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

Left: In Mong Kok’s Sai Yeung Choi Street, these old buildings have been colonized and largely rehabilitated by toy shops and restaurants. Old buildings with lower rents are attractive spaces forsmall businesses catering to niche interests.There are three rationales behind the amalgamation of plots:1. Administrative convenience. It is easier to tender out a project to a single developer, andto manage that developer during the planning and construction process. 1622.3.Hong Kong’s planners operate on the modernist principle that large, comprehensivedevelopments are more efficient than various smaller ones. Parking and servicing,transport interchanges, separation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, community facilitiesand open space can be provided more easily and with less duplication, enabling higherdensities to be accommodated. 163Maximizing GFA. Under Hong Kong’s Buildings (Planning) Regulations, sites aredivided into classes A, B, and C depending on whether they abut the street on one, two(i.e. occupying a corner), or three sides (i.e. occupying at least two corners) respectively.Due to daylight requirements, corner sites are allowed a higher plot ratio than sites inthe middle of a street, and sites that occupy two corners are allowed an even higher plotratio. 164 Therefore, if the goal is to obtain the highest plot ratio possible, you shouldcombine plots so that the resulting site faces the street on as many sides as possible. 165However, large scale redevelopments which place large sites under a single ownership andmanagement have some urban design disadvantages:They reduce the richness and variety of land uses, even if mixed uses are formally retained.This is because while buildings of different ages and ownerships can offer businesses andresidents a variety of rents and tenure options, a large shopping centre or housing developmentimposes homogeneity. 166A district’s character can be an economic asset. Except for the very largest or high-endshopping malls, few people visit standardized shopping centres outside of their own districts— there is usually another one just like it closer by. On the other hand, districts whichoffer a unique mix of shopping, eating, and entertainment options such as Wan Chai andMong Kok draw visitors from across the city and a significant number of tourists, in spite ofdrawbacks such as air pollution and traffic congestion.Large developments also reduce the adaptability of the urban fabric. They freeze in place ofthe economic and social priorities at the time they were built, yet a city’s economic and socialcircumstances are constantly shifting. In the future, when a large development becomeseconomically obsolete, it will be difficult to convert it to new uses. In contrast, smallerbuildings can adapt incrementally to economic change. 16763