Locals fear harbor view loss
Winnie Chong, Hong Kong Standard
July 30, 2005

The Association for People's Livelihood Friday urged the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation to discuss with the government an amendment to their joint development plan that could result in a walled seafront along West Kowloon.

According to earlier announced plans, a series of 60-storey blocks are to be built over the West Rail's Nam Cheong Station with another 10 blocks close by.

The association fears that if the development plan is not amended, the new buildings will not only block off the harbour front but also affect the air flow and intensify the air pollution in Sham Shui Po.

In addition, it will deny other residents their right to enjoy the harbor views, sunlight and the wind.

In a meeting Friday, the association urged the KCRC management to discuss the development with the government and to conduct an evaluation of how the plan will affect the area when completed.

The group also urged the government to lower the current 1:8 plot ratio so that the buildings will not be too tall.

South China Morning Post
December 3, 2006 Sunday
High-rises have cut wind speed in half;
Weather chief warns of urgent need to rethink urban design

The weather chief has called on professionals to rethink the design of urban buildings as a government study found wind speed has been reduced by almost half over the past 30 years, with high-rises springing up across the city.

Between 1968 and 1995, wind speed measured at King's Park in Ho Man Tin declined steadily at a rate of 0.6 metres per second every decade.

The measuring station was moved to a windier spot in the park in 1996, where there has also been a downward trend, with wind speed dropping by 0.57 metres per second in the past decade.

Speaking at a green symposium yesterday, Hong Kong Observatory director Lam Chiu-ying blamed the downturn on the growing number of buildings because wind speed recorded on Waglan Island had shown no significant change over the same period.

"It is clear that urbanisation in the broad vicinity of King's Park has brought down the wind speed around the station. The urban area is therefore generally less well ventilated than before."

The reduction in wind speed has slowed down air ventilation, thus allowing the accumulation of dust and harmful particles. Pollution has further intensified with a rise in temperature and lower evaporation rates that favour the growth of germs.

Between 1989 and last year, the temperature in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui rose sharply at a rate of 0.37 degrees Celsius per decade. Temperatures in the countryside at Ta Kwu Ling, near Shek O, and Lau Fau Shan, in Yuen Long, rose much more slowly, at 0.08 degrees and 0.25 degrees respectively over the same period. The number of nights above 28 degrees Celsius has also increased dramatically, from a few days per year in the 1960s to about 20 days a year.

The Hong Kong Institute of Architects has pointed out that residential projects in the 1980s tended to be 30 storeys high, with the average height slowly climbing to 40 storeys in the 1990s and 50 nowadays. There have also been repeated controversies over the possible "wall effect" caused by big building projects in West Kowloon, Tseung Kwan O and Sha Tin.

Mr Lam said architects and engineers should take the lead in modifying urban planning as tall buildings had been steering the city's climate in a way that was unfavourable to healthy living. "It is high time for us to rethink the fundamentals about how urban living should look. Much is in the hands of architects and engineers," he said.

Green Sense chairman Roy Tam Hoi-pong said the government should consider imposing restrictions on building heights and space between blocks in sales conditions under land leases.

"There should be spaces between blocks to allow ventilation, especially if a row of buildings is set along the breeze path of a district."

The green group said that air in Tseung Kwan O and Tung Chung has become stuffier with new property projects in recent years. The group today will release its findings on the top 10 districts suffering most from the wall effect.

Assuming we wanna maintain the same plot ratios, shorter buildings mean we either need more land, an absurdity in Hong Kong, or buildings that are closer together, which is also unpopular... the problem isn't height or number, it's orientation and overall planning...

all the gov't has to do is to have an overall approach for each district, mapping out open spaces, air flow, views etc... unfortunately, overall oversight is EXACTLY what our gov't is bad at doing... anytime a problem involves more than 1 dept the gov't stalls.

Just space the buildings out instead of creating a wall, like how it's down in most HK developments. Of course, it'll conflict with developer profits, but the situation is too dire to simply ignore and sweep under the carpet.

High-rise freeze call in warm Kowloon
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A green group wants a freeze on skyscraper development in Tai Kok Tsui in west Kowloon to slow urban warming and to prevent the wind-blocking encirclement of its town center.

"It is a common complaint of local residents that the area's temperatures have been rising steadily over the past decade, while the only major changes have been the series of high-rises forming a ring around Tai Kok Tsui," said Greensense president Roy Tam Hoi- pong.

Tam's group, which is calling for the government to construct roof-top gardens on the district's low-rise apartment buildings, will meet the Buildings Department to call for a hold on tower developments in the area and the disclosure of further building plans in the neighborhood.

Tam said the old town center clustered near the intersection of Tai Kok Tsui Road and Fuk Tsun Street is being choked by a series of high-rises.

He said Park Avenue and Central Park are dominating the south, and One SilverSea, Harbour Green, Metro Harborview and the Urban Renewal Authority's Cherry Street and Bedford Street projects towering above the north and west.

The group is also calling for a halt to the construction of Sino Land's Hoi Ting Road project which will complete the circle and turn the district into "Kowloon's newest walled city," Tam said.

An application by concerned student Bernard Tang Fai-cheong to view Sino Land's construction plan at the Buildings Department was rejected.

A similar request to Sino Land was also turned down.

A May survey of 283 residents found nearly 67.5 percent thought the building's orientation would reduce airflow, and 31 percent thought the blocks were too high.

The survey also found 71.8 percent in support of full public consultation for future projects, and 71.4 percent thought the skyscrapers were responsible for reducing airflow.

Tai Kok Tsui Wall

http://www.globalphotos.org/hongkong/2008/0316/IMG_5436.jpg

Somewhat unrelated but...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2594158655_d22d0c4224_b.jpg

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beoni/sets/72157603469724492/?page=2