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We do not have a definitive solution for the preservation of Choi Hung Estate, as it requires further discussion among all stakeholders involved. Therefore, we need inspiration to better understand the challenges and opportunities from various perspectives. While reusing public housing heritage may be a relatively new concept in Hong Kong, it has been successfully implemented and within a mature heritage protection framework in the UK and other regions. What can we learn from that?
The ideas pool invites both international and local heritage, architectural experts to share their insights on the topic, and we also include residents of Choi Hung Estate to gain their unique perspective on the estate's value.
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‘’ Keeping a Place through Inviting Everyone In ‘’
Co-founder and Design Director, One Bite; Certified Professional Facilitator, IAF
Sarah Mui
Based on your experience in public engagement across various communities, what observations have you made about residents who show a strong sense of belonging?
In the context of redevelopment, what key information should we gather from residents during engagement?
In Choi Hung Estate, the road names are made by the residents themselves. What are some ways you think residents can actively participate in building a community?
In our experiences of engaging with various communities, the residents who demonstrate the strongest sense of belonging are those who have had memorable personal encounters, have engaged with their surroundings in diverse capacities, and have derived benefits from their environments for both their physical and mental well-being. These diverse capacities range from being informed about and consulted on the status of their surroundings to being able to co-create new ideas and co-design solutions for others. The greater the level of citizen participation, the stronger their positive sense of place will be.
In the context of redevelopment, I believe it is crucial to carefully identify both emotional attachments and physical needs. Embracing residents across a wide age spectrum will aid in building a resilient community network capable of withstanding the lengthy redevelopment process. Imagining the future over the next 10 to 15 years can be distressing for some residents, particularly the elderly. However, connecting them with younger generations can facilitate the sharing of cherished memories of their surroundings and the transmission of the area's history to the youth. This approach will foster a more holistic understanding of the future physical requirements of the place. Engagement presents an excellent opportunity to collaboratively create a better plan, where everyone can visualise their role and have a stake in re-creating memorable spots and developing new social spaces.
Participation can encompass both co-creation and co-design, enabling engagement with diverse types of residents. This starts from the initial stages of redevelopment planning, including the co-design of functions, aesthetics, names, and identity. All these are feasible with a facilitation team comprising both facilitators and designers. On the other hand, co-creation can also take various forms, such as collaborating on future public artworks by collecting objects from the present, and co-creating furniture, signage, and letterboxes for the future space. However, beyond merely producing outputs from engaging residents, it is crucial to consider the outcomes of such engagement. Effective participation, which encourages ongoing involvement, must connect with the local context, demonstrate respect for participants, and create real impact, i.e., tangible enhancements. It is not merely a one-off event to open dialogue with residents, but can be thoughtfully designed as a sustainable solution for place-keeping.
‘’ Architectural features, collective memories, and community networks are the hardest to reshape. ‘’
Conservation Architect, Founder of Hong Kong Heritage Exploration
(香港探古)
Nicky Wong
Based on your experience in heritage research and practice, what qualities in Choi Hung Estate stand out?
If we need to assess Choi Hung Estate’s value as a historic building, how should we interpret its value particularly in the social aspect?
What do you think are the challenges of preserving or conserving public housing?
A project that obtained the first highest award by HKIA - to house large populations but with low construction costs. A self-sustained community with retail street with full of original 60s shops Being frequently visited by tourists and appearing on social media platforms and video productions in recent years, CH is already an internationally famous tourist spot. The attraction of CH is not only embodied in the attractive colour scheme and harmonious playground setting as backdrop, but CH also demonstrated the appropriate spatial quality in the setting of different blocks and public space. A harmonious community that the residents have a high sense of identity.
Heritage value contains various aspects, e.g. historical value, architectural value, group value, social value, etc. The social value for the estate could be referred to the collective memories and the high sense of identity of residents, the community network of residents and shops, the social events happened in the Estate like any local or international people was living or visiting the Estate, and also the appearance and influence to overseas on social media platforms and popular cultures.
One can preserve the colour scheme, the trees, the spatial quality, or even the original design intention during new redevelopment. Our suggestion is to preserve the carpark cum playground with low blocks, and to redevelop the high blocks into even higher towers blocks, so the distance between towers and the spatial quality can be maintained. The estate is about master planning and not a discrete building, it is hard to preserve very piecemeal built artifacts and the future generations can understand the overall values as mentioned above
‘’ We are preserving not just for own generation, but future generations. ‘’
Ex-President of Hong Kong Institute of Architectural Conservationists
Wendy Ng
Why should we begin to consider the preservation of modernist buildings, even though many still exist?
What role do you see heritage preservation playing in urban redevelopment?
Given your experience in converting Chai Wan Factory Estate into public housing, how do you envision the potential functions of the slab block if we were to retain one or more of them?
The same question could have been asked about pre-war shophouses 50 to 100 years ago, which we now treasure much more than we did in the past. We are preserving for our future generations, not only for the existing one.
They should play an important role in serving as icons/ landmarks for the local community, or even contribute as streetscape of local characters. They should not be ignored, but respect in urban redevelopment.
Using it for residential purposes or other similar functions will be more ideal. Or any other use which will impose the least intervention to the historic fabrics.