OBSERVATION: The HKSAR Government continues to express interest in redeveloping the historic Fanling Golf Course for new housing to address Hong Kong’s dire housing shortage
SOLUTION: Provide new low-rise residential housing at existing fairways, topped by an innovative new continuous rooftop “sky course” to preserve the use of the site as a golf course
Hong Kong suffers from an acute housing shortage, often chalked up to a perceived shortage of land. Since 2017, the spectre of controversially redeveloping portions of the 111-year old historic Fanling Golf Course continues to gain traction, despite public outcries.
While the private course arguably benefits relatively few Hong Kong residents, it is renowned as one of the oldest championship golf courses in Asia, and adds significant value to the city’s status as an international hub. Additionally, environmentalists have noted that the site contains heritage-worthy Chinese swamp cypress trees, also known as Canton water pine (Glyptostrobus pensilis).
If such a preposterous redevelopment plan to produce more housing were to go ahead, as a thought exercise, could this 172-hectare Golf Course site be more sensitively redeveloped to provide new housing WHILE still preserving the existing landscaping and the golf course, albeit in a different incarnation?
While this is somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek proposal, if the “powers that be” eventually decide that this site must be redeveloped for housing, COULD there be an innovative and environmentally sustainable redevelopment scheme that might provide a win-win solution to satisfy all stakeholders?
