Department:
Architecture
Research Centre: Rural Urban Lab
Active Dates: January 2013 - September 2016
Principal Investigator: Joshua BOLCHOVER (PI), Peter HASDELL (Co-PI)
Funding body: GRF
Abstract
Hong Kong’s border with Shenzhen is incrementally dissolving. By 2047, 50 years after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong the border will no longer exist. This also will mean the dissolution of the economic and political zones of the “One Country Two Systems” policy; significantly the Special Administration Region of Hong Kong and the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen. As part of the re-integration process serious considerations need to be made concerning the potential impact this will have on the urban development of both sides of the border as well as the larger impact this may have on the entire Pearl River Delta region.
As part of this re-integration in 2011 the Hong Kong Government will redraw the boundary of the Frontier Closed Area allowing almost 2,000 hectares of land to be openly accessible to the public as well as being available for potential development. The Frontier Closed Area was created in 1951 as a buffer zone to control migration and crime from the mainland. Since then the land has remained untouched by urban development – very little has changed in over fifty years. This is in stark contrast to the rapid urbanization that has taken place directly adjacent to this area in Shenzhen which has seen the city develop from a fishing village with a population of 200,000 in 1982 to over 11 million today. The Frontier Closed Area, as well as being a testament to what Shenzhen used to be like, contains a rich landscape of eco-systems, (including the RAMSAR site), fish farms, fresh water streams, primary forests as well as historic villages and abandoned military posts.
Objectives
The research project has 3 main aims:
Results
The development of an urban strategy that will be shared with Department of Urban Planning and Design.
Outputs
Anticipated Impact
To influence how urban planning is conducted in the FCA. To impact the discourse of micro-borders within the contemporary city.