Urban Farming in Shopping Malls in Hong Kong

Abstract

Being one of the highest population density and property price city among the world, most of the Hong Kong citizens are living in high-rise buildings. Also, many of them are living in small flats described as “nano” flat or even sub-divided flats. Despite the limited space in the living environment, many Hong Kong citizens find their own ways to achieve their green living lifestyle. Leisure farming is one of the most common green living initiatives that the Hong Kong Government, enterprises and NGOs has been carried out. More than60 urban rooftop farms have been appeared in the city from 2008 to 2019 (Wang & Pryor, 2019). The Government has launched the "Community Garden Program'' since 2004.The program provided farming spaces and tutorial to Hong Kong citizens in different district. Citizens can grow what they want in their assigned farming space, and attend workshops to improve their farming technique. However, the capacity of “Community Garden Program” cannot fulfill the high number of applicants. Many “Farmaholic” has moved to the urban farm organized by NGOs or enterprises. On the other hand, many enterprises have been enhancing their corporate image through the investment on social responsibility. Many property developers have launched different Urban Farm Program in their shopping malls as green initiative and community enhancement such as Hysan Place, K11 Musea, Moko, Lok Fu Place, Maritime Square 2, Metroplaza, MegaBox, Yoho Mall etc. Urban farm provides benefits to the building in different aspects, not only enhancing the building environment and community enhancement, but also benefit the business such as attracting more customers, customer retainment and provide marketing value through collaborate with their tenants etc. Being the “Shopping Paradise”, the quantity of shopping mall in Hong Kong is very high. The urban farming projects not only provide benefits to the building owner, but also the community such as educational, social recreation, community integration, urban enhancement etc. In this paper, three urban farm cases implemented in shopping mall will be studied. By in depth review on the three cases, the potential benefits and operation hurdles will be analyzed. The three cases in this study showcased the potential benefits shopping mall can be obtained from practicing Urban Farming. It benefits the shopping mall in different aspects, not only bringing the business opportunities and enhancing the building environment, but also benefit the community nearby. Shopping malls has been adopted different approaches in the design and mode of urban farm operation to achieve their goals in their unique urban farm project. This paper did not intend to quantify the benefits generated from the urban farm or generalized the urban farming in shopping mall in Hong Kong. It aims to discuss the possible benefits that can be generated through urban farm in shopping mall and provide insight for property developers or property managers to plan their urban farming project.