Major Speeches

Speech by FS at Hong Kong Institute of Planners Annual Dinner 26 November 2015, Thursday

President (Eunice) Mak, Members of the Hong Kong Institute of Planners, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening.

It’s my great pleasure to be here tonight, in the good company of planners, to celebrate, among other things, the importance as well as the value of planning. All of you here tonight, representing a broad range of dedicated and self-motivated practitioners, have contributed significantly in your own way to the development of a sustainable and livable built environment for the people of Hong Kong.

Like the biblical Noah, and I don't mean Russell Crowe, the consummate planner who began to build the ark long before the first drop of rain touched down, I, too, believe in the primacy of planning. Not only because of the fact that I have served as the Secretary for Planning and Lands, but also because I had the precious opportunity of exploring the intricate and fascinating discipline of planning during my years in architecture school.

I was actually fortunate enough to have been a student in classes taught by the legendary Professor Kevin Lynch. It is most fitting that Professor Lynch’s seminal research work, The Image of the City, which has inspired generations of professionals in architecture city planning as well as public administration, is chosen to be this evening’s theme.

Professor Kevin Lynch, who was also a practicing urban designer and planner, considered that people form mental maps of their surroundings to read and to associate with their city. He also advocates the importance of nourishing the image of the city and building an environment for people with a sense of belonging.

His studies focused on the dynamic interaction of five city elements in the planning and development process, and he coined them as paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. These, he said, lend meaning to the city and the people who live and visit it; they also help individuals navigate their urban environment, or in Professor Lynch’s word, the “wayfinding” by people through the understanding of sensory cues from the external environment.

Indeed, as Professor Lynch said on the very first page of his book: and I quote “Every citizen has had long associations with some part of his city, and his image is soaked in memories and meaning.” End quote.

For Hong Kong, the compact city development, the polycentric urban pattern and the ultra-high density living environment surrounded by mountainous terrains, have shaped the image of our city in the eyes of the people who live here, who work here and also visit here. And in the eyes of the professionals, Hong Kong is an exemplary model for urban development.

In Hong Kong, planners and architects as well as public administrators like ourselves have been taking on the challenge of maximizing the use of the limited land resources, and working hard to satisfy competing demands for housing, commercial, infrastructure, social, nature conservation and many others facilities, in a creative and efficient manner. It is, indeed, a high-rise balancing act bent on meeting continuous economic and population growth, while striving for a sustainable and rewarding living environment.

Professor Lynch believed that how people “see” and identify with a city, and how they move through it, can help planners make a city memorable. Our planning and development certainly recognises that unique vision of Professor Kevin Lynch.

The Victoria Harbour is perhaps this city’s most distinctive landmark, together with the skyscrapers that ring it and climb the hills from the water’s edge. Our ridgelines at Victoria Peak and Lion Rock provide edges, and the city’s East-West character reflects our cultural roots.

More than acknowledging these attributes and their critical importance to our city’s image, we, together, are planning to enhance them. The harbour, for one, must remain vibrant, accessible and symbolic of Hong Kong. Our vision is of a harbourfront melding innovative architecture, and connected open spaces and green corridors, all served with a variety of leisure and recreational activities for locals and tourists alike.

We have in place Urban Design Guidelines stipulating a “20 per cent building-free zone.”This will preserve views to the ridgelines around the harbour when viewed from any of a number of key vantage points.

We are promoting buildings with “stepped heights.” These will increase visual interest to the harbour. We are also encouraging building variety to ensure that the harbour itself dazzles in the diversity of images that it creates.

Heritage protection is a priority as well, but Hong Kong is also modern, smart, green and resilient. Our nine new towns are home to half of our population. Equally important, they are real-life examples of urban land-use planning that works. I, myself, vividly remember the fast and impressive mushrooming of the Shatin new town in the early 1980s, during my first posting in the Hong Kong Government as the Assistant District Officer of that miraculous development that 650,000 people now live.

We are now readying for another wave of new town development, and you can ask K.K. Ling. That means ensuring that we have enough land for a future that can sustain us all.

Our New Development Areas – in Kwu Tung North, Fanling North and Hung Shui Kiu – have been planned on the compact-city concept to minimise land use while maximising socio-economic benefits. We are pragmatic practitioners of three-dimensional planning in creating a sense of space, to offer an urban living environment that is both balanced and in harmony rather than simply neat and organised.

Our town centres feature pedestrian boulevards, terraced settings and shop frontage to create a sense of place and to enhance their vitality for the people who live, work, play and shop in them.

Speaking of which, the designated shopping streets serve four additional planning purposes: as visual corridors, ventilation paths, pedestrian thoroughfares and open space.

Consider, too, the variegated landscape in the Tung Chung extension. There you can take in the rural topography of the Tung Chung Valley and its natural coastline, the green backdrop of the North Lantau Country Park and new town park, together with the high-density residential and commercial zones of the Tung Chung East reclamation. And the latter even offers a welcome waterfront promenade and a marina.

We see room there, as well, for applying urban design guidelines. I’m talking about "stepped building heights", again which would create a descending building height profile towards the waterfront. We plan, as well, to use unique natural landscape in the new town fringe area, as well as strategically located public open spaces, to create breathing space between high-density developments.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our vision and development strategy for Hong Kong will continue to aim to give people the form and the meaning, as well as the pleasure and the ease, in moving about the city that we call home.

Your planning skills and your professional dedication, together with your passion and love for Hong Kong, will go a long way in ensuring that we get the city that we all want. Of that, I’m sure that you will continue to stick to your principles in putting forward well-considered planning recommendations based on your professional judgments according to the urgings of your heart for the benefits and enjoyment for generations to come.

Thank you, and have a great evening.

November 26, 2015