Hong Kong’s strategic land reserve no doubt rested in the vast brownfield sites in the New Territories and potential reclamations from the sea.  The Government proposed four New Development Areas as well as the North New Territories New Town which cover altogether more than 600 ha of brownfield sites.  The Tung Chung New Town Expansion and the proposed East Lantau Metropolis consist of reclamations respectively in the size of 120 ha and 400 to 700 ha.  The CITY PROBLEM is perhaps not “where”, but “how” such sheer size of land can come for development. 

The problem of aging population has already caught the attention of our city, but less is the problem of aging housing stock.  Compared with today, percentage of 85+ elderlies in our population will increase from 2.2% by about 5 times to 10.1% in 2064, whilst private housing units aged 70 years or above will increase by 300 times to 326,000 units in 2046.  The combined impact of this “double-aging” trend on our city is not only unprecedented in our experience but perhaps unique in the world.  This is one of the most difficult challenges that we must overcome in the coming decades to avoid Hong Kong becoming a PROBLEM CITY. 

Innovative institutional arrangement and technical solutions must be worked out to turn challenges into opportunities for making Hong Kong a better place for our people.  Endowed with strong research capacity, universities are obliged to contribute.  The city is our laboratory. These challenges will provide academia in various disciplines under the umbrella of urban sciences with unique opportunities for world-class research.