Realizing a Dream City
Coming out of an intense few months of early morning and late night meetings crafting the proposal and video for the ‘Dream City’ open competition, the first event organized by Hong Kong Seek Road, we are feeling relieved and fortunate — with the trophy and prize check now under our belts.
Award Ceremony Group Photo. Source: 思籌知路 HKSeekRoad Facebook Page
We are a group of professionals ranging from our early 20s to late 30s. We come from backgrounds as diverse as graphics design, architecture, policy research, real-estate management, urban planning and information technology. We have come together because we recognize the one simple reality we each face in our own ways, that Space is Limited. That is also why we have so named this think tank.
Hong Kong Seek Road is an NGO recently founded (2017.2.20) by Tony Tse, surveyor and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It aims at gathering solutions-focused talents and ideas to work towards a more harmonious and prosperous Hong Kong. The competition has two briefs: the one we had chosen challenged contestants to identify 100 hectare (1 sq.km) of land within the borders of Hong Kong and propose a new town design that could accommodate 100,000 residents. (The other brief sought proposals for underutilized spaces.)
The Dream
Our ‘dream city’ proposal, titled 100 hub (in Chinese,《佰合》), is perhaps most notable for its clear personas. Like any new product in need of well-defined personas, our urban design ‘product’, too, needed its own personas. (After all, with the rate at which cities are built and expanded, they may as well be considered as humanity’s largest products to date.) If we had created a proposal based solely on the stuff of our dreams, but not those of the many more who we share this city with, our dream city would ultimately remain limited in scope. Different personas help us extend this dream beyond ourselves.
In 100 Hub, two distinct personas were articulated by Diana (Duan-li), a 68-year-old retired professional still actively contributing in education and the arts, who is concerned with her aging options as her ability to live independently wanes; and Vincent, a 28-year-old software engineer who shares a flat with his friend, with no room of his own, and is seriously considering emigration to Taiwan. As we see it, Diana and Vincent represent more broadly the experiences of two key demographic groups that are quickly becoming marginalized under Hong Kong’s present land, i.e. space, economy. In less than three decades, we will have a Hong Kong with 1/3 of the population past the retirement age of 65 (including most of us on this team) and possibly facing a severe shortage of talented young people such as Vincent. If the needs of these groups remain unmet, such an imbalance would likely drive young people and resources further away, costing the city its competitiveness and plunging it into a vicious cycle.
The main thrust of our proposal is presented in the 3-minute video below (Cantonese narration with bilingual subtitles). In the following weeks, we will publish a series of blog posts to elaborate each of our three core concepts: 1) intergenerational living; 2) terraced farm/housing; and 3) what we are calling the eco-tech industry.
Realization
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality.” — John Lennon
Now that our proposal has been recognized, we are actively seeking partnerships in order to realize any one or all of the three core concepts. We are planning to meet with various levels of the Hong Kong governments to pitch our ideas and solicit feedback. We are also looking to collaborate with visionary real-estate developers to put these vital elements to work.
Last but not least, we are eager to hear constructive feedback on how we can improve on these ideas: What should we further consider? What can we do differently? Are there missed opportunities to create greater synergy? We are listening. For this is not only the dream of us five; our wish is for this to become the dream we all dream together.
