Symptomatic of the social fractures in post-colonial Hong Kong, generic developer projects with podia clad in flattened imagery of western tectonic elements have proliferated in mid-priced markets. These branded fronts constitute static, aspatial urban identities at odds with the ones constructed through more culturally representative acts of collective spatial reappropriation exhibited in recent protests. Beginning by reparsing a residential podium elevation found in the city, Pivoted Frontalities proposes a mixed-use complex with residential and retail programs that projects possibilities of collectivity across scales and between residents, retail patrons, and the public. Moving away from a by-default reverence to pre-determined identities, the project seeks to promote a productive co-existence of multiple narratives for living.

The project was developed within the context of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.