ok, my final day here in hong kong. got up late as usual, after spending quite a bit of time last nite with a loved one roaming the streets of city at nite, mostly in kowloon and taking more pictures.
i felt i was pretty much done this time, and the only thing that was left was to see the prominent HK couple once again for lunch, and discuss some basic ideas and concepts for the Gardens and
enjoy each other's company for the last time.
thats' us having lunch up there. kind, kind people.
now, for the last part of this excursion, i had to go back to the apartment i was staying in sai wan, pack my bags and leave for the ferry to macau by 4pm. i was kinda hoping to have left for macau earlier, but the couple insisted i have lunch with them before i leave for home, and so i did.
and im glad.
i met the couple at a restaurant at the four seasons hotel, where i was shown where they were seated as soon as i got there. they greeted me with a smile and of course, i reciprocated. we spoke about possible design concepts about the Gardens for a bit, while lightly eating various eastern delicacies and discussing the possibility of future ventures with them. it was exciting to be doing this, and although we weren't jumping up and down expressing our enthusiasm, the thrill was palpable, albeit in a quiet and dignified manner in the air.
i really felt like an international architect with these people. here they were, an elderly couple, kind and wealthy, asking me for ideas on what can be done with their place, which obviously carried deeply sentimental links to their culture and personal history.
this feeling at the onset of establishing a promising collaboration to pursue ideas and concepts for a design project is quite possibly one of the best feelings a designer of any discipline can experience, because within this one moment in time, we are all connected on an emotional level to push ourselves to create something magnificent and ultimately, memorable. we were all thrilled with various design possibilities that we can incorporate into the existing layout of the Gardens, and the challenge was to ensure that the changes we made would not compromise the historical and cultural integrity of the site.
and thats the primary direction that we have to pursue.
and when that was finally over, i bid goodbye, telling them i would probably get some ideas and visuals ready sometime by chinese new year in feb 2010, and will probably email them the presentation as soon as i could. and, that symbolically, ended this journey. after i left, i bought some postcards and geisha doll at a local market before reaching the apartment as mementos on this trip, and then i went home, and packed up and took the ferry to macau as quickly as i could.
it was 4pm.
my flight was at 9pm, so i still had a bit of time to spare. now, the reason why i wanted to visit macau was to explore this one place that everyone was making a lot of noise about, The Venetian. this supposedly world class hotel and casino, modeled shamelessly in appearance after certain parts of Venice, Italy that pulls the gambling, devil - may-care crowds from all across the four corners of the globe, was the talk of the town on everyone's lips for quite some time when it opened, and i had read a lot about it in some articles as well.
so i thought, oh well, im already here, i might as well and go and see what the fuss is about.
so as soon as i reached macau by about 5 pm, i immediately took the bus to the casino and had only about 2 hours to explore as much as i could.
would this be worth it, i wondered. well, we'll soon find out.
well as soon as i got there, it was exactly what i expected.
a skin deep, meaninglessly decorated humongous complex, flashing with glaring over-exuberant decadence at every surface and corner, divorced from any cultural or historical relationships with its surroundings and people, and was clearly built to glorify the almighty dollar, while simultaneously enriching but more often than not robbing people for their hard earned salaries.
it was a temple of money, built on the premise of a ridiculous kind of effluence, cloaked with a superficial sense of grandeur and royalty that permeated every level of the atmosphere and it was undoubtedly one of the worst buildings i've ever been to in all my life.
from my viewpoint, this was architecture ... at its worst.
oh sure, all the brochures, journals and magazines will tell you this place is a modern wonder, where you could fulfill your life long ambition of being a multi - millionaire over night, hobnobbing with the rich and famous, with a leggy model on one side and champagne and cigars on the other, but from an architectural point of view, this place represented almost everything that wrong with our society.
this was where architecture, instead of lifting the human spirit and enriching our existence with noble ideals of shelter, communion and protection, was used to create a space that would suck you dry, both financially and spiritually, and where layers and layers of structure were designed to cultivate images of self-indulgence, depravity and degeneracy. all these elements were brought together to reinforce an illusionary sense of wealth, which ultimately was meaningless and hollow, rendering us normal human beings slaves to pursue money at all cost, even if it means we lose our selves and our souls in the process.
like i said, architecture at its worst.
but i stayed, just to explore the limits of human greed, where here it manifested itself structurally. i have to admit i was impressed with how meticulously detailed the whole complex was, but like i said earlier, it was all superficial. meaningless and hollow.
you decide, however, if you feel the same way.
the entrance lobbies. over lit and over played.
rows and rows of slot machines, all bathed in a golden hue,
drapped in decadent classical designs and colours, waiting
for the next sucker to "donate" his money.
artificial facades beneath an artificial sky. sumps up
the identity of the whole place in one word. artificiality.
colonnades and colonnades of ludicrous, overly - decorative
cosmetic statues and surfaces.
the exterior facade, like a wedding cake that's just overly done.
well, after this was over, after spending about 2 hours here, i had to leave to the airport. this was the last shot i took before i left macau. my three excursions were done. its time to head home. i managed to squeeze as much as i could within that 2 hour time span that i had when i was here, and i think i was reasonably satisfied with my efforts here.
time to go home.
merry X'mas everyone and happy new year people ... I've done celebrating mine
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