Urban regeneration and production of space: death and life of the Central Police Station compound

Abstract

This dissertation studies the negotiated space of urban regeneration in Hong Kong through an investigation into the dynamics among the government, citizen, and the contingent local context. Hong Kong is a city where changes and transformations happen frequently and mingle with various sectors, and these changes have been influential to the practice and objectives of urban regeneration. Urban regeneration in Hong Kong has long been criticized as economy-led and physically-focused; there was also projects which received vigorous disagreement from the people; the government initiated to carry out public consultation practices, but the effects were regarded as bureaucratic and tokenistic. Not until recent years, the strength of the civil voices and actions has successfully led to a change in the authority’s attitude in spatial treatment. Given this background, this dissertation asks how the process of urban regeneration has changed, why it changed, and ultimately, what we can learn from the changes. To better answer these questions, the dramatic development process of Central Police Station Compound (CPSC) is taken as a case study. The original commercial plan to redevelop the declared monuments of CPSC was replaced by a better welcomed and acknowledged revitalization plan after a series of civic activities. The transition is a visualization of the gap between the conception of the producer of space, and the lived experience of the user of space. Analyzed with a theoretical framework built upon Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theories and the concepts of urban regeneration, it is found that the missing comprehension between the government and the people rooted the struggles and conflicts during the course of development. At the end, it is argued that a truly sustainable urban regeneration is made possible only by the healthy dynamics among the government and citizen, both of whom should continuously make separate but complementary efforts.