Jacqueline Heggli

Staying Grounded: Reconnecting to the Ground on Hong Kong Island

Increasingly prioritised for vehicles and development, Hong Kong Island’s experience of 'ground' is rapidly deteriorating. What little open space is available has become disjointed, detached and forgotten. Citizens are increasingly experiencing space encased underground through an extensive train network or above ground from building to building - a disconnect from topography and the external world.

Beginning with a focus on walkability, this thesis explores how the reorientation and reconnection of space can reveal valuable areas of open space, an improved pedestrian experience and an awareness of ‘ground’.

Spatial and experiential explorations revealed the lost potential of Happy Valley as a site of historical, social and ecological significance.

Working with strategies of reconnection, wayfinding and exposure, this design offers a new connected pedestrian experience linking the Hong Kong Cemetery, the Happy Valley Recreation Grounds and the city.

Through design interventions such as a new pedestrian underpass, wayfinding cues and the exposure of underlying geology, this project combines function and experience to expose the extraordinary history of the site to the people of Hong Kong.