Treating the Symptoms - A Critical Review of ... - Civic Exchange

678910Place-makingPedestrianenvironmentHeritagepreservationEnvironmentalperformanceTrafficTo urban designers, place-makingis the art of creating places with astrong identity which are vibrantand well-loved. Unlike in theWest, where place-making reliesmore heavily on architectureand monuments, notable placesin Hong Kong are defined bythe land uses and activities thattake place in them. 23 With theprogression of urban renewal,urban designers, activists,politicians and citizens havebecome increasingly concernedabout the loss of “characterstreets”, 24 familiar neighbourhoods,and street markets. The social,cultural, and economic value ofsuch places is being increasinglypromoted.Related to place-making isthe creation of a pleasantand interesting pedestrianenvironment. This is challengingin Hong Kong, which has narrowstreets, high traffic congestion,and extremes of hot and wetweather. Government policieshave concentrated in two areas:incentives for developers to setaside space for wider pavements,and the construction of pedestrianfootbridges and underpassesto accommodate capacity andseparate pedestrians from cars. Theefficacy of these policies has beendebated in recent years.Hong Kong’s limited heritagelegislation and policies have longbeen a source of dissatisfactionto conservationists, and rapidgrowth has meant that the citynow has relatively few historicalbuildings left. It became a majorpublic debate in 2006-07, withthe dramatic Star Ferry andQueen’s Pier protests. It hasbecome a highly contentious issue,with wide disagreement on therelative priorities that should beput on heritage and economicdevelopment, and what physicaland social structures, customs, andpractices constitute our heritage.In an era of scarce resources andclimate change, urban designershave become more concernedwith environmental performance:how to design cities with betterair quality, less pollution, andmore energy efficiency. In HongKong, about half of all energy useis from electricity consumption.Of that, about 80% of electricityconsumption and a third ofgreenhouse gas emissions comesfrom buildings, largely from airconditioninguse in the summer. 25Its densely built environmentproduces an “urban heat islandeffect” that makes urban areasseveral degrees hotter than thesurrounding countryside. 26 HongKong’s low-lying coastal locationmakes it vulnerable to storms andflooding should climate changeproduce a rise in sea levels oran increase in dramatic weatherevents. 27 The acute shortage oflandfill space makes it importantto reduce the need to dispose ofconstruction waste.One of the challenges of urbandesign is how to mediate potentialconflicts between pedestriansand cars, and how to designurban environments which arepedestrian-friendly but which canstill accommodate vehicular trafficin Hong Kong, this is especiallychallenging because of limitedspace. Plans to increase density inthe urban core must be weighedin terms of their impact on trafficcongestion.11