ASA-Com-120670119304

King Lun Joshua Ho , Tin Yui Pang

The Netherlands

The growing difficulty of acquiring adequate housing in Hong Kong has pushed many into inhumane subdivided micro-flats. At the same time new plots in the less densely populated New Territories (70% natural parkland) are increasingly being transformed into high end developments that are unsustainable to the city both socially and environmentally. We find potential in exploring Hong Kong's diminishing role as a major fishing port.

Countless abandoned fish farms become the site of which potential architecture can both revitalize the dead area and provide a new model for living. The housing form used is an evolutionary leap from local coastal vernacular stilt houses, incorporating an aquaponic farming system that merges the usefulness of a fish population, human waste products, and climatic, food benefits of a greenhouse. In this closed system nothing is waste but potential energy for the next process in line. Thus city people have the chance to return to a closely tied relationship with the land; in a social mentality of rapid progress a critical look backward may be able to provide wisdom in tackling problems differently.