Urban Development in Hong Kong - Part 1: Kowloon

     Greetings, and welcome to the first part of my Urban Development in Hong Kong series.  Last week, I went with my class on a tour of the Kowloon Peninsula.  Kowloon is one of the districts that make up the whole city Hong Kong.  It used to house the Kowloon Walled City and the Kai Tak Airport, but since these landmarks no longer exist, the government is redeveloping Kowloon as a central business district, or CBD.  Basically, the Kowloon government wants to rebrand itself as a commercial hotspot.  So today, I will be talking about a couple of the places in Kowloon that best showcase Kowloon's efforts.

Fig. 1 - The Energizing  Kowloon East Office

Fig. 2 - Atrium inside EKEO.  Despite being under a
highway overpass and next to some of the busiest
streets, this area manages to maintain an air of
peace and quiet.

     The first place is the Energizing Kowloon East Office, or EKEO (Figure 1).  This is one of the branches of the Kowloon government that is focused on the redevelopment of Kowloon into a CBD.  The building itself is constructed out of recycled cargo containers.  The building is split into two halves: the right half is an open presentation space with various displays about the work of the EKEO.  In the back there is seating for when presentations are being given.  Overall, it's a very "stock" type of presentation area that gets the job done but didn't leave much of an impression on me.  The left half, on the other hand, was very impressive.  It comprises of a central lounge area which all of the offices branch off from (Figure 2).  It was surprising to see this type of green space set up for an office because this place actually situated underneath a highway overpass.  Usually you don't see "green space" in the same sentence as "highway overpass" but here it works quite well.  The place biggest surprise, however, was how quiet it was.  Compared to the hustle and bustle of the city that's ten meters away, the area has a very relaxed feel to it.  This is a great space in which to stop and chat, eat lunch or just relax.  Overall, this is the kind of setting that ought to be incorporated into modern office buildings.

     While there, our class attended a presentation about the EKEO and the various projects they're involved in.  The main goals of the EKEO are to further Connectivity, Branding, Design and Diversity within the redeveloped Kowloon, hence their logo of "CBD-squared" (you know, because they're trying to make Kowloon a CBD?... Yeah, that was my reaction too). Anyways, most of the EKEO's work is about "going green" in various public areas that would otherwise be considered dead space and trying to "release development potential" in said areas.

Fig. 3 - The Megabox Mall at Enterprise Square

Fig. 4 - Interior of the Megabox Mall.  Despite having an
open atrium, most of the floors look tight and cut off from
the rest of the space.

     The second place I visited is the Megabox Mall at Enterprise Square (Figure 3).  The Megabox was built in 2007 as part of a commercial and office high-rise development and cost over $2 billion (Hong Kong dollars, which is about $285 million in U.S. currency).  It's like the mega-malls back in the U.S., but instead of spreading out over a large area, the shops are stacked vertically over 18 stories to create a lean but towering complex.  Normally, this would be ill-advised because no one wants to go up to the 18th floor of a mall to shop, but the designers accounted for this by installing parking garages on the 16th and 17th floors.  This way people could drive up the whole way and back if they needed to without needing to use the interior stairs, escalators or elevators.  While I applaud the effort to create an urban shopping center within a limited area, it is not a strategy I would employ for future developments.  The condensed nature of the building gives it a very tight feel for most of the space (see Figure 4).  Usually for malls you want the layout to be as open as possible to allow better traffic flow for people and to allow as many shops to be within eyesight as possible for directional (and advertising) purposes.  I can understand the need for vertically oriented malls in cities, but if given the choice I'd definitely choose to be more spread out and open.

Fig. 5 - The Kowloon Cruise Terminal

Fig. 6 - The rooftop garden and walkways at the Kowloon
Cruise Terminal.  Despite being a place focused on shipping
people in and out, this garden gives them a place to relax
away from the bustle going on down below.

     The third place I visited was the Kowloon Cruise Terminal (Figure 5).  This was one of the key projects that EKEO was working on because they were trying to redevelop the old Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon Bay.  You see, Kai Tak used to house the Hong Kong International Airport until the airport was moved in 1998.  Since then, the Kowloon government has reestablished the area for use as a cruise terminal and rooftop garden and is currently looking to facilitate the redevelopment of the area between the terminal and the main land as a wharf.  The rooftop garden (Figure 6) is very pretty and spacious, and is apparently a popular spot for walks and picnics. This is a much more people-oriented design than the terminals in the U.S.  There, it's all business - just get people from point A to point B and be done with them.  In Kowloon, the terminal is allows people to relax and slow down, something that isn't typically found in transportation-centered buildings.  Personally, I think it's a great idea as long as it's done properly.  It is very easy for problems to develop when passengers who were lounging in the gardens need to get to the boarding area with no quick way to do so.  Unfortunately, most of the cruise terminal was undergoing interior construction, so I cannot judge how well this terminal performs.  From what I've seen so far, though, it looks quite promising.

So that's my thoughts on some of the redevelopment projects in Kowloon.  Tomorrow, I will be touring Fanling Town Centre and the Leung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail.  On Wednesday, I will be walking through Pok Fu Lam village and Aberdeen.  So that's two more blogs to look forward to.  I hope you enjoyed this post and will return again.

~ J.D.