Civic Exchange and Designing Hong Kong submitted a paper to the Harboutfront Commission on the progress of the Walkability Research and Engagement Project. The paper can be downloaded here.Below is a short powerpoint presented to the Harbourfront Commission and below is the proposed long list of fixes.
UPDATE! Ming Pao Weekly Magazine just ran a cover feature on the issue. You can download the feature here.
Proposal for a public marine centre in Tolo Harbour submitted
Hong Kong, 5 February 2013 - Designing Hong Kong has submitted a Section 12a planning application to the Town Planning Board for a public marine center in Tolo Harbour.
The proposal calls for a dry stack for 200 boats and a floating pontoon system for 400 boats at Pak Shek Kok, partially in front of Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. The estimated cost is around HK$200million.
The marine centre will offer affordable mooring of boats, opening up the waters of Tolo Harbour to the community for marine tourism, leisure, recreation, and water sports activities. These activities offer new job opportunities for fishermen displaced by the trawling ban. The man-made shoreline was selected to minimize the ecological impact of building waterfront facilities. The adjacent Science Park offers convenient public transport, and ample parking, retail and restaurant facilities.
“The Hong Kong community deserves public marine centres where they can store boats cheaply. Hong Kong has a spectacular 1,000km coastline, 280 islands, blue waters and white sand beaches. However, boating is restricted to the super rich who can afford a private marina. Facilities are needed for the public to keep boats and water sports equipment safe at a low cost. After all, a surfboard does not fit in your home, you can’t take it on the minibus, you can’t take it on the MTR and few people can afford a car,” said Paul Zimmerman, CEO, Designing Hong Kong Limited.
Pak Shek Kok is one of several locations identified for new facilities in Designing Hong Kong’s research ‘Vibrant Harbours – Water Activation Projects’. Site selection criteria include minimal ecological impacts, presence of leisure marine activities, available land, road access and minimal impact on commercial marine traffic.
The application by Designing Hong Kong, Y/PSK/1, proposes the zoning of a remaining waterfront site at Pak Shek Kok as “Other Specified Uses (Marine Centre)” and “Open Space”. The public can submit comments to the Town Planning Board until 22 February 2013. The same site is proposed to be zoned Residential (Group B) in the new draft Outline Zoning Plan S/PSK/10 for Pak Shek Kok (East) which is open for public comments until 18 March 2013. Designing Hong Kong does not consider this a conflict, as both plans can be combined.
“Implementation of the Public Marine Centre in Tolo Harbour will be a matter of Government to decide on. One option is to include the construction of the marine centre as a ‘Built-Transfer’ requirement with future residential land sales at Pak Shek Kok. Once built, the facilities can be operated by existing or new not-for-profit organisations,” Paul Zimmerman explained.
*** UPDATE 12 SEPTEMBER 2012: Pearl Report covered the issue of marine resource management in it's latest episode "Shelter"
***
Hong Kong has a spectacular 1,000km coastline, 280 islands,
blue waters and white sand beaches. But unless you are super rich, there is no
space to keep your boat or water sports
equipment safe. Your surfboard does not fit in your home, you can’t take it on
the minibus, and you can’t take it on the MTR.
Support our 15 proposals for affordable public marine
centres, beach clubs, mooring areas and piers. Please see our powerpoint
presentation below for more details and share!
HK is desperately short of facilities for water-based sport and recreation
On Friday 16 December
2011, the Town Planning Board rejected the development of a marina,hotel
and luxury housing on Lamma. This, despite the financial firepower from a
listed company, and the employment of a senior member of the Town Planning
Board and a well-known person in Hong Kong's sailing scene. (Planning Application Y/I-LI/1).
(http://www.bol-hk.com/)
City Speak XV - Who can afford housing in Hong Kong?
CitySpeak XIV - Privatised Public Space - Do new guidelines solve the problems?
24 July 2010
With the Times Square controversy, questions were raised about the
management, legal status and design quality of Hong Kong’s public open
spaces in private developments. In response, the Development Bureau
commissioned a study to develop new design and management guidelines.
Why is it important to plan for public facilities in private
developments? Will the proposed new guidelines help? Who will benefit?
Who is paying for the process? How do we make our public spaces in
private developments more attractive for the public?
Join designers, developers, community members, and
representatives from the Development Bureau to look at examples and at
the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed guidelines.
Speakers:
Gracie Foo, Deputy Secretary (Planning and Lands)
Wallace Chang Ping Hung, Associate Professor, School of
Architecture, CUHK, and co-author of the new guidelines on public space
City Speak XIII - How far do we dare to go in adapting our heritage buildings to new uses?
19 June 2010
How are we going to use the growing list of buildings nominated as heritage sites? Beyond places of worship, Hong Kong has little experience with conservation. As a result, there are few guidelines and many ideas.
Property owners, developers, NGOs, architects, surveyors, engineers, government officials and the public will have to come to terms with how we deal with these choices in Hong Kong, and how we give heritage buildings a new life and purpose.
Speakers
Bob Dickensheet, Director of Construction and Preservation, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
Juan Du, Assistant Professor and Co-ordinator of the Masters Programme in Architecture, HKU, and Principal of IDU Architecture
Edward Leung Yee-Wah, Architect, Senior Associate with Aedas and Academic Director, HKU Space Cultural Heritage Management Programme, and Member of China Vernacular Architecture Society and China International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
Philip Liao, Architect.
Henry Rolph and Michael Morrison, Architects.
Moderator
Dr. Lee Ho-yin, Assistant Professor in Architecture and Director,
Architectural Conservation Programme (ACP), HKU.
CitySpeak XII – The water we drink (where will it come from?)
15 May 2010
Where does the water we drink come from? Is there enough for everyone?
Where will it come from?
Hong Kong’s water supply comes from two
sources: the rainfall we collect in our reservoirs (20-30%) and water we
buy from the Mainland (70-80%). The current agreement for water from
the Dongjiang, a tributary of the Pearl River, will expire in 2015. With
demand for water growing sharply throughout the Pearl River Delta and
the supply of water compromised by pollution and climate change, Hong
Kong’s future access to clean water is far from certain.
In our
drive to become a sustainable city, should Hong Kong become
self-sufficient? Should we increase the size of our reservoirs? Follow
Singapore and recycle our waste water? Build plants to desalinate
seawater? What other possible methods are there? Who’s going to pay?
Speakers:
Ir. Ma Lee-tak JP, Director of Water Supplies, Water Supplies Department
Dr. Lee Boon-ying JP, Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Hong Kong
Observatory
Prof. Carlos Lo Wing-Hung, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Mr. Bevis Mak Wai-lung , Executive Director, Water and Urban
Development, AECOM
Moderator:
Mr. Mike Kilburn, Environmental Programme Manager at Civic
Exchange
City Speak XI: Is transport the solution or the enemy?
24 April 2010
Development and transport are closely related, but how do we connect the
dots and guarantee a livable city for future generations?
Lifting
the moratorium in Mid-levels, reducing the threshold for redevelopment
and the constant pressure to increase density are all choking the older
parts of Hong Kong with more traffic and roadside air pollution.
How
do we deal with the increased traffic on new roads to the Mainland? How
many more roads are we planning to build on our waterfront? Is there
too much public transport clogging up our roads? Is replacing pedestrian
crossings with subways and footbridges a good thing?
What plans
are there for environmentally friendly transport and aesthetically more
pleasing transport infrastructure in Hong Kong? Where are the hopes for
making our city more pedestrian-friendly? Can new engine technology
solve our problems? Could electronic road pricing help? Will the new
rail lines be enough? Do we have a sustainable (transport) plan for our
city?
Speakers:
Chapman Lam 林澤仁, Divisional Director (Transportation
Engineering), MVA Hong Kong Limited
Julian TH Kwong 鄺子憲, Road safety engineering consultant, founding
member of the Association for Geoconservation, Hong Kong
Bruno Charrade, Managing Director, Hong Kong Tramways Limited
Pascal Dupond, Customer Director, Hong Kong & China Pearl River
Delta, ALSTOM
KY Leung梁剛銳, Vice Chairman, Transport Policy Committee, The Chartered
Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong
Simon KW Ng 吳家穎, Visiting Scholar, Institute for the Environment,
HKUST
Oren Tatcher, Architect specialising in transportation facilities
and transport-oriented urban master plans
Moderator:
Prof. Bill Barron, Visiting Scholar, Institute for the Environment, HKUST
Hong Kong is surrounded by so much water and has so many green
mountains, so does it really need more urban open space? How do we
respond to the threats of global warming and air pollution? What is the
meaning of “the urban heat island effect”? What is an “air ventilation
assessment”? What value doesthe community place on open space? Is the
demand for recreation and sport changing? Do we need a landscape vision
and master plan? Is “green infrastructure” becoming more important than
roads and railway lines in securing a sustainable built environment in
Hong Kong?
Speakers:
Fiona Waters, Director of GHK (Hong Kong)
Ltd.
Ng Tak-wah, Planning
Department
Evans P L Iu, Senior Landscape Architect, Housing Department
Dr. Edward Ng Yan-yung, Architect and Professor at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong
Jonathan McKinley, Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs, Recreation and Sports Branch, Home Affairs
Bureau
Leading up to the
November 21 forum, the gallery at the Fringe Club will display images of
beauty and ugliness in Hong Kong, collected by architect Oren Tatcher.
The exhibition is meant to stimulate debate: What is beautiful? What is
ugly? Who decides? How do we improve our shared urban and country space
so that Hong Kong is more beautiful for everyone?
Forum - Beautiful City, Ugly Places
21 November 2009
Hong Kong is blessed with
stunning natural settings, a drama of islands and bays and steep green
mountains. Dotting that landscape is an imposing man-made landscape of
densely-packed skyscrapers and colorful lights. It looks great - from a
distance.
Up close, the magic is gone, and beauty is replaced
with an often ugly reality. Between glittering skyscrapers and sparkling
shopping malls we have cracking sidewalks, concrete barriers, metal
railings, temporary signs, canopies, and ever more cheap and nasty
clutter just about everywhere. Not only is our urban streetscape getting
uglier - this clutter is penetrating our rural and country park areas
as well.
It does not have to be that way. How do we get ahead of
our standards and guidelines, and have common sense and creativity
infuse decision making. How do we raise awareness for less clutter, and
advocate beauty? But first, can we agree on what is beautiful in Hong
Kong, and what is ugly?
City Speak VII - Livable density
17 October 2009
Will Hong
Kong continue to be one of the greatest cities in the world to live,
work and play in? The ongoing debate over infrastructure, public space,
building heights, walled buildings, urban renewal. the harbourfront,
heritage, nature conservation, the destruction of rural land, and air,
noise and light pollution demonstrates a growing concern over our
planning and development decisions. The experience of our urban
environment is increasingly at odds with the fact that we are the only
global business centre with such unique topography: the harbour,
mountains, natural shorelines, white sand beaches, country parks,
reservoirs ... At CitySpeak, leading architects, planners and activists
will debate a key question: How do we balance density and the quality of
our public realm?
The Conservancy Association, Fringe Club and
Designing Hong Kong are calling for co-organizers, speakers and papers
for a healthy debate over the future of cycling in Hong Kong.
Cycling policy – Constraints and opportunities: Should cycling be
promoted for health and environmental reasons? Should cycling be limited
to leisure, sports and recreation, or is Hong Kong ready for commuting
on a bicycle?
Cycling facilities – The length of cycle and
mountain tracks are expanding and new tracks are planned. The growing
problems with cycle parking demonstrate that more people own bicycles.
Are we on the right track? Are facilities in the right places?
Cycling
facility design – How can the design be more sustainable and bland into
local environment? Do we need rigid standards or adapt to local
conditions? What are the right materials – are concrete and asphalt the
only safe materials.
Share with care – How can we learn to
share space between vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles? Does it work?
What needs to happen to make it safe?
City Speak V - The Green Lungs of Hong Kong
17 January 2009
With Saturdays off, an aging population, concerns over air quality, calls for more open space and a struggle to attract more tourists - there is a need to focus on Hong Kong's "green lungs".
Hong Kong has an abundance of country parks, islands and beaches, but are they easily accessible? Should we make them more attractive by adding more facilities so that they can handle more and more visitors? Declare them GeoParks and attract more tourists? Or should we restrict access in order to protect nature?
New parks are planned in Kai Tak, Central, and possibly West Kowloon. Will these be green or concrete? Should we develop more urban parks? Will Hong Kong get a New York style Central Park or a London style Hyde Park?
City Speak IV - Hawkers, performers, diners wine-lovers, How do we regulate HK's open spaces?
20 September 2009
In the open space, of the streets and
,sidewalks in our dense city, with its ever-talier buildings, is there
room for hawkers, food stalls, musicians, street performers, and tables
and chairs? Are we regulating too much or too littie? And how could or
should the regulations be improved?
The panel of speakers will
include hawkers, performers and gastronomes.
City Speak III - HK's Public Space: How Open is Open?
1 March 2008
Street markets, podiums, sidewalks, footbridges,
country parks, roof gardens, rock streams, nullahs, bus stops. Squeezed
between the mountains and the sea, and competing with high-rise
buildings and busy freeways, public space in Hong Kong is constantly
taking on new forms. But how much public space do we need? How should it
be managed? When is it open to everyone? Is it acceptable to have
public space monopolized by a select group of users or activities?
Attend this town hall meeting to discuss what does and does not work for
you.
Speakers:
Paul Zimmerman, Founding
member, Designing Hong Kong
Dr. W. K. Chan, Co-convenor of the study group on
'Hong Kong: A creative metropolis' under the Bauhinia Foundation
Research Centre
Raymond Wong Wai-man,
Assistant Director, Planning Department
Paul
Cheung Kwok-kee, Assistant Director, Leisure Services, Leisure and
Cultural Services Department, Hong Kong Government
Tim
Li, Director of para/site art space
Sean
C.S. Chiao, AIA, Senior VP, Regional Chair, Asia, EDAW
Prof. Edward Ng, Department of Architecture,
Chinese University
Respondants:
Oren Tatcher,
Architect
Dr. Kacey Wong, Visual Artist, Assistant Prof. School of
Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Moderator:
Marisa
Yiu, Director of MKSYIU Studio, Assistant Professor, Department
of Architecture, Hong Kong University
Town hall meeting: 10am (2hrs 30 mins)
Workshop: 2:30pm (2hrs)
Street
markets, podiums, sidewalks, footbridges, country parks, roof gardens,
rock streams, nullahs, bus stops… Squeezed between the mountains and the
sea, and competing with high-rise buildings and busy freeways, public
space in Hong Kong is constantly taking on new forms. But how much
public space do we need? How should it be managed? When is it open to
everyone? Is it acceptable to have public space monopolised by a select
group of users or activities?
Speakers:
Paul Zimmerman, Founding member,
Designing Hong Kong
Alex Hui, Executive Director, Hong Kong Arts
Centre
Weijen Wang, Curator, HK Biennale, Architect
Dr.
Kacey Wong, Visual Artist, Assistant Prof, School of Design, Hong
Kong Polytechnic University
Chu Hoi Dick, Editor, InMedia
Ava
Ng, Director of Planning
Leslie Chen, President, The Hong Kong Institute
of Landscape Architects
Eric Schuldenfrei, Founder of Eric
Schuldenfrei Animation: Art + Architecture, New York/ Hong Kong
Peter
Cookson-Smith, Planner, Urbanist, Director, Urbis Ltd.
Vincent
Ng, Architect and Convenor of Citizen Envisioning @ Harbour
Oren
Tatcher, Architect
Raymond Fung, Architect
Mr Chow, Homeless
Person
Moderator:
Marisa Yiu, Director
of MKSYIU Studio, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Hong
Kong University
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