Flexible Housing, Compact City and Environmental Preservation: A Critical Look at Hong Kong's Experience

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1 Flexible Housing, Compact City and Environmental Preservation: A Critical Look at Hong Kong's Experience Jia Beisi Department of Architecture The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong Abstract This paper is both an anaiysis and case study on the inter-reiations among sustainabie deveiopment, urban high density and flexible housing in the context of Hong Kong. lt assumes that Hong Kong does not iead to sustainabie deveiopment uniess environmentai policy promotes and rewards aitered energy and resource consumption patterns which constrain development within ecoiogicai iimits. The paper points out that the pattern and density of urban form within and between Settlements has a strong impact on urban energy use patterns, the ability to maintain bio-diversity, and the quality of ijfe. intensification of land use faciiitates the consewation of not only the land base, but also energy and resources through improved efficiencies in housing, transportation and other infrastructure. Sustainabie deveiopment requires a highiy dense urban form, to minimise energy and resource consumption and environmentai impact. However, high density also implies a iimited iiving area, which may bring constraints on iiving demands, including privacy, individuaiity, variety of choice and freedom to change. The paper observes that housing adaptability has been one soiution to fulfil all the functional requirements within very smaii housing units in Hong Kong. Tenants accommodate themseives by instaliing services, seiecting finishes on walls and fioors, and most significant, Setting up room partitions. With the aid of a survey, changes made by residents in these adaptable flats are reveaied. The paper argues that adaptability is living tradition, which shouid be improved and reintegrated into new housing construction. The paper concludes that a sustainable city needs a compact form, and a compact city requires higher degree of functionai mixture and housing adaptabiiity to sustain increasingiy diversified and individuaiised household demands. 1. INTRODUCTION Hong Kong is located on the east bank of the Pearl River and extends over an area of 1068 sq.km. comprising Hong Kong Island itself, the Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories and some 235 other islands. Having a population over nearly 6.5 million and a total developable landmass of not much more than 500 sq. km, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with nearly 26,000 people per Square kilometre living in the central urban areas. (Fig.l). In Hong Kong, with its history of free-market prosperity and land-lease through auctions, possibilities of making more pleasant alternatives are limited. Despite rapid economic growth, environmental quality in general still remains poor. Hong Kong has made a clear commitment to achieve sustainability in many areas of economy and society that affect the environment. Housing is the biggest construction sector in any city and it has a large impact of global environment, health quality, surrounding ecological patterns as well as life style. Yet relatively little is understood about how sustainability is to be implemented in Hong Kong with its specific economic, social, geographical, and historical condition. 2. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT MEANS LIMITED CONSUMPTION Environmentalism in Hong Kong is largely a problem of pollution control. (Kwong, 1990) It does not necessarily lead to sustainable development, because sustainabie development is a much broader concept. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without

2 Fig. 1 Map of Hong Kong showing urban area and natural park in overall geographic conditions. compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept contains two key elements: the essential needs of population, especially the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and limit of development imposed by the state of technology and social organization and rates of (natural or managed) assimilation by the counterpart ecosystems (Corson, 1990). For a developed economy, such as Hong Kong, altering over-consumptive lifestyles, reducing energy use and resource extraction, maximizing local waste recycling should become essential objectives in the city's rnission. Local environmental protection normally targets on improving the living standard of a local population. However, in the concept of sustainable development, living standards that go beyond the basic minimum are not sustainable if consumption of energy and resources standards have disregard for long-term and global sustainability. Consumption standards should be within the bounds of the ecologically possible and to which all can reasonably aspire. Yet many of developed countries or regions, including Hong Kong, live beyond the world's ecological means (Rees, 1992, Jia, 1999) (Table.l). Any ecological System has a defined space to accumulate energy and resources within itself. The dynamics of ecosysterns, like the tropical rainforests, achieve Eco-sustainability or horneostatic balance, or what natural ecologists call "climax systems" of high diversity, large bio-mass, and high stability through protection from rapid change and "through shifts of energy flows away from production and towards the maintenance of the Systems itself. (Yanarella, 1992 p.762) Human settlements typically seek to stall such ecosystems by high yielding of products and failing to accumulate stabilising elements of organic matter. "There is increasing evidence to suggest that we are breaking, or risking breaking, some important global carrying capacity thresholds." (European Commission, 1996) Table 1. Natural Resources Consumption and Pollutants of Hong Kong people in Comparison 1 C02 (Ton) 2.55 (Hong Kong Economic Daily, Sept. 10, 1999, P. a25) Development area is more likely to become the hinterland and dumping area of already developed areas. The economic interaction between Hong Kong and China justifies this statement. China has been the main destination of export and re-export of plastic waste from Hong Kong. The annual total of all plastic waste re-exported and exported to China from Hong Kong arnounted to 1.2 million tones

3 in 1995, which is equivalent to about 40 per Cent of the total quantity of municipal waste disposed in landfills each year. (Ng, 1997, p.489) Hong Kong's industrial base has been moving in recent years across the border to its hinterland in China due to rising costs in Hong Kong's Sewage Charge and TEC (Trade Effluent Surcharge), which is implemented as part of a few scattered the environmental actions (Ng, 1997, p.488). Hong Kong ranks in the world table in the top ten countries and territories for tropical hardwood consumption. The wood used in Hong Kong Comes from neighbouring countries of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. The increasing pollution in South China and loss of forest Cover in Southeast Asia inevitably affects Hong Kong in return. Sustaining one's own environment by destroying the environment of others is not the sustainable development. However, environmental protection strategies in Hong Kong seem, to a large extent, to rely on such an approach. What is needed is a determination of the minimum scale of consumption and altered production patterns into a balance-seeking process, rather than causing of a larger or more environmental pressure locally or globally. Resource consumption must be carried out within limits imposed by the natural environment. This calls for policies which are designed to manage - that is, reduce or redirect - certain demands, rather than to meet them or expand them. 3. SUSTAINABLE CITIES MUST BE COMPACT Urban form (the pattern and density of development within and between settlements) influences travel patterns, the ability to maintain bio-diversity, and the quality of life. The intensification of land use facilitates the conservation of not only the land base, but also energy and resource consumption through improved efficiencies in housing, transportation and other infrastructure. A highly dense urban form implies that a minimal amount of undeveloped land is to be converted to urban area. This is favorable for the maintenance of local biodiversity and biological resources. A high population density also implies lower transport requirements and facilitates the use of public and non-motorized modes (Table 2). Thus high density reduces travelling distances and promotes the use of energy-efficient means of transport, both leading to lower energy use (Norman, 1996) Further more, high density urban habitat also implies lower energy use for the building maintenance, notably because apartments are more compact and less dispersed than single-family homes. High density dwellings are also usually smaller than dwellings in low density residential areas; and this, together with the reduced needs for infrastructure in dense towns, also implies that the requirement for construction materials is usually lower. A compact city form is essential in achieving social and economic advantages. Table 2 Comparison of car usage in major Asian cities f 1 Cars per 1000 population GDP per capita (US$) Hong Kong Singapore Taiwan Japan South Korea (Transport Branch, 1994) (1992) Hong Kong's unique geographical features are dominated by mountains and islands surrounded by seawater. With a population in approaching 6 million and a total developable landmass of not much more than 500 sq. km, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with nearly 26,000 people per Square kilometer living in the central urban areas. In Hong Kong, urban areas occupy only 16-18% of total territory. Hong Kong has preserved 40 % of land as natural reservation areas (Fig. 1). High-density life style can save energy, land, natural resources, and contribute to natural reservation. Despite Hong Kong position among the most densely populated regions on Earth, Hong Kong today still boasts more native species of plants, mammals, reptiles and amphibians than the whole of Britain. (Conservancy Association, 1992, p.3) Through the history, Hong Kong has developed a unique pattern characterised with mixture of functions in high density. Retails, offices, restaurants and residential space are overlapped vertically in one block. Dynamism in cities remains an undiscovered treasure, evidenced By the largely unappreciated success of Hong Kong and other Asian cities. High density living is a Hong Kong tradition with tremendous ecological advantages. It should be highlighted in all planning, design, and policy strategies as the key element to be maintained to achieve a sustainable future.

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