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People thrive on quality architecture. The buildings in which we live, work, study and shop have a direct impact on the quality of our lives. Ho & Partners not only understand this at a profound level, it is a principle the firm has been guided by throughout its 25-year history, from its relatively humble beginnings in 1985 in Hong Kong, during its massive expansion into China throughout the 80s and 90s, to its present position as major global player, with significant projects in more than 30 cities across 6 different countries. Ho & Partners believe in innovation backed up by solid research and analysis principles evident in the considerable portfolio of buildings contained within the pages of this monograph, including residential, office, retail, hotels, hospitals and university buildings; corporate headquarters; railway and airport projects; and large-scale city planning projects. Featured projects include the Westpoint Tower in Hong Kong, with its unique ball structure design; the Shenzhen Meilin Estate in China, now considered a milestone residential development; and the impressive award-winning Hui Jing residential/commercial development, also in China. The Ho & Partners monograph is a rich and detailed celebration of Hong Kong s most innovative and respected architectural firms."

Koh Seow Chuan likes to see his life as a continuous painting, and himself as the painter. An Unfinished Canvas is about a unique individual who sees life as just that — a canvas that is never finished. This book traces his remarkable life from the age of four, following his journey as a stamp collector, national swimmer, architect and art collector. In all his endeavours, he reached the very top on a global field. The book makes clear how he lived and continues to live his life guided by two principles, his strong belief in the power of knowledge and the power of teamwork, which he found and followed relatively early in his life. Through stamps, he saw what knowledge could do for him academically and how it would always put him in a position of strength in whatever he did later in life. But it is in his absolute embrace of the power of teamwork that sees him succeeding in project after project. People see in him a leader they rarely see in the world of architecture, the leader who insists on we over I, group glory over personal glory. The architecture firm he founded, DP Architects, is more than 50 years old — and is now one of the biggest in the world. In his 80s now, he reminds us that his canvas is still unfinished.

The idea and function, image, and built reality of the house vary from culture to culture, locale to locale, generation to generation, demographic to demographic. Houses do much more than provide a roof over our heads: They are sanctuaries, havens-- our private kingdoms, our personalized cocoons. They are backdrops to our everyday lives. They are status symbols. They are economic indicators. For architects, they are dream jobs, test beds, manifestos. only by understanding the predominant reality of and the prevailing attitudes toward the house can we appreciate the great leaps and changes it is-- and always has been-- undergoing. The houses in this book represent new ideas about how to build houses, how they are rooted (and root us) to their locale, and how we use and regard them. The first chapter, "Tectonics," features houses that explore the novel application of materials and building techniques in the domestic realm. Next, "Context" showcases houses that actively engage in their site, drawing inspiration, whether in texture, form, or topography, from their surrounding landscape. Lastly, "Revolutions" addresses the significant shifts our lifestyles have undergone and how the house has responded to them. "House" features twenty recently built houses that have been designed by some of today's leading architects, including Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori, Alberto Kalach, and Rick Joy. By leading readers to the cutting edge of today's architecture, authors Ho and Barreneche relate today's building trends and hint at what awaits us in the future. Featuring more than 200 color photographs and plans, "House" is the perfect book for house enthusiasts worldwide.

This insightful book provides a comprehensive survey of urban development in Hong Kong since 1841. Pui-yin Ho explores the ways in which the social, economic and political environments of different eras have influenced the city's development. From colonial governance, wartime experiences, high density development and adjustments before and after 1997 through contemporary challenges, this book explores forward-looking ideas that urban planning can offer to lead the city in the future. Evaluating the relationship between town planning and social change, this book looks at how a local Hong Kong identity emerged in the face of conflict and compromise between Chinese and European cultures. In doing so, it brings a fresh perspective to urban research, providing historical context and direction for the future development of the city. Hong Kong's urban development experience offers not only a model for other Chinese cities but also a better understanding of Asian cities more broadly. Urban studies scholars will find this an exemplary case study of a developing urban landscape. Town planners and architects will also benefit from reading this comprehensive book as it shows how Hong Kong can be taken to the next stage of urban development and modernisation.

Outrigger systems are rigid horizontal structures designed to improve a building’s stability and strength by connecting the building core or spine to distant columns, much in the way an outrigger can prevent a canoe from overturning. Outriggers have been used in tall, narrow buildings for nearly 500 years, but the basic design principle dates back centuries. In the 1980s, as buildings grew taller and more ambitious, outrigger systems eclipsed tubular frames as the most popular structural approach for supertall buildings. Designers embraced properly proportioned core-and-outrigger schemes as a method to offer far more perimeter flexibility and openness for tall buildings than the perimeter moment or braced frames and bundled tubes that preceded them. However, the outrigger system is not listed as a seismic lateral load-resisting system in any code, and design parameters are not available, despite the increasingly frequent use of the concept. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Outrigger Working Group has addressed the pressing need for design guidelines for outrigger systems with this guide, a comprehensive overview of the use of outriggers in skyscrapers. This guide offers detailed recommendations for analysis of outriggers within the lateral load-resisting systems of tall buildings, for recognizing and addressing effects on building behavior and for practical design solutions. It also highlights concerns specific to the outrigger structural system such as differential column shortening and construction sequence impacts. Several project examples are explored in depth, illustrating the role of outrigger systems in tall building designs and providing ideas for future projects. The guide details the impact of outrigger systems on tall building designs, and demonstrates ways in which the technology is continuously advancing to improve the efficiency and stability of tall buildings around the world.

While global cities have mostly been characterized as sites of intensive and extensive economic activity, the quest for global city status also increasingly rests on the creative production and consumption of culture and the arts. Arts, Culture and the

Introduction : the quest for a balanced economic growth and social development - ideas and practices promoting social cohesion in greater China / Ka Ho Mok, Ka Kuen Leung and Yeun Wen Ku -- pt. I. Concepts of social cohesion and policy response. ch. 1. Social cohesive efforts to meet youth development needs in Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong / Sandra K. M. Tsang and Yiu Kong Chu. ch. 2. In search of harmonious society in China : a social policy response / Kinglun Ngok and Yapeng Zhu. ch. 3. Social cohesion in a divided society : lessons from Taiwan's welfare politics / Yeun Wen Ku. ch. 4. One country, two cities : a comparison of perceived cohesion in Guangzhou and Hong Kong / Simon T. M. Chan, Sammy W. S. Chiu and Marcus Y. L. Chiu -- pt. II. Social change and urban governance. ch. 5. Governing a global city in the context of political transition / Tai Lok Lui. ch. 6. Embracing the market : examining the consequences for education, housing, and health in Chinese cities / Ka Ho Mok ... [et al.]. ch. 7. Urban governance from below : a case study of Kaohsiung, Taiwan / Shiuh Shen Chien and Yeilong Wu -- pt. III. Economic well-being, urban poverty and pension reforms. ch. 8. Elderly poverty and old-age pension reform in Hong Kong : issues and prospects / Ernest Chiu and Lisanne Ko. ch. 9. Is welfare restructuring and economic development in post-1997 Hong Kong in search of a cohesive society? / Maggie Lau and Ka Ho Mok. ch. 10. Economic development and household economic well-being in urban China / Xiulan Zhang, Terry Lum and Yuebin Xu. ch. 11. The fragmentation of the old-age security system : the politics of pension reform in Taiwan / Shih Jiunn Shi.

The sheer diversity of the Asian American populace makes them an ambiguous racial category. Indeed, the 2010 U.S. Census lists twenty-four Asian-ethnic groups, lumping together under one heading people with dramatically different historical backgrounds and cultures. In Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture, Jennifer Ann Ho shines a light on the hybrid and indeterminate aspects of race, revealing ambiguity to be paramount to a more nuanced understanding both of race and of what it means to be Asian American. Exploring a variety of subjects and cultural artifacts, Ho reveals how Asian American subjects evince a deep racial ambiguity that unmoors the concept of race from any fixed or finite understanding. For example, the book examines the racial ambiguity of Japanese American nisei Yoshiko Nakamura deLeon, who during World War II underwent an abrupt transition from being an enemy alien to an assimilating American, via the Mixed Marriage Policy of 1942. It looks at the blogs of Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese Americans who were adopted as children by white American families and have conflicted feelings about their “honorary white” status. And it discusses Tiger Woods, the most famous mixed-race Asian American, whose description of himself as “Cablinasian”—reflecting his background as Black, Asian, Caucasian, and Native American—perfectly captures the ambiguity of racial classifications. Race is an abstraction that we treat as concrete, a construct that reflects only our desires, fears, and anxieties. Jennifer Ho demonstrates in Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture that seeing race as ambiguous puts us one step closer to a potential antidote to racism.