The weight of space: participatory design research for configuring habitable space for new arrival women in Hong Kong
Abstract
When arriving to Hong Kong from China, the first difficulty of the new arrival women of the grassroots class is usually environmental stress. Their socio-economic situations often limit their expectations related to their living space. In order to enable the women to voice their views, our research group has organized participatory design research to invite new arrival women: (1) to offer comments of their existing living environment; (2) to give design directions of their preferred housing environment; and (3) to propose policy suggestion to the Government in respect to housing and community/neighbourhood planning. This paper introduced five research methods that our research group have conducted: (1) site observation and direct observation; (2) photovoice; (3) semi-structured interview; (4) visual simulation modeling workshops (for interior and exterior environment); and (5) in-depth interview. The paper wishes to demonstrate the validity of the methods used to promote participatory democracy in the context of urban living environment.
