Sai Yeung Choi Street

Setting out to Sai Yeung Choi Street South in Mong Kok to conduct field observations can be quite overwhelming. Being in the heart of one of the most dense areas on the entire planet, one’s senses can be completely inundated by glowing cantilevered signs, wafting smells of street food, blaring sounds of music and voices through loudspeakers, and the pushing of bodies in the moving crowds.

Hong Kong’s tourism board touts the street as “Electronics Street” so we decided to map the street layout to include the store category types lining the street. We also studied the sidewalk and vehicular road space along with the directional traffic routes.

With the implementation of a pedestrian scheme, we realized it made sense that the street employs ever-changing one-way directions to discourage vehicular traffic. During the evenings and weekends pedestrians take over and the street comes alive with spontaneous performances and informal activities and social gatherings.

After observing street activity during the daytime and evening on both weekdays and weekends, we analyzed the various spaces, uses, and activities present on Sai Yeung Choi and mapped them along private/public and informal/formal axes. From this point we decided to focus our field research to address our hypothesis: enabling pedestrian activity facilitates new interactions and functions on Sai Yeung Choi Street South, defining its unique character in the context of Mong Kok’s themed streets and making it a good public place for youth.

{ Tags: culture, hong kong, mapping, research, urban }