Copyright: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
ZIM CITY
Great waterfronts bend the rules
Paul Zimmerman on making use of the opportunities Hong Kong’s waterfront settings provide The experience of the Sai Kung waterfront is greatly enhanced by the unauthorised floating market and the restaurant seating extending onto public space. The appreciation by visitors of the restaurants and market shops in Stanley has resulted in the government regularising their unauthorises encroachment of public space. Dogs and scooters breach the rules of the waterfront park at Cyberport to the delight of thousands who descend on the park every holiday. The popularity of sunset at the western cargo working area can be gleaned from its nickname “Instagram Pier’’ despite the large signs warning of jail time for visitors. Besides informal community pressure and free market enterprise there are institutional setups which allow better for bending the rules of the myriad of government departments to create enjoyable experiences. The waterfront and adjacent piazza at the pier in Discovery Bay is an
example of vibrancy as a result of having a single owner determined to make it happen. The same can now be seen at the Art Park where the management team of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority has worked hard to bend the rules to create a magnificent waterfront with long benches, no vehicles, no railings, and restaurants with ample outdoor seating. For the same reason – the ability to bend rules we called in 2004 for the setting up of a Harbour Authority to look after the waterfronts of Victoria Harbour. That never happened and we are trying to make due in the fight for better spaces with a committee advising a Harbour Office under the Development Bureau. The outcomes are mixed. The space under the Kwun Tong bypass is generally seen as a success. The new waterfronts at the North Point Ferry Piers, the Hung Hom ferry piers and Tsuen Wan West Rail station are abysmal failures. Planter boxes to meet greening ratios, emergency vehicle access devoid of amenities, adjacent building fronts
which fail to animate the public space, hard division between public and private, long lists of activities which are disallowed, and so forth, are testament to the failure to bend the rules of the many departments involved. The drawings we were presented looked nice but the outcomes are dismal in making use of the opportunities these waterfront settings provide. It is upon the Development Bureau to figure out soon how to avoid the same at waterfronts which are in progress in Yau Ma Tei, Kai Tak, Yau Tong and elsewhere. It is upon us all to push for retrofits of waterfronts which have been completed. Paul Zimmerman is the CEO of Designing Hong Kong, a Southern District Councillor and the coconvenor of Save Our Country Parks alliance.
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