Reactivating the Hong Kong Botanical Garden and Government House : government hill

Abstract

Hong Kong’s Central, what was called Government hill area, have many rich historic heritage landmarks, scattered along the Cotton tree drive, Garden road and the mid-level area of Hong Kong.

We travel back in time to look at the Hong Kong’s City of Victoria map in the 19th century. Ever since 1841, when the British settled in Hong Kong, the three pillars of colonial power, the British government, the Military and the Church, had all settled closed to each other, in the Government hill, what we now know as Central today.

The military barracks, the Church and the Government house were all privileged administrative sites during Colonial rule, that’s why as of today, they still remain untouched by development.

The historic heritage tells us why these areas are not being used intensely, but it also gave us a context and framework of how to use them effectively, because this history, our legacy of Hong Kong can be our vehicle to tell people about the story of this city.

This thesis is an attempt to re-package them into a heritage district by using the century old road layout system as a historic trail in Central to link up the existing historic landmark for pedestrians, and by using the Hong Kong Zoological Botanical Garden and the Government house as a center for heritage education program in Hong Kong history and converting the Government house into a public museum. Connecting the Hong Kong Botanical Garden and Hong Kong Government house will bring back the historic context of the two site by using a tree walk bridge linking up the two site and bringing back the Hong Kong Herbarium into the Garden. Relocating the zoo out of the small densely packed Garden and utilized the left over space from the zoo area for an upgrade Greenhouse