An evaluation of the planning and design of public housing in Hong Kong from the green urbanism perspective

Abstract

The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), the developer of Public Rental Housing (PRH), is the largest developer of housing in Hong Kong. PRH houses about one-third of the population and the scale of each estate development is sizable which would make strong impact on the living environment if they are not planned or managed well. In the coming years, the target annual supply of PRH contributes almost 40% of the new residential units supply in Hong Kong. The construction of these 40% housing units will follow the current sustainable approach. It will have strong impact on our environment if the current sustainable approach is not performing well. In the study, the environmental sustainability performance of the newly constructed PRH is going to be evaluated to investigate the successfulness of the current sustainable approach. Green Urbanism, a concept that arose in 1990s to promote the development of socially and environmentally sustainable city districts which make effort to minimize the use of energy at each stage of the city's or district's lifecycle, is reviewed in the study to provided bas. The environmental sustainability performance on the planning and design of PRH in Hong Kong are evaluated using the principle of green urbanism. The evaluations are divided into 2 parts, zero-emission and zero-waste, which covered different aspects in environmental sustainability. Three newly constructed PRH, Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate, Sau Mau Ping South Estate and Lam Tin Estate, are selected for the evaluation to investigate the successfulness of the sustainable approach which has been adopted in this decade. These housing estates are selected because of their outstanding sustainable achievements which are the benchmark of the future PRH developments. Based on the results and findings in the evaluation of the environmental sustainability performance of the planning and design of PRH, suggestions are provided for future sustainable public housing developments in order to create a better living environment in Hong Kong.