Abstract:
Control. Freedom. Two polar opposites that define our most pressing fears and fundamental desires. Our fear of control, to be oppressed and regulated as individuals or a society, contrasted with our craving for freedom, to be able to do as we please and live life according to our own salacity. However, what is to emerge if the two were to be combined at the extremes; complete societal control through the use of our desire for pleasure? In Aldous Huxley’s seminal novel A Brave New World , he explores a society that amalgamates the two seemingly contrasting ideals by analyzing distinctions as well as their compatibility and efficiency as a device for order. The result is a dystopia regulated by desire and pleasure, one in which governmental control allows its inhabitants to live a life of mundane gratification and manipulated freedom. Huxley’s prophetic works can be seen coming into fruition in this day and age with the rise of communicative and entertainment technologies taking the forefront in our everyday lives in unison with governmental supervision and control of what we desire and consume. This generation’s appetite for labels, materialism and distractions can be seen as a parallel to the citizens of Brave New World , within the grasp of authoritative direction and hedonic sin. The works of architects and theorists such as Cedric Price, Rem Koolhaas and Herbert Marcuse have explored such notions of control and regulation through the use of entertainment and desires embodied within architectural form and function. Projects such as “Fun Palace” and “Exodus” have themes alluding to the idea of Control and Freedom; thus they will be used as a framework for research in understanding architecture’s role in a hedonistic restricted society. This design-led research will be investigating the South East Asian city of Hong Kong and its relevance as a “Huxleyan” society. It has a very unique social-political and economic climate especially in the Chinese region. Known as a consumerist’s haven with more than 25 million tourists annually, the industry for entertainment, consumption and materialism is prolific; however, following the 2014 Umbrella Protests, government control has tightened throughout the city with social unrest hidden behind a veil of distractive pleasure. How then will Hong Kong be pacified through the use of architecture and its overt symbolism relating to control or freedom? Hence, the thesis explores the effect of a “Huxleyan” society on architecture and in turn, what architecture itself will emerge as: a machine with the means to enslave a nation through the hedonistic desire of its occupants or perhaps a beacon of hope to guide a society through such uncertain times.