Research Seminar – Land Supply and Land-use Planning of Public Open Space in Hong Kong

Topic:
Land Supply and Land-use Planning of Public Open Space in Hong Kong

Speaker:
Mr. Darren Man-wai Cheung
PhD Candidates
Department of Urban Planning and Design
The University of Hong Kong

Schedule:
Date: 29 October, 2013 (Tuesday)
Time: 12:45 – 2:00 pm
Venue: Room 829, 8/F Knowles Building, HKU

Abstract:
Modern cities do not only seek to enhance economic vitality, but they also provide quality urban environment which could achieve social and environmental sustainability. To achieve such planning objective, open space constitutes an indispensible part. Nevertheless, open space is never a unitary planning concept. From a conventional planning perspective, open space usually refers to recreational land-use. While cities have undergone drastic socio-political changes over the last two centuries, open space, as well as the understanding of recreation, has also been constantly redefined. Owing to its malleable characteristic, open space is vulnerable to the manipulation by the social segments in power, such as the government and the landowners, in order to serve their individual interests.

This research intends to explore why and how open space has been prejudiced in the densely populated city of Hong Kong. Viewing from the dynamics between the government, the developers, and the community and using both qualitative and quantitative historical public data, this study intends to explore the following research questions: a) What functions did open space perform in the historical development of Hong Kong? b) How was open space redefined and transformed to suit the needs of contemporary social and economic development? c) What was the role of urban planning as an institution in determining the current morphology of Hong Kong? The answers to these questions will provide insights to the development of public open space in Hong Kong and understand the current unsatisfactory provision of public open space and, in so doing, improve matters for the future.

About the Speaker:
Mr. Darren Cheung is a PhD student at the Department of Urban Planning and Design. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the City University of New York, and a Master of Arts Degree in Social Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interests include open space planning and political economy.

~~ ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME ~~

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