Real Image, Fake Estate
Esther Lorenz
The real estate development in Hong Kong operates on the basis of heavily manipulated, embellished information about residential property on sale. Although some moderation measures have been initiated recently in response to apparent absurdities, the principal operation mechanisms of the market remain intact. Housing as a commodity is judged according to two criteria: saleable area and mediated image. As a consequence, the desirability of living space is not created by its architectural qualities, but by the image through which it is advertised and by which its exorbitant market value is testified. Theming and advertising per se are not specific to Hong Kong’s housing market, but Hong Kong’s unique political and economic constitution has created a monopoly of developers with the power to invent trends and demands which impact the urban landscape and the compositional logic of typologies. The image mediated by promotional materials, as well as by the building itself in the form of thematic zones, surfaces, and services, creates the background for a reconstituted lifestyle, which stands vis-à-vis a predominating standard design for the apartments. Private residential buildings in Hong Kong have become the prime example for simulation. This study examines the status of design between the poles of the provision of housing and the mechanisms of the market, from the perspective of image creation and consumption. It investigates processes of advertisement and purchase in the property market, as well as the elements which constitute the image of space on sale. These processes are juxtaposed with the actual built reality, the “estate”, and the parameters that shape it. The study’s findings help locate the cultural and financial forces of urban transformation in Hong Kong, and reveal some of the underlying values which constitute design culture.
Read the full paper here.
Esther Lorenz
The real estate development in Hong Kong operates on the basis of heavily manipulated, embellished information about residential property on sale. Although some moderation measures have been initiated recently in response to apparent absurdities, the principal operation mechanisms of the market remain intact. Housing as a commodity is judged according to two criteria: saleable area and mediated image. As a consequence, the desirability of living space is not created by its architectural qualities, but by the image through which it is advertised and by which its exorbitant market value is testified. Theming and advertising per se are not specific to Hong Kong’s housing market, but Hong Kong’s unique political and economic constitution has created a monopoly of developers with the power to invent trends and demands which impact the urban landscape and the compositional logic of typologies. The image mediated by promotional materials, as well as by the building itself in the form of thematic zones, surfaces, and services, creates the background for a reconstituted lifestyle, which stands vis-à-vis a predominating standard design for the apartments. Private residential buildings in Hong Kong have become the prime example for simulation. This study examines the status of design between the poles of the provision of housing and the mechanisms of the market, from the perspective of image creation and consumption. It investigates processes of advertisement and purchase in the property market, as well as the elements which constitute the image of space on sale. These processes are juxtaposed with the actual built reality, the “estate”, and the parameters that shape it. The study’s findings help locate the cultural and financial forces of urban transformation in Hong Kong, and reveal some of the underlying values which constitute design culture.
Read the full paper here.