TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme B: Creating a livable, healthy and environmentally viable citieswhat is so far exploited. The research project "linear city" is to explore suchpotential.In the history of cities, transportation, and particularly rail transport has been aspine of urban development.Railway transport has played a central role in the history of urban developments.It now can be a major factor in the government policies, and planned sustainabledevelopment. These policies include a host of ordinances such as Land ordinance,Rail ordinance, transport and planning policies. These all play a decisive part inthe quality of the transport itself as well as urban developments that are an integralpart of the railway transport model in Hong Kong.Examination of the developments show that they have developed in isolation fromone another. Railway as railway, housing as a part of housing policy and practice,civic development as stand alone institutions. But it doesn't seem to be recognizedthat the railway presents a special condition with special opportunities. This alongwith a new approach as illustrated in the present research to the design of housingdevelopments can contribute significantly to the improvement of urban quality inHong Kong and offer an effective platfom for the increasing desire on Hong Kongresidents to participate in the formation of their environment.The approach as illustrated in the design for Pat Heung meets all currentregulations and achieves the same density and economic profile as the more typicalHK approaches. (see fig. 4 ). It illustrates that while there is much room forimprovement in housing and related development policies, a major factor inimproving the urban quality of Hong Kong lies in improvements in the process andthe product of DESIGN. "446