibid.

5 The live-in rule legally mandates that foreign domestic workers live with their employers.

There have been exceptions where employers find separate accommodations for their employees, but this is a rare occurrence as most middle class employers cannot or will not afford additional rent.

6 The minimum wage was increased by a mere HK$100 to HK$4,410 on 17 September 2017.

7 Blundy, Rachel. "Hong Kong's domestic workers march through city to call for 27.6% wage rise, as concerns mount over recent deaths." South China Morning Post. Sep 3 2017.

8 Singh, Harminder. "Hong Kong domestic helpers march to demand stronger legal protection against abuse." South China Morning Post. Dec 18 2017.

9 Pang, Jun. "Domestic workers express solidarity at Hong Kong's march against democracy activist jailings." Hong Kong Free Press. Aug 21 2017.

"Social Welfare Support Services for Street Sleepers.” Government of Hong Kong

Special Administrative Region’s Social Welfare Department.

DESIGN PROPOSALS Identities & Public Space 1 Lhatoo, Yonden. “Can Hong Kong Please Put a Roof over Our Domestic Helpers’ Heads on Their Days off?” South China Morning Post. Aug 25 2015.

2

Lorenz, Esther. “Service Space.” Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009.

Housing For Domestic Workers 1

Liang, Chenyu.

2

Mission for Migrant Workers. “Pictures from the Inside.” May 9, 2017

3

Caritas Hong Kong. “Survey Results For Live-in Rule On FDH.” Community

Development Service, Asian Migrant Workers Social Service Project, 28 March 2002 4

Mission for Migrant Workers, “Live-in policy increase female FDW’s vulnerability to

various types of abuse.” April 30 2013.

5

Mission for Migrant Workers 2017.

6

Mission for Migrant Workers 2013.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9

Siu, Jasmine & Lau, Chris. “Judge quashes domestic helper’s bid for change to ‘live-

in’ rule in Hong Kong.” South China Morning Post. Feb 14 2018.

IMAGE CREDITS Cover Isela Lopez, 6 Tim Nottage, 10-17 Isela Lopez, 18-29 Miodrag Mitrasinovic, 30-31 Tim Nottage, 32 Leonard Yang, 34 Leonard Yang, 35 Emily Sloss, 37 http://www.fb.com/ decentsleep 38 Tim Nottage & Lin Zeng, 40 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/ silent-06272014145550.html/hk-lawyers-june2014.gif/@@images/b31ea20a, 41 https://www. flickr.com/photos/29418416@ N08/15292823014, 42 http://hongkongnews.com.hk/wp-content/ uploads/2017/03/OBRcropped.jpg, 44-47 Alexis Chagaris, Isela lopez, Fabienne Hierzer, Jianfan Lin, 48-51 Reegan Brown, Elaine Matthias, Katherine Dillard Gonzalez, 52-53 Lin Zeng, 5859 Leonard Yang, 60-63 Maria Chung, Lin Zeng, Boroka Kopacz, Janis Kinasts, Tianyue Hou, 65-67 Yushan Zheng, Xianming Ma, Sailing Yang, Lihui Zhong, Eliane Matthias, Katherine Dillard Gonzalez 68-71 Tim Nottage, Ilana Steenkamp, Saijal Sharma, Mai Qinxin, 72-75 Geraldine Kang Siew Lm, Andrew Strong, Tan Shi Hu, Luo Bing, Wang Yi Xia, Lauma Kokoreviča, 76-79 Jianfan Lin, Fabienne Hierzer, Vivian Ke Jiawei, Liang Xiucheng, Zhang Jingwen 81 Matt Sparnakle, 82-83 Liang Xiucheng, 85-87 Alexis Chagaris, Isela Lopez, Nora Gavare, Sherry Zhao, Hanwei Ru, Jiangxin Wen

88 89

1

ENDNOTES

Municipal, Private & Civil Society Organizations Addressing Public Space