Home, House and City: A Concept Of Home Evolved From Gentrification and Extreme Densification.

This paper examines the changing concept of home in an urban environment. Densification and gentrification challenge the boundaries between room, house and city; redefining the meanings of home and its relationship with urban context. Micro-dwellings such as caged and subdivided homes in Hong Kong will be used as case studies. Many cities have experienced densification, due to an imbalance of growth between population and habitable land. In extreme cases, the average space at home occupied by each person or family is reduced to a critical level, which has an adverse effect on the mental and physical health of the person or family. Gentrification as a result of government policies also accelerated this process of densification. Under such social, economic and political contexts, extreme cases in micro-dwellings such as subdivided and caged homes have emerged in Hong Kong. The paper is divided into three parts; the first part researches ‘home’ as a noun, or a physical entity or a house. The second part is a counter-balance of the first part; it explores ‘home’ as a verb, or a mental state of being, a sense of belonging and manifestation of identity. The third part concludes the findings of the previous two parts, and investigates the evolving concept of ‘home’ in Hong Kong. The delicate mutual relationship between the concept of home and the social, economic and political contexts from which it evolved will be examined. However, the concept of home in relation to gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and age will not be discussed in this paper. Home and family or household will also not to be included because the meaning of family or household in a modern metropolis such as Hong Kong is becoming more complex and requires independent research.