Tai O RevitalizationProject

[CENTRI]-FUGAL–CENTRICAL & CENTRIFUGAL

 

• CENTRICAL

Centrical means to preserve the existing living fabric of Tai O’s central zone. It is to maintain the harmoniousneighborhood, calm and peaceful living quality. After the site visit, we strongly felt that Tai O presents astrong sense of neighborhood and compactness of living pattern. Any big alternations or redevelopments proposed in the central zone might affect the existing living environment, worsen the living densityand disturb the intimate scale of the existing village fabric.

That is why we proposethatthere should not be any big developments within the central zone. Instead, we believe infrastructural amendments can help a lot. These include the enhancement of the sewage/ drainage system to improve the water quality of the creek; and, the implementation of wood decks and bridges to improve the circulation path to bring the community even more intact.

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• CENTRIFUGAL

Centrifugal means all new proposals or developments should be around the centre, like the forces emerging from the centre. This serves two purposes –1. to keep flexibility to the new developments and 2. not to disturb the existing harmony life. This can create a ‘Centre Tai O’ and ‘Greater Tai O’ concept, which is more sustainable for an urban/ sub-urban development. Apart from the central zone, three zones are categorized according to their inherent site characters.

 

1. Ecological/ Environmental (southern zone)To raise public interest towards Tai O natural resources like mangrove, rocky shore & fresh water etc. Field study centre and eco-hostel will be established. This will have positive impact on eco-tourism and educational perspectives.

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2. Recreational/ Soul Healing (western zone)Tai O is one of the western most parts of HK. It has a splendid sunset views towards the ocean. Undoubtedly it has good romantic and meditative quality. With its remoteness, potentially it can be a very good soul healing/ Zen/ spa centre. This also goes along with the main Lautau Island masterplan which is going towards the direction of a leisure & recreational hub. The existing police station and ShaoLin Institute will be adaptively re-used.

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3. New Residential/ Cultural (eastern zone)Local residence seems to prefer traditional stilt houses which live closer to the water more than the new built public housing. To improve the living density and the living quality, new types of stilt houses and new cluster areas are proposed.

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• BETWEEN CENTRICAL AND CENTRIFUGAL

Centre Tai O →preserve; Greater Tai O →potential to develop (i.e. ecology, tourism, cultural, etc.). There are overlapping areas between the centre and the other zones. These areas are very important for a sustainable community development as they are the ‘buffer zones’ and the ‘expansion zones’. For example, if the new implementations for tourism in the outer zones are successful, then the commercial activities or residence within the central zone will also be increased. So we will need some buffer areas for the central zone to expand outwards. After some years, these buffer zones will developmixed programmein a liberal way and will be one of the most interesting parts in the entire Tai O map.