2600224
C.S. 84
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3.
J
XCR(71)237
and occupation of the estate and the provision of community requirements cannot wait until they come into being as a part of normal town growth. This would merely repeat the problems faced in urban estates and for this reason essential facilities for the daily life of a community should be built into the Sha Tin housing estate from the outset. The estate will thus form the nucleus around which the rest of the new town will grow.
8
In general, marketing and shopping facilities have been grouped centrally on an elevated deck, with vehicular parking, service areas and storage facilities at a lower, partially underground level. In grouping them, at an elevation of only 9 feet above the normal ground level, and providing a covered walkway giving easy access to the public transport termini, the proposals will generate a natural pedestrian flow at the elevated deck level. At the same time it has the added advantage of separating pedes- trians and vehicles. It also makes greater use of the site area by placing facilities, which have normally only been situated at ground level, one over the other. The scheme depends for its success on the pedestrian links, because without these, the natural reluctance of people in general to climb above ground level would lead to a repetition of the confusion caused by lack of separation of traffic in older estates. Similarly the provision of a covered walkway provides all-weather, convenient access between all the main features of the scheme,
Commercial Centre
9
Designated "Shopping Centre" on the layout, this 2-storey complex could provide some 36,000 square feet of commercial space for renting: it could house showrooms for service agencies, department stores, a library, post office, administrative offices, police post and part of the restaurant structure attached to it. It could be air-conditioned and this would in many ways be more desirable, but the implications need closer examination. The roof could be used as floodlit recreation area.
Shops/Commercial Bays
10
These, and space for other commercial undertakings, are provided at deck level in Blocks 2, 3 and 5; service facilities being located in Block 5.
Storage Facilities for Shops
11
Experience has shown that shops are in need of greater storage facilities than has been provided within a single through bay on the ground floor of a domestic resettlement block. Elevation of the shopping deck by 9 feet will provide substantial storage facilities for rent, conveniently located below the deck, in a position that does not interfere with retail sales frontage.
Market
12
The covered walkway, which runs through the first floor level of the Shopping Centre, leads to the roof of the market which lies in the
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