Analysis Of Projects Characteristics Of The Blue House Using The Models Of Community Practice
Built in 1923 till 1925, and are widely known for having the outer wall painted blue, the Blue House is currently categorized as a Grade I historic building. But aside the history of the Blue House, does anyone ever think of the elements and practices behind the so call Blue House Project? What are the goals and values? What are the worker’s role by that time? And so on… In this case, I will illustrate the project by using the models of Community Practice, which include locality development model, social planning model, and social action model to discuss the project characteristics under different variables.
Start off by discussing the goals and values of the project, according to the official VBH website, their goals are to conserving Hong Kong’s living heritage by encourage people to share their time, skills and experience to benefit both themselves and others and, by doing so, to conserve a community way of living that is relevant to and valued by future generations, revitalizing community relationships and networks, and developing a community-oriented mutual and sustainable economy. And they place their values on integrating living tangible and intangible heritage preservation, bottom-up, community-led collaboration, cultural and social innovation, and respecting rights and responsibilities of all stakeholders. We can illustrate the goals and value through Locality Development Model. In this model, we asserts that community change can best be brought about through broad-based participation by a wide spectrum of people at the local community level, and also to seek to involve a cross section of individuals in identifying and solving problems.
But there are also different assumptions concerning the community. Especially when the Town Planning Board plan to develop the Blue House area and offer the residents money and re-accommodation as a compensation. By that time, a majority of resident took the Town Planning Board offer, while the other wanted to stand their ground. Many worries that because of the majority of resident took the compensation offer, the Blue House will be demolished and will be redeveloped. Under this situation, we can use Social Action Model to illustrate the situation. Under this model, we assumes that there is a disadvantaged segment of the population that needs to be organized, perhaps in alliance with others, to pressure the power structure for increased resources or for social justice.
In this case, the disadvantage segment is the threat of redevelopment of the Blue House. By that time, the residents work a long side the workers and tried to negotiate with the Town Planning Board, hoping to stop the redevelopment of the Blue House. We can clearly see in this situation the worker is playing the role of a negotiator, a broker, and a partisan.
