Conserving the bastion of "the Maginot of the East" : a study of the Shing Mun Redoubt

Abstract

The focus of the current Hong Kong Government’s efforts on conserving built heritage has been limited to the protection of a list of isolated monuments, whilst the historic, aesthetic, and social values of systems or a cluster of heritage sites has not yet been understood by preservationists. Shing Mun Redoubt, with an extensive system of trenches and pillboxes along the old Gin Drinker’s Line, the so-called Maginot of the East, is a case in point. Few research works have dealt with the preservation of military heritage from a sustainable development perspective. As a Schumpeterian innovation in heritage conservation study, this thesis uses a modified Yu’s model of sustainable development to interpret the potential of the Shing Mun Redoubt as an example of sustainable heritage conservation. Aspects of win-win-solutions achieved by property development are discussed from an estate surveying point of view, together with a review of some examples of the conservation of other forms of military heritage in real life.