HKU Bulletin December 2013 (Vol. 15 No. 1)

Having been engaged in architectural conservation locally and internationally, Professor David Lung (left) takes his students to Kaiping Diaolou World Heritage site. Dr Richard A Engelhardt, Visiting Research Professor at HKU (centre), has been working with Professor David Lung (right) to develop a methodology for undertaking cultural heritage impact assessment. Faculty of Architecture works with the Urban Renewal Authority on the Central Market Oasis project Investments In The Past A multidisciplinary team from HKU is doing groundbreaking work in the area of conservation, working on a new methodology for assessing cultural heritage impact. Brutally over-exploited “Now, with the realisation that cultural heritage is in fact part of the sustainable development equation – and a part that has been brutally over-exploited – it has become necessary to put the brakes on this exploitation and change the paradigms completely. That is, to take action that will actually add asset value to heritage resources, in just the same way that you need to plant more trees, clean rivers, etc. “It is a move away from an ad hoc response to how we go about preserving the heritage resources of our urban spaces to a more systematic way of determining what is valuable, what is recyclable. And what is the most sustainable way to utilise our investments in the past,” says Dr Engelhardt . A prime example of what they are doing is the Central Market Oasis project, which they and a team of graduates are working on with the Urban Renewal Authority (URA). The team advised the URA on how the run-down Central Market could be conserved usefully – not as a market but as a leisure or recreational hub for public use. “It is known as building recycling,” says Professor Lung, “not necessarily using it for the same purpose, but finding a new life for it. Instead of tearing it down and having the chaos and noise of building another 60-storey high rise to jam the skies and block the airflow, causing traffic jams etc, the impact of saving it has been obvious. “We have retained good airflow, the traffic has not been disrupted, there is the lightness of having a low-rise building in the area. Plus, it adds value to the historic neighbourhood, such as the Graham Street open market and the Sun Yat-sen trail, by blending in with what was there before, so the ambience of the district has been maintained.” The exterior (top) and interior (bottom) of the historically significant Central Market, built in 1939, before being revitalised into a leisure-cum-recreational hub for public use. (Courtesy of Urban Renewal Authority) Professor David Lung Professor Lung hopes to use the project as an example for heritage impact assessment. “There is no negative impact as there is no threat to this building because it has been saved, yet the very fact a heritage building has been saved has a positive impact on the neighbourhood and on the environment, especially in the heart of the Central Business District.” Heritage is by nature a multidisciplinary subject: In addition to the team leaders’ expertise as archaeologists and architects, others on the network are planners, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, economists and public administrators – understanding government thinking is important since it is the administrators who are responsible for intergenerational asset management. “We need to capture both the government and the regulation sides when formatting the method,” says Professor Lung, “because governments want to know what the procedure is – in particular, when engaging with the community – what are the rules of the game and what is the measurable outcome.” “Hong Kong has the best and strongest assessment methodology for cultural heritage assessment in the region, and the government has understood the need to develop the process method further,” says Dr Engelhardt. “The cutting-edge research is going to come out of Asian cities and that is going to inform cities around the world,” concludes Professor Lung. “We hope this research will have a very significant global impact.” Conservation first became a global concern 40 years ago with the Stockholm conference on sustainability and the introduction shortly thereafter of the World Heritage Convention. In those days most of the emphasis was on natural heritage – saving the forests, the seas and animals such as tigers and pandas, which swiftly became the icons of the movement. More recently, cultural heritage has moved to centre-stage – saving the world’s historically significant buildings for generations to come. It’s a trend that Hong Kong has taken to heart, as the public has voiced increased concern over the disappearance of too many cultural sites to make way for ever more high rises. HKU is at the forefront of the fight to preserve the city’s heritage, partly through its Architectural Conservation Programme (ACP), which has been running for 13 years and contributed both internationally and locally to the preservation of structures. ACP Founder Professor David Lung, Lady Edith Kotewall Professor in the Built Environment , who is also a former Chairman of the Hong Kong Antiquities Advisory Board and holds the UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage Resources Management in the Faculty of Architecture, is now heading up a multidisciplinary team working to develop a methodology for undertaking cultural heritage impact assessment (CHIA) that will be recognised globally. Joining him on this mission is long-term colleague Dr Richard A Engelhardt, Visiting Research Professor at HKU and a former UNESCO Cultural Advisor and expert in heritage conservation. He believes many more places of historic significance in Hong Kong will be recognised as having heritage value as a result of this work. Asked why CHIA is necessary Dr Engelhardt replies: “Before, cultural heritage was really only viewed as a tourism resource, and the tourist industry is notorious for its ’eat them up, spit them out, then move onto the next one’ approach, whether it’s a beach or a monument. It is known as building recycling, not necessarily using it for the same purpose, but finding a new life for it. 06 | 07 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | December 2013 Cover Story