Document Type
Thesis, Senior
Date
Spring 5-2022
Keywords
housing, migrants, domestic workers, Hong Kong
Language
English
Disciplines
Architecture
Description/Abstract
This project examines the relationship between domestic labor laws and the “spatial practices” of migrant domestic worker (MDW) spaces in Hong Kong. The project asks, how do the designed and spatial practices of domestic worker accommodations inform us about the hierarchy and future of domestic space in Hong Kong?
In 2003, Hong Kong issued a law requiring domestic workers to live with their employers. For apartments without designed servant spaces, makeshift accommodations have been created within those apartments to comply with the law. The research studies these modifications within the home and creates spatial abstractions through diagrams and models.
The research was carried out in collaboration with the Mission for Migrant Workers, an NGO in Hong Kong. The survey asked questions about privacy and had the workers draw a floor plan of their accommodations. Additionally, in-person interviews were also conducted to reveal a more intimate understanding of these spaces and casts to preserve the material damage due to the workers’ labor.
The designs and spatial practice of these accommodations create a hierarchy between the servant and the served through varying degrees of porousness to confinement. We see this in examples such as sharing spaces with other household members, living in the living room or kitchen, and objects such as fabric partitions, unlockable doors, or security cameras.
Since many employees struggle to voice their opinions about space, rethinking the functions of these household objects as passive-aggressive items not only ensures privacy but also critiques power dynamics in the household. It utilizes what is of importance to the employer as leverage for the employee to get privacy, respect, and dignity.
Recommended Citation
Chung, Kristabel, "Stored Labor: Spatial Practice of Migrant Worker Accomodation in Hong Kong" (2022). Architecture Senior Theses. 545.
https://surface.syr.edu/architecture_theses/545
Source
Submission
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
