Teaching Rationale: Contextualising the Ecological Footprint in Hong Kong at Division of Landscape Architecture, the University of Hong Kong

Abstract

The compacted and concentrated city area and its built environment draw upon an ever widening hinterland for its life support. These resources continuously pulse in and out of the city’s physical boundary through constructed infrastructures. In this sense, the reach of the city is far beyond its physical location, moreover, the denser the city, the starker the contrast is between its built form and the geographical extent of its depending territory. “Contextualizing the Ecological Footprint in Hong Kong” is an educational research project in which first-year undergraduates of the built environment at the University of Hong Kong (ARCH1028 Sustainability and the Built Environment) were encouraged to define and explore issues of sustainability within dense urban settings, and to speculate on the concept of sustainable issues. This paper presents the teaching approach, student research and contextual analysis of five decisive factors that the city relies upon for its life support (energy, food, people, water and waste), across eight different urban neighborhoods (Admiralty, Ap Lei Chau, Hung Hom, Kowloon Bay, Mong Kok, Sha Tin, Tin Shui Wai and Yau Tong) in Hong Kong. “Contextualizing the Ecological Footprint in Hong Kong” also enrolled 2013 Bi- City Biennale of Urbanism Architecture (Hong Kong).