April_1965 — Page 26

CHAOS OR REGIONAL PLANNING?

HE recent speeches during the budget debate by the Unofficial Members of Legislative Council emphasis ed once more the need for proper planning in Hong Kong.

The budget itself is a financial plan and an inter- pretation of the proposed expenditures relative to each other gives a picture of the Government's policy and priorities. For want of a Plan, policy and priorities can but come into the realm of "one man's guess being as good as another's."

The contribution to the debate by the Unofficial Members gives the impression that the other man's guess is as good as the first man's. The majority of subjects which were raised were related to development, cheaper land, more housing, improvement in communications, urban enewal, more typhoon shelters, reafforestation and SO on. These come

on top of Government financial provision for a vast range of projects, roads, water supply, reclamations, housing, and social, educational, medical and administrative buildings.

Besides all this, there are the large projects launched in previous years, which are in progress or maturing Plover Cove reservoir. Lion Rock tunnel, Dockyard development scheme, and the new towns, not to mention the projects mooted by private persons and concerns, harbour bridge, harbour tunnel, monorail they come to mind without effort.

The Right Channels

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Surveys are being or have been made by experts which will inevitably lead to new proposals in providing more facilities, for instance, for education and traffic.

In Hong Kong, there is an abundance of ideas for general improvement and for development, but the question is: Where and how can they all be brought into perspective, evaluated and implemented in the correct priority?

The answer of course lies in Regional Planning, which seeks to look at the needs and the potentials of a definable area as a whole and to direct effort, physical and financial into the right channels. Each of Hong Kong's problems tend to be looked at in isolation, when here more than any where else, they are closely inter- related.

One has seen the effect of the greater development of individual sites permitted under the 1955 Buildings Ordinance, on traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular. What was thought to make a more productive use of land, has led to make-shift re-arrangements of traffic Toutings which are proving to be quite inadequate. The solution of one problem creates another. Without plan- ning, it is not possible to estimate the impact on the future of what is done to-day.

Regional Planning is not concerned merely with physical planning, but with the total planning of the region, so that the best use may be made of its resources for its economic and social development.

The future problems of Hong Kong become greater in magnitude as the present day problems are solved in an ad hoc manner. An instance of this is revealed in the budget debate, where one member showed how that aspect of the economy dependent on shipping was im- paired during the typhoon season because of insufficient typhoon shelters for the numerous small craft used in the loading and unloading of ships, and which lead to a premature scramble for safe moorings as soon as a typhoon formed East of Manila. Yet Government is proposing to reclaim part of the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter for a much needed extension of Gloucester Road: which is of the greater importance?

The trouble with the word Planning is that it tends to register in the mind as an irrevocable act, which appears to be anathema to an economy dependent on

By

Professor

W. G. Gregory

B Arch, ARIBA

33

versatility and subject to sudden debilitating forces outside its control. In fact the essence of Planning is adaptability, and variability according to changing conditions.

In Hong Kong, planning would show the results which would be achieved, if certain actions are taken it gives a prediction. A good plan would show alterna- tives to be adopted should the conditions change. It should define the goals and the ways of achieving them. phased in time and financial ability.

In addition to a Regional Plan, Hong Kong needs a Master Plan for its physical development. As is known, the Town Planning Board, for reasons too lengthy to be exposed here, can only operate in new, undeveloped areas, where the land is still in the hands of the Crown. In the Legislative Council debate, too few references were made to the environmental consequences of develop- ment, and to its impact on the community granted, there were references to the need for more open space. clean beaches (or was that on the Urban Council?) and recreational facilities. The unplanned housing develop- ment of private enterprise is worsening a situation, it is attempting to alleviate.

New Slums Created

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By uncontrolled sub-division and occupancy of space in new domestic buildings all that is happening is that new slums are being created for old, and one wonders if the much cherished contribution of private enterprise to housing is in fact all that worth having. It is in the existing built-up areas that physical planning is need- ed most and it is in this area, because of inadequate planning law, that it is incapable of being implemented.

In addition to a Regional Plan, Hong Kong needs of the planned town of Kun Tong should not be taken seriously, except like many other matters there is a good and bad way of doing things and this, being a case of the latter, is an object lesson in showing that planning is not a sub-division of land into sites and zones for different purposes and the creation of communicating links within and without, but of forming a cohesive and co-ordinated environment for the better functions of the life of com- munity. Kun Tong is a "shambles” and although loath to advocate aesthetic control over development, unless developers and their architects show a better sense of responsibility to their community, considerably more control must be exercised over their buildings.

It is apparent that it is not sufficient that lease con- ditions specify the type of building and the amount of capital that should be spent on the development, but also the form the building should take, the materials from which it should be constructed, the spaces that should be left for civic amenity (a matter mainly of building lines), the spaces reserved for parking and service vehicle access, and above all approval of plans should be dependent on the proposals conforming to the planned intentions for the civic development as a whole. It is no good architects complaining about restrictions to their creative abilities and their artistic license, when they do not use them.

The fault for bad development lies not only at the door of the architect and the developer. If the Town Plan

Far East Architect & Builder April, 1965

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