MA WAN URBAN INNOVATION DISTRICT

A deserted village on the island of Ma Wan in the Hong Kong Harbour was once home to 1500-2000 residents. The villagers were compulsorily relocated during the construction of the bridge to the new airport in 1990. The houses were preserved but the residents were returned to a newly constructed village on the other side of the island which was built at the same time as a new luxury residential towers around a beach, housing 25,000 people. A development company responsible for the new residential towers also created a theme park based on Noah’s Ark. In the late 1990’s the hope was to extend the theme park to incorporate a ‘Old Hong Kong Village’ after restoration of the houses and businesses. At that time, the Hong Kong Disneyland had opened with great success initially, so the idea of theme parks was of great interest.  Unfortunately interest in Disneyland faded and Noah’s Ark has not been successful. Instead the HK government decided that the old village should be restored as a functioning village with appropriate new construction to provide for:

·      Transitional social housing

·      Artists studios

·      Creative enterprises in small scale manufacturing

·      Creative industries tourism

Currently the ‘preserved’ village housing is showing signs of deterioration, losing the battle with nature. A ‘redevelopment’ project is now urgent; There is a significant and growing threat to that side of the island from Hurricane activity - partly increased hurricane intensity from climate change, partly an unintended consequence of the building of the airport bridge.

The Ma Wan Eco-Acupuncture project

In 2019 Planning was underway for a six month project that should have commenced early in 2020. It was planned to include water engineering consultation from the Netherlands and Australia from businesses and research groups focused on ocean storm protection, which would involve potential reclaiming of land around the island with an adaptation of Dutch polder design systems.

Terms for that (now deferred) project.

Students will take part in an international studio with a 10-12 day intensive atelier in Hong Kong.  Technical briefings will come from the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation, the City Program of the Hong Kong Design Council, the Hong Kong Architecture biennial and the Advanced Metropolitan Solutions Institute (AMS) of TUDelft and MIT. This intensive will address urban challenges facing HK and future redevelopment of the village, particularly the apparently conflicting desires, to preserve the history and some of the fabric of the village and address the wider housing shortage of Hong Kong, as well as active experimentation around possibilities for new economic futures for the redeveloped village based on local innovation, demonstration, business and enterprise opportunities, tourism.

Eco-Acupuncture Design projects could encompass:

·      New models to house emerging industries and distributed manufacturing and business incubators

·      New water management and ocean edge strategies

·      Designing for renewable energy technologies as part of the built and urban landscape

·      Resilient and desirable transitional housing.

·      Tourism, artist and related enterprise concepts

·      Food production (complementing a 100 year old fishing site on another side of the island).

Eco-Acupuncture will develop design interventions to transform the existing built environment and systems of provision (energy, water, food, transport, information) for a sustainable, low carbon, resilient future. What steps must be taken today to get there?

The aim is to identify opportunities – sites of design and experimental intervention – to transform thinking for the future of Hong Kong and its urban life. The site will be established as a globally significant laboratory for urban experimentation.