Levitated Community investigates the evolving qualities of urbanity in today’s society where land has been so scarce along with the politicization of it to curb the freedom of speech of the people. Our proposal seeks to negotiate the complex geopolitical relationship between autonomous Hong Kong and China, while prognosticating a future for Hong Kong’s state of being after guaranteed autonomous rule ends starting from the year 2047. It is an architectural elucidation and perpetuation of a condition of cultural practice rather than codification China’s ascendancy and Hong Kong’s anxieties – a perverted sense of history repeating itself, a situation that demands to be assuaged for stability. Architecture is an important part of democracy. But it’s not enough to simply mix glass, concrete and green spaces.
The decision to combine democracy and alternate land use elements is heavily inspired by the article, Walking on Streets-in-the-Sky: Structures for Democratic Cities by Joao Cunha Borges.
In reference to Walking on Streets-in-the-Sky, Joao stated that Smithson’s intend to build a pathway up the sky is not just an access structure, they suggest a deeper urban consequence. Each one is to form and develop according to particular needs. An intention for this proposal is to create a building that is a sort of strange entity adding something to the city. In this case, a simple circulation system in which is totally dictated by the needs of the people, a central and sui-generis element of the city itself, which implements a new form of circulating and a totally new urban landscape, rhythmed by individual movement.
With that in mind, Levitated Community incepts a public or semi-public set of places in which housing and other activities are present, but the most outstanding effect is to give freedom to the people in building and designing their own city as levitated Community envisioned a world of equal opportunity where presence is more important than ownership, where streets extend to the sky to allow the city to be walked and perceived from many points of view, multiplying the layers of passage and permanence, creating a culture of public commons.