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The following is issued on behalf of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority:
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chairman of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (Board Chairman), Mr Henry Tang, at a media session at Central Government Offices today (March 4):
Today marks a historic moment in the development of the West Kowloon Cultural District.
The Board has just met and endorsed the conceptual plan option as recommended by the selection panel.
I would like to thank the panel chaired by Hon Ron Arculli and the experts for their thorough, fair and hard work over the past few months. I would also like to thank the support of the community and your support, the media, and also the public who have participated in the scheme.
Before I unveil the plan, I want to congratulate the three world-class planning teams for their excellent work that met the expectations of the Authority and excited the public. In particular:-
Rocco's Cultural Connect comprises a well delineated layout following fine integration of arts and cultural facilities with public open space.
City Park by Foster + Partners is noted for its vibrancy and diversity as well as the flexibility in phased development of art and cultural facilities.
OMA's Project for a New Dimension demonstrates how a thematic layout could showcase the unique local and traditional characteristics of Hong Kong.
It has been an extremely difficult choice, both for the public and for the selection panel of the Authority.
We have relied on the following six criteria in selecting the plan:-
(1) meeting planning design principles;
(2) design and phasing flexibility;
(3) meeting community aspirations;
(4) technical strengths and weaknesses;
(5) financial implications; and
(6) fulfilling the key planning and development requirements
All these details will be published later.
After thorough discussion and consideration, City Park by Foster + Partners comes out as our preferred option for the following seven reasons:-
* First and foremost, its primary focus is on the long-term development of arts and culture;
* Second, there is a balanced mix of land uses integrating arts and cultural facilities with other uses which improves visitors' experience and enhances vibrancy in WKCD;
* Third, its proposals to support arts education and cultural software development facilitate the authority's work in nurturing arts talents and building audiences;
* Fourth, its high degree of flexibility allows swapping of sites to facilitate earlier development of core arts and cultural facilities and it allows public enjoyment of arts and cultural facilities amidst ongoing construction programmes;
* Fifth, it allows room to accommodate temporary arts and cultural activities before commissioning of permanent facilities;
* Sixth, the innovative clustering concepts minimise footprint and create greater synergy between different facilities; and
* Finally, its park concept, relaxing atmosphere and various green features earned the most public support in the Stage 2 Public Engagement exercise.
On the basis of this preferred option, we will prepare a detailed development plan. One important principle: we will not compromise the integrity and completeness of the original plan. We will look to the views gathered from the public to identify certain preferred elements or features in the other two plans and consider the technical feasibility to incorporate them into the development plan. We will then launch the third stage of public engagement before we submit the development plan to the Town Planning Board on schedule.
Last but not least, I would like to emphasis that the arts and cultural sector is an important partner of the Authority. We are consulting them on the positioning of the future arts and cultural facilities so that the cultural district will best serve their long term development.
The public's voice now is loud and clear, that is, move on and get the job done. Now that we have picked the plan, it's time for us all to work together, press ahead and develop the cultural district as the public expect.
Thank you very much.
Reporter: You mention that the two projects that actually lost have the bright spots included in the detailed design. How can you do that without hurting the integrity of Norman Foster's plan?
Board Chairman: Well, I don't say that they have lost because we have chosen a preferred option. All three of them were world-class. It was an extremely difficult job to choose one of them. I have emphasised the importance of preserving the integrity and completeness of the original plan but some of the features may be incorporated. For example, Norman Foster's plan has the mega performing venue and the exhibition centre one on top of the other. If we had chosen the other plans we would have wanted to incorporate this feature into the other plans for a very obvious reason. Think about it, an exhibition centre doing exhibitions or conventions, most of the time you have daytime people, daytime people flow. A mega performing venue, meaning concerts, things like that, are mostly evening people. So you have a facility where it is possible to have people day-long, and that is important by saving footprint and also by ensuring that that place will not be dead at certain times of the year.
Reporter: Your answer involving Sheffield's issue?
Board Chairman: Today I'd like to focus on the development plan of the West Kowloon Cultural District. We have sent questions to Mr Graham Sheffield. We have been in contact with him, and we have received part of the answers. Once we receive more elaboration or clarification, we will announce it.
Reporter: Without a leader at the moment, how's the artistic fashion going to be implemented in the new plan, and then the plans and now you're going to combine different things into one plan, how's it going to work?
Board Chairman: I emphasise time and again that the completeness and integrity of the plan we have chosen is an overriding principle, and I think that is good enough.
Reporter: Do you have any principle in terms of future plan? What is the ratio on public space versus commercial facilities, like free public space that people can enjoy?
Board Chairman: I guarantee you that the majority of the space will be public space and will be free. Out of the 40 hectares the built up area is actually very small. At 1.81 development density the built-up area will be extremely small. In fact nobody asked this question--actually, a relevant question--which I would be concerned about and we would have to do everything to mitigate it, is that we are worried that we won't have enough people there because if you look at a general mix, out of the less than 700,000 square metres of space that will be built from this 40 hectares, roughly 40 per cent will be arts and culture facilities, about 20 per cent will be retail, dining and entertainment and then another 40 per cent will be hotel, commercial and residential. So you can imagine that less than three million square feet of hotel, commercial and residential will accommodate very few people, whereas the whole arts and culture facilities will be 40 per cent, nearly three million square feet, so that's why I said earlier, education will be one of our key elements in the whole development, because education will build audience, will enrich content but will also bring people in the daytime. So the connectivity, the flexibility, all of these are important considerations because we want people to come to WK facilities. I guarantee you more than half of it, the majority of it will be free open space, it will be free facilities that people can enjoy even if they have no intention of spending any money because this is what we want it to be. We want it to be a space for the people, built for the people of Hong Kong to enjoy because Hong Kong belongs to all of us. Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, March 4, 2011
Issued at HKT 20:40
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