Pocket parks transformation

Abstract

Hong Kong as an intense city, public spaces are very limited. However, the current designs of these public parks are usually driven by greening ratio (set from the HKPSG), limited construction cost and required of low maintenance. With such limitation a standard choice of facilities and programs were formed, which leads to the appearance of public parks are all the same. Furthermore, the facilities and program provided in these parks are usually targeted for children and elderly. It is believed that public spaces are belongs to everyone from different background and age groups, the restriction is distorting the meaning of public. It has also been observed that the spatial quality of such restricted public parks have a lower value in terms of the user population during the day. And by comparing to some undefined public spaces, such as Sai Yeung Choi Street and some bypass near ferry port like the Sai Wan public cargo working area, these areas have no strict regulation or facilities provided, but the spaces are flexible that can enhance a wider range of activities for different ages groups. Modification is easily allowed for users to make the space personal, which is the reason of its famous in visit. Base on these examples, it is suggested that the current approach on urban parks design may not be suitable anymore. Through observation on human interaction towards these open spaces, analyse the success and failure of the park program. Thereby to recalibrate a new idea on park design that can improve the current spatial quality at the same time can collaborate with the Pubic Management needs on easy maintenance. The goal is to get the most out of these limited public spaces.