Abstract

Life is full of adventure, which declines all compromises, resists all controls, and therefore responds creatively to everyday spaces in “micro-scale” practices. However, an excess of urban transformation and development has stealthily been swallowing up daily lives of the ordinary on the wrong foot, which has deprived everyday life of authenticity and gradually reinforced domination by alienation. Hong Kong is dedicated to being a world class city, and so has undergone a vibrant, ever-transforming process of urbanization at a dizzying pace. Its limited urban spaces have been subjected to constant population expansions and urban sprawl, and a new life has been imposed upon old urban areas and ageing communities due to land reclamation. This research focuses on the socio-spatial structure of Hong Kong to expose the gap between the planned image of the world city and its users’ conceptions of the everyday space. Using case studies of the reclamation areas in Hong Kong, this paper illustrates the tendency of urban developmental strategy in the context of history, and highlights the Hong Kong district of Wan Chai based on the planners and users’ perspectives. Some compliment the gorgeous urban transformation and others censure the new construction as a soulless city. To adapt urban lifestyles to ever-transforming urban areas, this paper aims to elaborate the explicitly balanced considerations necessary in intervention and invention.