Inhabiting the Street-Scale: A Visual Analysis of Public Space Inhabitation in Tokyo and Hong Kong

Research and visual analysis of the urban fabric in two East Asian metropolises, focusing on the inhabitation of urban public spaces at a human scale, photographed and drawn in detail from a ground-up perspective in the summer of 2024. 12 cases from 3 sites are surveyed in total, namely Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong, and Shimokitazawa and Nakano in Tokyo. The research lightly discusses the history of policies and chosen sites, and how specific conditions of architecture and urbanism developed through time there. Authored by Chung Kwan Chak Christopher and Tang Chun Hei Isaac in 2024, both in their final year of undergraduate architecture at the University of Hong Kong. This research stems from an interest in how street-scale architecture and design shape the use of public urban spaces by daily users, developing through an architectural exercise of drawing and photography. Received research support from the University of Hong Kong's Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant (TDLEG), through the University's Faculty of Architecture.