Enduring landscape : sequential lifespan planning to create larger and more connected landscape through public housing

Abstract

In the management of landscapes in Hong Kong’s public housing, vegetation is deemed to be disposable and easily replaced. Amenities such as children’s playgrounds are also readily replaced by elderly facilities in response to the growing percentage of elderly residents. Moreover, when an aging estate is redeveloped, only valuable trees are retained while other bamboos, shrubs and small-scale vegetation would be failed. As a good habitat for organisms had usually been cultivated already, failing them means to take away homes of the organisms. My thesis proposes a constantly growing landscape in the public estates to satisfy the needs of the residents during the life of the estates, and to continue to grow and act as scattered forests for the habitation of organisms beyond the life of the public estates. As the city continues to grow at a rapid rate, and the continuing need for the government to sell more private land to generate revenue, the redevelopment of public housing estates into high density sites to free up more land is inevitable. The intervention of landscape in public housing is a way to retain the social and ecological value and thereby enhancing the ecological value of the city. The retained landscape redefines the way a site is redeveloped to maintain the sense of community of the demolished public housing. By opening cracks on the hard surface and planting with plants with aggressive root systems and decompaction of ground, the hard surfacing will then be slowly broken through. Hard surfacing gradually turns into soft landscape where community would slowly take over and transform the landscape into community space together with natural elements.