June 14, 2005
Government Press Release
Air flow improvements being explored

Urban climatic mapping and objective standards for air ventilation assessments will be considered to improve natural air flow through the city fabric, Director of Planning Bosco Fung says.

The Government will adopt air ventilation assessments for its large-scale development projects, redevelopment works, as well as drafting and revision of outline zoning plans. Discussions with other departments will be held to explore ways to refine the air ventilation assessment system.

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Signages at present

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Proposed signage improvements

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Greenery

Breathing easier: To have better air ventilation, signage should be vertical to minimise wind blockage. Greenery will also help reduce urban heat.

Urban acupuncture

The department released today findings of a feasibility study for the setting up of an air ventilation assessment system.

The study, commissioned in October 2003, promotes more scientific based urban intervention - conceptually described as a form of "urban acupuncture" - for enhanced, long-term livability in the city's high-density urban context.

Chinese University Department of Architecture Edward Ng, a member of the study team, said the study focuses on how to design and plan the city fabric for better natural air ventilation. It took Mong Kok and Tseung Kwan O as typical examples of the metro area and new town in Hong Kong.

Mr Ng said taking into account the city's climatic and urban factors and high-density condition, it is considered that the more air ventilation the better, and a general breeze at pedestrian level of at least 1.5 metres per second is a useful criterion of air ventilation assessments. This will be beneficial for providing thermal relief and a comfortable outdoor urban environment.

The study has proposed a number of qualitative guidelines to help achieve better air ventilation, including:

* increasing the overall permeability of the district at ground level by proper linking of open spaces, setting up of open plazas at road junctions, maintaining low-rise structures along prevailing wind direction routes, and widening of minor roads connecting to major roads;

* avoiding obstruction of sea and land breezes;

* using vertical type of signages to minimise wind blockage;

* aligning main streets, wide main avenues and breezeways in a way to maximise the penetration of prevailing wind;

* linking up opening spaces to form breezeways or ventilation corridors, with structures along these places should be low-rise;

* providing ventilation corridors for podiums or adopting a terraced podium design;

* considering height variation for buildings and providing adequate wide gaps between building blocks; and,

* planting tall trees with wide and dense canopy to enhance pedestrian comfort and reduce urban heat island effect.

4 key stages

The study has also recommended air ventilation assessment be implemented in four key stages, namely:

* Stage A - establishment of a generic framework and methodology for air ventilation assessment to enable objective comparison between different design options and formulation of qualitative urban design guidelines;

* Stage B - identification of climatically problematic or sensitive areas (urban climatic mapping) that require particular attention or in need of planning and design inventions;

* Stage C - setting up of a set of objective assessment standards and criteria for air ventilation assessment; and

* Stage D - formulation of quantitative design guidelines to enable practitioners to grasp the basic and most important design requirements for a well-ventilated urban environment at an early design stage.

Mr Fung said the study has offered directions in the setting up of an air ventilation assessment system, adding more studies may be needed. The Government will first consider stages B and C, and will look into stage D after the implementation of stage A.

More measures

He said measures had been adopted to improve air flow before the launch of the study, such as introducing planning guidelines, revising outline zoning plans, and setting restrictions on building height.

Several public housing estates have adopted environmental and air ventilation assessments. It is expected the first one, Ngau Tau Kok Upper Estate, will be completed in 2008.

Mr Fung said relevant sections on improving air flow in the Hong Kong Planning Standards & Guidelines will be revised this year. Efforts to promote air ventilation assessments for projects by Housing Society, Urban Renewal Authority, two railway companies and private developers will continue.

Regarding concerns that air ventilation assessments may impact the scope of future developments, Mr Fung said the recommendations have gained support from the academic, real estate, construction sectors and professional groups, adding there is no plan to impose the assessment compulsorily on private developments at the moment.

Wall of resistance
As high-rises spring up around them, some residents are turning into activists to fight what they see as overdevelopment
26 August 2008
South China Morning Post

Candise Chan Yee-wah is an unlikely activist, but the relentless rise of Hong Kong's concrete blocks turned the mild-mannered housewife from North Point into a campaigner. "You either suffer or speak up," she says.

Chan's transformation began when she learned of two proposed projects near her home: a pair of 41-storey residential blocks by Henderson Land Development and an even taller hotel next door by Cheung Kong (Holdings).

A neighbour had spotted application notices put up at the waterfront site and recruited Chan to help poll residents in their housing estate. Concerned that closely built high-rises would block sea breezes and natural light going to buildings in the area, they set up a coalition in April to oppose the developments.

"Most neighbours have day jobs so I help with the research and co-ordination work," says Chan, a former bank executive.

Developers' desire to extract a higher premium from flats and offices with views have led to oppressive rows of dense high-rises that turn the streets behind them into ovens.

But as awareness grows about the impact of such projects, several groups such as Chan's have been formed to fight them.

Financial planner Russell Li Wai-yuen, who lives in a building opposite the North Point developments, says flats in his block have already become stuffier with the squat hotel block taking shape on King Wah Road.

"Conditions will get worse when the hotel opens because of the heat generated by its lights and air conditioners," he says.

Residents also worry about the congestion that the hotel and residential towers will bring to the small lane. "How can a narrow, one-way road support so many coaches and taxis in the future?" Li says.

Such worries have spurred Li, Chan and other members of the Coalition Against Proposed Development on King Wah Road to spend the past few months collecting signatures, filing complaints and organising forums. "Construction has started on the hotel so we want to take action to oppose the residential high-rises before it's too late," says Chan. "This is our home. We have to protect the environment from further deterioration."

She says the coalition is not opposed to new buildings, but to their height and density. "What we oppose is overdevelopment."

College student Bernard Tang Fai-cheong has experienced the deterioration it can bring. Conditions in his 15-storey building in Tai Kok Tsui have worsened because of the barrier formed by Metro Harbour View, a 10-block complex of 48-storey towers, he says.

"Before the high-rises were built in 2003, there were breezes entering my flat. But now I feel like I'm living in an oven; I'm suffering because of the oppressive heat," Tang says. He has had to keep the air conditioner on most of the day, nearly doubling his power bills.

A Green Sense study last month found, for instance, that the ambient temperature in Tsuen Wan town centre was three to four degrees Celsius higher than at the waterfront - a difference the environmental group attributed to wall developments blocking off breezes. While earlier wall complexes were clustered mostly in redeveloped districts or above MTR stations, they have now spread wider, especially to waterfront areas where flats and hotels with a view can fetch higher prices, Green Sense says.

The developments have turned apathetic professionals into dogged campaigners. The proposal to build a 54-storey apartment block on Seymour Road spurred actuary Yam Chi-fai and his neighbours to form the Mid-Levels West Concern Group. The Robinson Place resident says people are up in arms because they reckon the development will bring more pollution and choke already overloaded roads.

"Air quality in our area has been worsening over the past decade; already there are fewer people jogging along Robinson Road because of the poor air," Yam says. "[Our campaign] is about justice and exploitation. Hong Kong people spend most of their savings on their flats, yet our living environment is worsening. Why do we still have to face a wall and suffer from poor air after a hard day's work?" he says.

Quarry Bay resident Bicky Li couldn't agree more. Appalled by a developer's application to raise the height of residential blocks at a Sai Wan Terrace site from the limit of 91 metres to 170 metres, she, too, rallied fellow residents to resist.

"It would be unfair to the existing residents if the height limit was relaxed," Li says. "We bought flats here because it is pleasant. But if a taller building is constructed in front of our block, the air flow, sunlight and view corridors will be blocked."

Chan's community action has taught her a lot about how the government works.

"I wasn't a socially conscious person before. I used to think town planning was the job of the government and had nothing to do with me," she says. "But officials won't know how their policies are affecting us unless we speak out.

Consulting experts and trawling through libraries and public documents, the activist housewives are teaching themselves how to preserve a liveable city.

"I read through the details, trying to figure out whether there are loopholes in the operation, but it's a painstaking process. I had no experience at all. There are many technical terms that lay people find difficult to understand," says Chan, whose handbag is now often stuffed with town planning literature.

In recent months, she has had less time to spend with her family and prepare their meals but says her husband shares her concern and helps look after their 10-year-old son when she's busy campaigning.

Activists such as Li and Chan criticise the Town Planning Board for not doing enough to safeguard public interest and to ensure that new building projects don't ignore rules.

"We're disappointed," Chan says, accusing the board of failing to ensure that developers submit the ventilation assessments on King Wah Road that they had agreed to in 2006. "Isn't it the job of the government to scrutinise the developer? The government should serve as the gatekeeper protecting the people's interests. But why are there so many loopholes?"

Residents should take the initiative to monitor the government, Chan says.

"You can't always trust what politicians say; you have to learn to verify the information."

Edward Ng Yan-yung, an architecture professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says restrictions on building heights in relation to the size of nearby streets and distances between structures were removed in the 1990s, resulting in the construction of densely packed, hyper-tall structures.

"Right now I don't see the regulations managing to strike a balance between building heights and their surrounding environment," Ng says.

Neighbourhood campaigns have now brought together several groups on Hong Kong Island under the Community Alliance for Urban Planning. Among the more established ones are the Kennedy Road Protection Group, which was formed to fight the proposed Mega Tower in Wan Chai, and the Central and Western Concern Group, which campaigns for balanced, sustainable development. But several are relatively new, including Chan's coalition and the Mid-Level West and Sai Wan Terrace concern groups.

"We now know we're not alone," Chan says. "But we find the bitter reality is the government's town planning isn't living up to our hopes for a better living environment."

Alliance spokeswoman Katty Law Ngar-ning says members realise they face a long-term battle against Hong Kong's skewed development, but hope the situation will improve as people demand better quality of life.

The Central and Western Concern Group's success three years ago in blocking the construction of two 30-storey residential blocks at the historic Police Married Quarters site on Hollywood Road shows community action can have an effect, she says.

Law has since met many people who share her concerns. "Most don't know what avenues are available to express their opinions or are too busy to read tomes of documents," says Law, another housewife-turned-activist. "But if a few people like us can serve as facilitators to conduct research, summarise and present findings to them, many are eager to get involved."

They have a simple wish, she says. "We want a better living environment. We want to call a halt to overdevelopment."

Yikes, looks like the future of HK's development is getting bleaker by the moment. Though I understand where she is coming from, at the same time so many others are being misled and still others have hidden agendas behind their campaigns...

:ohno:

Well, I would have to give her an applause to become an activist for not just her, but the whole community.

I mean her suffering story isn't a single case in North Point, but we all know it's happening all over HK. I am not against development, but shouldn't be developments come to improve the quality of life for the communities? All these self-centered spot developments get approved and constructed only bring big money to the developers, and whoever can afford to use them. They bring no good thing, but only bad things to the surrounding communities, heat island effect, traffic congestion, significantly higher density etc. etc.

Coming down to the end, we need better urban planning and zoning regulation.

^^ BTW, did we ever get that signage improvement proposal going on Nathan Road or anywhere else?? At least started... It has been more than 3 years since it was proposed. Or is it just another talk-to-trash proposal that never happened.

Well, I would have to give her an applause to become an activist for not just her, but the whole community.

I mean her suffering story isn't a single case in North Point, but we all know it's happening all over HK. I am not against development, but shouldn't be developments come to improve the quality of life for the communities? All these self-centered spot developments get approved and constructed only bring big money to the developers, and whoever can afford to use them. They bring no good thing, but only bad things to the surrounding communities, heat island effect, traffic congestion, significantly higher density etc. etc.

Coming down to the end, we need better urban planning and zoning regulation.

Well, yes. I agree that there should be some form of balance, and the current development style, controlled by large corporations purely to maximize profit, is definitely unacceptable. It's just that at the same time, I feel that there's a general tendency in HKer's mentality to be against tall skyscrapers in any form, which is unacceptable in its own right as well.

As I've said, balance is the most important. There are many factors going into the entire process, from lobbyists to corporations, from normal folks to professionals...

While trying to develop only so that everybody can benefit is a good thing, the biggest problem is the inherent bureaucracy involved, and that translates into very long time frames... In the end, what I'm most afraid of is that HK will lose its competitive edge, sooner rather than later, if every development and infrastructure development has to be debated for 15 years before work starts, then go through stop and go processes that take another 20 years... (I exaggerate, of course)

Yikes, looks like the future of HK's development is getting bleaker by the moment.

But HK is already a developed country. It does not need to develop further beyond what it already is at the moment.

Rather the focus instead should be on sustainable development :)

P.S.
It reminds of this one project (neat Tsuen Wan or is it Tsuen Kwan O) where they were indeed pushing for green architecture and green proactive lifestyle.

I forgot what the name of that project was.

^ LOHAS Park in Tseung Kwan O?

Lohas Park hasn't convinced me yet. So far it sounds like just another huge development with some lip service to greenery. I may believe it when I see more.

... i never realised how developed countries don't need any further development...?

^^ :lol:

Just to clarify... wait I guess I already have. I'm not saying these groups are no good, but sometimes some people simply use it for the wrong purpose (can anyone say developer turf wars?) and others are there to say no for the sake of saying no, still others are NIMBYs, and yet more others might get misled.