Pacific Crossings AIA Hong Kong
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2006
1
33
70
Trip End
Dec 18, 2006
Hong Kong,
China
Monday, October 16, 2006
This morning our opening session, featured two speakers: Kate Schwennsen, AIA National President, "Architects at the Intersection of Design and Policy in a Flat and Spiky World'. Her talk spoke of the the current challenges architects face within the framework of the ideas presented by Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat and Richard Florida's book about the 'Spiky' world...that location matters and the movement of populations into the city.
The next speaker was Christine Loh, "Now You See It, Now You Don't: Hong Kong's Vanishing Harbor." Christing is the CEO of Civic Exchange Hong Kong, an organization that deals with the preservation of Victoria Harbor(severely at risk due to excessive landfill)
01-Chris & Amey taking a break in the Lobby
. Her talk focused on the factors leading to the disappearance of the harbor as well as how development design trends have increasingly isolated the residents from the harbor. This includes the tendency to place large highways adjacent to the water, the creation of undesireable 'green' spaces to fulfil development criteria and high density building in the 'reclamation areas' (landfill areas) that used to be harbor. She was very passionate about her subject and as a result her talk was quite compelling. The hazy skies of Hong Kong are also apparently the result of air pollution from mainland China rather than only 'fog' as I originally thought.After a quick break, Amey and Chris went on a walking tour of Hong Kong and I went to the talk: "Hong Kong and Macau: Does Heritage Matter?" In short, how economic pressures, government regulations and zoning laws have affected both city's ability to preserve its architectural heritage. Macau currently is a designated UNESCO heritage site, while Hong Kong has been largely unsuccessful in creating the same due to its lack of historical buildings and sites.
We enjoyed an extensive lunch buffet, standing only, no tables to sit down and enjoy our meal.
We then listened to a talk by Ronnie Chan, Chairman, Hang Lung Properties, one of the event sponsers and a wildly successful real estate developer and businessman. He spoke about the challenges and opportunities in mainland China. He had the typical developer charisma and kept making jokes about high fees charged by architect. Perhaps he forgot his audience???
This evening we are going on a harbor dinner cruise. More about that tomorrow!
