RETHINKING THE SMALL HOUSE POLICY

Leung Kit Ying, Chloe

The open-ended Small House Policy has been administrated since 1972, allowing indigenous villagers to construct village type houses in rural area and low density suburban districts. Critics of the policy claim that it is out of date and discriminatory. As there is a pressing need for residential land in Hong Kong, some say that the policy propagates the inefficient use of land in New Territories, and increased the difficulties surrounding on future city development. Current studies mostly focus on the gender and planning issues of the policy. This proposal explores the motivation, formation and details of the policy, as well as issues around spatial justice and inequality in contemporary Hong Kong. Using international case study examples of cooperative development, the project explores alternations of ownership for future redevelopment.

This Co-operative Village Regeneration Scheme Concept would be a highly autonomous, co-operative-led village regeneration scheme executed by local villagers under plot ratio relaxation from the government. The bottom-up approach allows regenerations starting from individual villages and extending to the entire village area.

All land will be collectively owned by the village cooperative. Residential housing area will account for 70% of its value and the agricultural land will account for 30%.

Although the values of bonds and shares will fluctuate, it is estimated there will be an increase in land value due to the extra plot ratio, resulting in land value increment.

Zhang Zhixing Zuo Xuan