Is Our City Livable and Healthy in the Post-SARS Era? Re-designing Healthy Cities – a Lesson from Hong Kong

Abstract

The paper draws an attention on the academic debate on the pros and cons of compact city, onethat embraces a high-density and high-rise, mixed land-use urban form. The paper supports compact cityas a candidate for sustainable urban form by reviewing and discussing recent new initiatives from HongKong in the post-SARS era that includes research and development efforts by academia and governmentson the evaluation and derivation of guidelines for design implementation and building management operationsat the urban design and building design levels. Similarly, innovative initiatives are also found in thecollective efforts by statutory bodies, developers and professionals to improve the standard and quality ofthe habitable environment. The discussion is based on selected case studies from recently realized projectsin the residential market; as well as applied research programs undertaken by universities and government.The summary is that recent efforts in Hong Kong show that there is confidence for a high density compactcity to be a livable and healthy city. In the paper, the reference to ‘health,’ ‘hygiene’ or ‘healthy buildings’is a causal usage. The three terms project a layperson’s perception of the quality of the physical environment.In this way, the terms have no specific medical connections.