Mong Kok: Where Are Our Public Spaces?

Author. HO Ching Nam Jose, LEUNG Ho Ham Holly, LEUNG Lik Heng Joshua.

The popularity of Mong Kok is a very unique feature of the district but the fact that it is highly populated led to a serious city issue. There is no space for pedestrians/shoppers to take a rest. It is no longer a public-friendly area, so we would like to find out in the project: how can the public area can be more user-friendly?

Our group did an experiment to investigate the problem. We put a few chairs on Sai Yeung Choi Street on a Saturday evening to let people rest. During the two hour experiment, there were around forty people who sat on the chairs. We interviewed some of them and asked about their opinions on the problem.

People who sat on the chairs mainly used them for three purposes, which were: resting, eating and chatting. Most of them agreed that there are not enough public spaces in Mong Kok. The parks, McDonald’s and cafes are the only places they can take a rest or, that have other leisure purposes. But the above are not good solutions as they are either far away or require money.

Regarding the sustainability of Mong Kok, our group has come up with two solutions. The first one is to place installations with different purposes, depending how on people use them. This would make the society more interesting. But placing such installations would make the road narrower and more crowded. The second one is to reconstruct the area by an appropriate land-use plan. However, it is way too complicated and expensive. It is not worth doing reconstruction from the view of economics.

Nevertheless, the core concept of our group is to raise the awareness of people to consider the unhealthy and unsustainable situation in Sai Yeung Choi Street as well as Mong Kok. Our group hopes that there will be public leisure places in the foreseeable future!