ALL IN: Re-Shuffling Macau’s ‘Tri-Cities’ for Pro-sumption in the Age of Consumption

Abstract

Macau’s contemporary growth, as a place with touristic vocation, is accompanied by a strong transformation of spatial conditions with an emphasis on a spectacular dimension. This growth is not only catalysed by the process of expanding the gentrified, tourist-oriented area of the historic centre, but also through the exponential expansion of the urban development of casinos. These two processes, having taken to its extreme, transformed its concerned places into ‘theatres of consumption’: the initially selected areas for preservation, along with the extension of the buffer zone, become an architectural ‘image’ for the single cultural-consuming experience of tourists; the Casino-poly of integrated resorts set the ultimate example of ‘themed’ enclaves, in which urban conditions are imported and replicated, with commodified public spaces of hyper-consumption. This thesis explores how the redevelopment strategies of vitalising the touristoriented urban spaces have disrupted the city’s long-rooted activities and social interaction patterns. These changes generate social issues (such as gentrifications and displacements) and critical cultural transitions (including commodification of consolidated collective values) resulting in the formation of disintegrated patches that prevent different social groups in grasping and contributing to the conservation and growth of the commodified traditions. The transient traveller, being indulged in the entertainment experiences offered in the ‘theatres of consumption’, inhibits her/ his faculty to participate with the local residents in the traditional process of living and working. With this social disintegration, Macau has transformed into splintered landscapes for economic-driven cultural consumption, self-sustained ‘themed’ enclaves for consumerist experiences and neglected patches for production, living and working. This thesis project focusses on a nodal area of the historical city of Macau facing the Inner Harbour, where a major physical and social disjunction produced from the tourist-orientated development is most obvious. It is where the three mega patches of the contemporary ‘tri-city’ collide; the hinge of the traditional Chinese city of integrated productive and residential activities, the Portuguese historic centre of consumption and the spectacular hyper-consumerist Casino-poly of integrated resorts. In particular, this thesis explores how practices of spatial construction can recombine and reconnect the ‘tri-city’ through creating positive conditions for exchange, dialogue and interaction between the different social groups of this fragmented though intimately interrelated urban space.