Hong Kong Power at BODW HK
A PermaCity Project
During the Business of Design Week Hong Kong in December 2008 The Why Factory presented results of the master class ‘Hong Kong Fantasies’ which was held from October 19 – 31, 2008 at CUHK. During that master class directed by Winy Maas almost 70 students from 5 different universities from the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Beijing were collaborating in a joint studio to explore possibilities and to generate design concepts for the future development of Hong Kong. The results were presented in a form of a video animation and a conference.
The movie ‘Hong Kong Power’
The movie ‘Hong Kong Fantasies’ shows the results of the master class as 3D animation in a comprehensive way and proposes a series of visions for the future of Hong Kong. It analyses the city’s strengths and weaknesses and indentifies its potentials. Instead of regarding the city’s spatial restriction as limitation for further urban development, such restriction could create inventive solutions, as for instance the vertical extension of hills to enlarge the ground space. A new housing typology or approach to residential design could help reduce migration to Shenzhen or other cities. A combination of living, working, retail and culture along the waterfront could facilitate creating an attractive waterfront development. The implication of new building guidelines, such as the creation of canopies and increase of shaded areas could counteract Hong Kong’s need for cooling and therefore reduce its high energy demand. The movie has been continuously presented on a big screen in the framework of the BoDW 2008 exhibition.
Conference ‘Hong Kong Fantasies: The Future of the City’
As part of the BoDW detour program the conference ‘Hong Kong Fantasies: The Future of the City’ was organized on December 10 in Theatre 1 of the HKCEC. Based on the results of the master class the conference discussed the opportunities and threats of a sustainable development of Hong Kong (and of ‘The City’ in general). The conference started with 3 statements:
1. What makes a City attractive? (Meng Yan, Urbanus)
2. What makes a City worth living? (Li Shiqiao, CUHK)
3. What Makes a City sustainable? (Jurgen Rosemann, TU Delft)
Afterwards, the movie ‘Hong Kong Power’ was presented by Winy Maas and discussed by a panel of experts.