published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

The sense of belonging and identity of people in Hong Kong has strengthen since the 1990s, particularly after the 1997 handover, there was a growing recognition of the importance of heritage conservation. In response to the growing public concerns and heated discussions on the issue of conservation of heritage structures after the demolition of Star Ferry Pier and Clock Tower in December 2006, the heritage conservation policy and new initiatives are drawn up in the 2007-08 Policy Address and Policy Agenda. However, the conservation policy and initiatives are limited to individual building level only. This may result in the incompatibility of the heritage building with the surrounding developments. As a result, many conservationists and scholars comment that it should expand the heritage conservation work beyond individual buildings by embarking on an 'area-based' approach. Overseas experiences especially from United Kingdom in area based heritage conservation have been studied to provide legitimate guidance i.e. Conservation Areas. On the other hand, Area Based Heritage Conservation cannot be achieved without the facilitation of a town planning system. As a result, the relationship between heritage conservation under the town planning system has been reviewed, problems and issues has been examined. This study reveals that after the Government’s recent policy and initiatives in the past few years, to a large extent, have resolved or alleviated some of the decades-old problems under the existing town planning system. The objective of heritage conservation has been incorporated to different levels of town planning system. However, it is surprised that the adoption of Area Based Heritage Conservation is still not yet incorporated into the town planning system like Conservation Areas in the UK. Are there any difficulties to adopt this in Hong Kong? The answer is yes. Although there is still no timetable for the adoption of the designated area of "Special Design Area" ("SDA") proposed in the "Comprehensive Review of the Town Planning Ordinance" 1991 for area based heritage conservation in statutory plans, the introduction of planning application submitted to Town Planning Board ("TPB") for consideration under section 12A for planning permission under Town Planning (Amendment) Ordinance 2004 is found to be a usable tool for the area based heritage conservation under the statutory power of town planning system at district level. In practice, this may not work, as seen with the s.12A planning application submitted by the Central and Western Concern Group ("CWCG") which was not agreed by the Metro Planning Committee ("MPC") under TPB on 8 May 2009. If political and economical considerations were ignored, CWCG’s proposals in the s.12A planning application can be implemented "in theory" under the existing planning system of Hong Kong. However, gaining the approval of s.12A planning application from MPC is just the first step of the whole town planning process. This study continues to examine the following steps in town planning processes under different sections of Town Planning Ordinance ("TPO"), particularly in the plan-making process under section 6 of the TPO, which CWCG needs to go through in order to incorporate the accepted proposal eventually into the relevant approved statutory plan for area based heritage conservation. The whole process is lengthy and during the process CWCG’s proposal may subject to the attacks of the individual property owners and the developers, etc., as the development potential of their properties is being affected. If political and economical considerations were ignored, CWCG’s proposals in the s.12A planning application can be implemented "in theory" under the existing planning system of Hong Kong. However, gaining the approval of s.12A planning application from MPC is just the first step of the whole town planning process. This study continues to examine the following steps in town planning processes under different sections of Town Planning Ordinance ("TPO"), particularly in the plan-making process under section 6 of the TPO, which CWCG needs to go through in order to incorporate the accepted proposal eventually into the relevant approved statutory plan for area based heritage conservation. The whole process is lengthy and during the process CWCG’s proposal may subject to the attacks of the individual property owners and the developers, etc., as the development potential of their properties is being affected. This study concludes that although s.12A planning application has 'hidden' potential for area based heritage conservation, under the current political sentiment, it will not have the chance (i) to be accepted by the TPB and (ii) to incorporate the approved proposal into the relevant statutory plan subsequently unless it can obtain the consent of the sole current land owner/all current land owner(s) (private/government). As there are several successful projects of area based heritage conservation implemented by the Urban Renewal Authority in the past few years e.g. the Blue House Cluster in Wan Chai, the MPC recommends discussing the issues in the recent Urban Renewal Strategy Review ("URSR"). However, from the latest "Public Views and Future Direction – Paper for the Consensus Building Stage of the URSR" released in May 2010, does not mention about Area Based Heritage Conservation. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

It is a common phenomenon in many developments that the old cannot coexist with the new especially when our city is under rapidly development pressure for elevating the city competitiveness. Many decayed urban districts have neglected the importance of urban redevelopment. As a result, many featured streetscapes are disappearing. There are many discussions and a huge public noise on protecting some commemorative old districts because those unique streets are our local identities and living cultures. There are two well known urban renewal projects recently - Lee Tung Street and Wing Lee Street. The first one is completely demolished while the second one has escaped from bulldozer thanks for an award-wining film. These two cases exactly indicate that the fate of all decayed districts are either completely demolished or completely preserved. Frankly, it is sad to witness our local identities losing bit by bit, but the decayed urban districts are definitely needed to be regenerated to enhance better living qualities. This thesis aims to examine a landscape approach to reimage a streetscape for Lee Tung Street renewal project, exploring in a new way to sustain the unique street culture. Intangible value is significant in streetscape. It is an image of a city and a section of a city development history. The demolition of Lee Tung Street has destroyed part of the development history and has erased a section of the city memory. The proposed model aims to reframe the missing link in urban content and to sustain the intangible heritage of Lee Tung Street. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Heritage conservation has become the hot issue since the well known public participated protection movement of Star Ferry Pier and Queen Pier. It made her to rethink her planning strategy related to heritage conservation issue. In 2007, the government announced the public participated heritage revitalization scheme. It allow public to participate into the revitalization program of the enlisted building heritage. In view of such change, this dissertation aimed to evaluate whether the revitalization scheme before and after 2007 is part of town planning strategy or just a compromise to the planning aspect. By the comparison of the revitalization projects of Wancahi Blue House Cluster, Tsim Sha Tsui Former Police Headquarter and Kom Tong Hall, the new town planning strategy could be better illustrated. Lastly, the paper would describe the British experience of building heritage regeneration. It set a good example for the Hong Kong Government in the improvement of town planning and heritage conservation issue. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

In the context of global competition, Hong Kong has positioned her social and urban infrastructure to foster the advanced service sector activities of urban tourism. The success of the urban area as a place making for tourism is the embedding of sustainable and innovative principles in the planning process and the implementation of the stakeholders and travelers aspirations. A holistic and adaptive public transport planning and alternative transport modes are one of the key issue that contribute to the success of urban tourism development now and the future. For the advancement of travel information technology and infrastructure of urban tourism, it enables more individual travelers rather than conventional group-tour visit to Hong Kong. Those individual travelers are mostly in the form of slow travel where one visits to destinations more slowly overland, stay longer and travel less with the importance of travel experience to a destination engagement with slow modes of transport. This morphology from mass and efficient tourism to newer form of individual and experienced tourism takes forward the notion of queries and justifications of conventional fast and efficient transport planning and modal choice could provide tourist a real understanding of localities of urban culture and detail settings. This dissertation aiming to examine the concept and theory of slow travel in associate with slow mode of transportation application and the potential planning recommendation for urban tourism in Hong Kong. The objective of this research is to see how slow travel theories that had been popularized in overseas countries could be applied in Hong Kong with the support of public transport service and planning enhancement. In this research, the interdisciplinary research to examine of the problem is form a multi-disciplinary approach while the solution and recommendation is form a management perspective –transport and urban planning / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Hong Kong has long been regarded as a global city and the regional service provider in the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) region, with the provision of an opened and accountable economic and legal system, support of high-quality infrastructure and policies, and being the gateway to enter the Chinese market. This can be reflected by its consistently high score in different global competitiveness ranking index. A lot of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) are attracted by this reputable global city development of the city, establishing their headquarters and other tertiary services in Hong Kong. Other cities in the GPRD region tend to specialize in factory production with their comparative advantage in lower production cost in terms of labour, looser regulations and industrial agglomeration. The functional division in the GPRD region is well defined spatially which can be explained by the traditional "Front office, back factory" model. However, this settings has been changing as many PRD cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai have transformed their city's vision towards a global city currently. These cities have initiated economic restructuring and industrial upgrading towards modern servicing industries, and gradually force out the original factories and production base to less developed PRD cities or other locations beyond the GPRD region. New incentives are offered by the central and municipal government in attracting TNCs to invest in high value-added producer services, establishing Research and Development (R&D) base and headquarters in these PRD cities under urban entrepreneurialism. The dominant role of Hong Kong as a global city and regional service provider is challenged under rapid inter-city competition with these cities. This results in a new spatial dynamics and functional specialization settings for the GPRD region that cannot be explained by the traditional model. This study will examine the existing and potential role of global city development in Hong Kong and other PRD cities with reference to the investment choices of TNCs in the GPRD region. Through a comparative analysis with Guangzhou, the major strengths, weaknesses, and other factors required for global city development of Hong Kong and PRD cities will be identified. In addition, the latest locational settings of different functions will be explored in the case study analysis of TNCs in modern servicing and financing industry, manufacturing industry, and information and high-tech industry. The analysis will assist in identifying potential development opportunities, weaknesses of Hong Kong and PRD cities in attracting further investments from TNCs. Recommendations will be offered at the end of the study to enhance the overall competitiveness of Hong Kong and the GPRD region, through "co-opetition" incentives, fostering the development of GPRD mega-city region under the network city concept, and formulating an updated version of "Front office, back factory" model. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture