Hei Yin Lee

About

Cities are ever-growing and changing - and the ways in which our built environment are perceived, designed and ultimately shaped reflect the many forces behind the workings of this complex conglomerate. Policies, now incorporated into market mechanisms motivated by figures and counts, along with civic disengagement had gradually consumed our ability to interfere with, or imagine otherwise the spaces and ways we could live in.


Situating the project within the Hong Kong government's planning framework and strategy of 2030+, this is a futile undertaking to scrutinise and evaluate comprehensively on the city's forthcoming regional restructuring. Nonetheless it is an exercise to implement the critically and spatially configured set of skills I have gained over the course of my architectural education, to make sense for myself what is it that we are countering, as well as sites of intervention I could contribute towards the inclusive and organic growth of the place that raised me.

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Statement

As a result of its bespoke terrain and colonial histories of conflict in land ownership, less than 25% of the total land area of Hong Kong is built and inhabited - along with an effective, self-restraining land policy which led to the formation of a ultra-high density cityscape that demands efficiency.


Density does not automatically equate with homogeneity, but an oversight of existing social and environmental vitality might result to such. The Northern Metropolis - a plan to expand and decentralise the urban population to the New Territories with 8 New Towns and New Development Areas, are going to be established through the displacement of urban agricultural farmlands and communities.


In the wake of the awareness to building sustainable, compact cityscapes, the project argues for the extended benefits of these sites of local food production as well as community ties - that are considered detritus of an industry in decline - now mere obstacles to urban expansion.


The project aims to locate the various land uses that are inefficiently utilised and irrationally negated by an autocratic zoning plan, which could serve as solutions to this self-imposed notion of land scarcity. Despite the many realistic facets of conflicts in parties and policies, how might our city look if we employ and exemplify architecture as a tool?



The Northern Metropolis

Fanling New Town in 1983
Fanling New Town in 1983 — amount of farmland has been diminishing since most of the primary production and manufacturing of goods had been shifted to China's Special Economic Zones, as well as the growing demands of an urban population that took place to transform the city
Fanling North New Development Area in 2021
Fanling North New Development Area in 2021 — the ongoing site formation provides a glimpse to the displacement of self-subsistence and autonomy to food as well as an inclusive, organic landscape within the process of homogenisation

Rational Alternative to Urban Expansion

Location of various land uses within the immediate FLN Zoning Plan
Location of various land uses within the immediate FLN Zoning Plan — agricultural farmland, brownfield sites and village type development zones
Study of the extensive site and the zoning plan area of exercise
Study of the extensive site and the zoning plan area of exercise
The resulting reconfiguration of the three land uses that would counter the existing boundary of intervention
The resulting reconfiguration of the three land uses that would counter the existing boundary of intervention

1. Revitalisation of Farmland

Fanling North New Development Area and its surrounding dedicated agricultural land uses
Fanling North New Development Area and its surrounding dedicated agricultural land uses — only 15% of these farmlands are currently productive, the decline in self-sufficiency of vegetable production is manifested in a city scale that demands and relies heavily on import
The Mashipo Village that will be entirely razed to provide land for housing
The Mashipo Village that will be entirely razed to provide land for housing — farmlands have been gradually acquired, abandoned and speculated, whilst the ones that persist have already created a model of compact urban / suburban tie of food production and consumption that minimise transport and waste
Farmers' living, market and footpath that expand the farmland as a productive landscape for the benefit of the public
Farmers' living, market and footpath that expand the farmland as a productive landscape for the benefit of the public
Construction methodology and the conjunction of landscape, structures and occupations
Construction methodology and the conjunction of landscape, structures and occupations
A site of exchange where the consumer is encouraged to reinstate an understanding of the daily necessities that we demand
A site of exchange where the consumer is encouraged to reinstate an understanding of the daily necessities that we demand — knowing the producers and learning about the processes that would accentuate and establish the notion of sustainability

2. Densification of Brownfield Sites

Brownfield sites location, operation requirements and inefficiency
Brownfield sites location, operation requirements and inefficiency — to be accommodated by the multi-storey building typology, in order to release land for more vital urban processes
Ground floor operation with high headroom for shipping containers
Ground floor operation with high headroom for shipping containers
Upper floor operations with less stringent requirements and flexible space to goods storage or vehicle parking
Upper floor operations with less stringent requirements and flexible space to goods storage or vehicle parking
Conventional concrete frame compared to a post-tensioned stone and CLT timber alternative
Conventional concrete frame compared to a post-tensioned stone and CLT timber alternative — just as a substitute for materials could be strategised even in the most demanding spatial requirement of a 14 metre grid; land could also possibly be reconfigured to accommodate functions more efficiently and rationally despite the current difficulties proclaimed

3. Expansion of Low-rise Urban Villages

Village type development zones
Village type development zones — their capacity to grow in contrast to the denser urban landscape, currently bounded by small house policies or guidance to squatter accommodation that attempted to provide, accommodate yet also regulate the rights of these inhabitants
Plan of Sheung Shui Wai
Plan of Sheung Shui Wai — the restraint to 3 storeys had led to both the obstruction to urban expansion but also unintended consequences of degrading living quality in terms of air and light provision, as shown in this typology of walled villages belonging in the zone
Current illegal extensions and narrow streetscapes as a product of the policy
Current illegal extensions and narrow streetscapes as a product of the policy
Proposed strategy to alter the typology that would create new space and better open space
Proposed strategy to alter the typology that would create new space and better open space
Means to which the village could be expanded and improved
Means to which the village could be expanded and improved — the manifestations to which open spaces could be incorporated and some of the traditions still linger
A framework that allows a separate entity and ownership to be built
A framework that allows a separate entity and ownership to be built
Ability to expand without tarnishing the intentions of the policies
Ability to expand without tarnishing the intentions of the policies — The framework to build on the existing structures first is also to prevent the unauthorised extensions to take place, regulating the existing owners' privilege whilst still creating new provisions to the overall needs and functions of the city