THE FORMAL ORGANIZATION OF THE ABERDEEN FLOATING VILLAGE: A STUDY OF THE AGGREGATION TACTICS OF THE BOAT HOUSES IN ABERDEEN HARBOUR, HONG KONG

Abstract

The investigation of collective forms have been sufficiently carried out for the urban built environment on land but there is a deficient in such knowledge on the collective forms that have aggregated on the water. In light of this, this dissertation seeks to go beyond the land boundary to look at such collective forms on water. With Aberdeen Floating Village as a case study, the organization of the boat houses and the underlying aggregation tactics involved will be studied. This dissertation suggests that the organization principles which resulted in aggregation tactics are direct responses to the climatic and geographical conditions. In addition, organizational tactics are also being derived with structural and functional changes occurring to the generative element of the collective form, which is the boat house itself. The methods in which the boat houses are organized are also being guided by their intertwining relations to the socio-economic and political environment in Hong Kong. The methods of aggregation are not fixed but rather are constantly evolving to prevent historical occurrences which had once disrupted its collective form. This dissertation further suggests that the accumulations of these organizational principles improve the functionality of the collective form while overriding its very intrinsic social component – the essence of the floating village community. This has also caused a change from the group-form in the past to the present mega-structure form. In a sense, the initial unifying force which originally drives the boat house aggregation functionally, socially and spatially has left behind the social dimension in its transformation to a mega structure form.