Authority in which floor and wall panels are cast on site using a Japanese system.
Since 1960 the Department has given the larger contractors the opportunity of submitting proposals for repetitive type resettlement buildings in competition with in situ construction, but to date they have been unable to show an overall advantage in the use of prefabricated components.
There is no doubt however that the time is not far off when the economic conditions in the building industry in Hong Kong will encourage a change to the wider use of structural prefabricated methods.
REPORT ON SLUM CLEARANCE
URBAN renewal in Hong Kong the demolition of old and dilapidated substandard buildings, the replanning of the cleared area to provide improved communications and amenities and its redevelopment in accordance with an approved plan is the main recommendation of a Work- ing Party Report published last month.
The Working Party full title: Working Party on Slum Clearance and the Effects on Urban Redevelopment was headed by the Hon. A.M.I. Wright, Director of Public Works, and was appointed by the Governor in 1964 to investigate and report on the problems involved in slum clearance in the urban areas of the Colony.
The report recommends a procedure for implement- ing the process of urban renewal, which involves the re- sumption by Government of land within the area sche- duled for clearance and redevelopment.
Domestic tenants would be offered accommodation in Government low cost housing or resettlement estates; tenants of shops and other business or industrial premises would be entitled to monetary compensation. Crown lessees in certain cases would be offered value for value exchanges in lieu of cash compensation. After reversion and owners and tenants had vacated the area, the old property would be demolished, and associated engineering works including road widening and realignment and re- provisioning would be undertaken.
SUITABLE MANAGEMENT
Sites in the redeveloped area, if not required for Government purposes would be disposed of for develop- ment in accordance with a detailed plan of the urban renewal area. But the Working Party emphasises the im- portance of the need to ensure suitable management of any buildings erected by private enterprise, either by the inclusion of suitable clauses in the lease conditions or by means of legislation.
The Report describes this procedure in detail and in- cludes a plan illustrating what might be done within the district bounded by Pottinger Street, Jubilee Street and Old Bailey on the east, Caine Road and Bonham Road on the south. Hill Road on the west and the waterfront on the north.
The district has an area of about 256 acres and a population of about 275,000 giving a gross residential density of 1.070 persons per acre. It is very deficient in public open space, schools and community facilities The district is in turn sub-divided into 16 generally. urban renewal areas, and one of these, bounded by Queen's Road, Hollywood Road and Shing Wong Street, has been chosen for detailed study as a pilot scheme.
This pilot scheme site with an area of 12.8 acres and a population of about 20,000, contains a higher than average proportion of pre-war buildings and a high degree of over-crowding.
A large proportion of the area is divided into very small lots which cannot be redeveloped economically with- out amalgamation, and a considerable proportion of the buildings within the area are potentially dangerous. It thus provides a typical problem which will have to be solved in urban renewal if the Working Party's proposals are adopted by Government.
The pilot scheme provides sites for commercial/re- sidential development, a primary school and a secondary school, a Government building, and public open space.
PRIVATE DEVELOPERS
The Working Party, in its Report, states that the greater the part which could be played by private deve- lopers, particularly existing lessees of Crown land in an urban renewal district, the less would be the need for eventual resumption by Government. With this end in view, the Report recommends that, subject to certain basic conditions, private redevelopment should be permitted within a scheduled urban renewal district.
The proposed programme of Renewal will involve rehousing some 25,000 persons a year and the Report proposes that new accommodation for such persons, if possible, should be sited within or as near as possible to such urban areas as Causeway Bay, Hung Hom. Ho Man Tin and the new Chai Wan reclamation where suitable sites would be available if the plan is approved.
The cost of acquiring the interests of the Crown lessees in the area affected by the pilot scheme is estim- ated to be about HK$43 million. In addition, the amount of compensation due to domestic tenants has been as- sessed at about $6 million, and the amount due to ten- ants of commercial premises at about $8 million.
The total cost of acquiring all interests would there- fore amount to about $57 million. In the Working Party's opinion, the ten sites scheduled for commercial/- residential development within the pilot scheme would be worth about $50 million.
area
The Report says: "It would, we suggest, be reason- able to assume that in the particular area which we have chosen for the pilot scheme, a financial deficit of some- where between ten per cent and 15 per cent may be expected, but for this the community will get road im- provements sooner than would otherwise be the case, 1.35 acres (or 10.5 per cent) of public open space, sites for two schools (one primary and one secondary) and the
Model of possible layout for the pilot scheme area
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Far East Architect & Builder August, 1966
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