Publications

GOActive.hk:Whatare the concerns when designing a digital platform for elderly to registeractivities organised by elderly centres? The report “GOActive.hk: ConnectingCity-Wide Users through an Elderly-Friendly Website” documented the wholeprocess of the Action Project, including the design principles and theirapplications discovered during a series of user engagement workshops. Find outmore details of the platform design by studying the report![No text in field]

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From planning to implementation, what challenges did the Silver Age DJs face when producing this online music sharing programme? How did they overcome the difficulties? The “Silver Age DJ Action Project Report” not only documented the whole process of the Action Project, but also summarises some suggestions and principles from the experience of the Silver Age DJ pilot programme on encouraging members of the elderly centre to initiate self-organising activities. Find out what elderly DJs were doing along the way by reading the report!

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Stemmed from Season 2’s theme of “Empathising with Elderly in Workplace”, a design scheme was developed for a community waste management centre for garbage collection, waste recycling, and pioneering provision of decent space and facilities to serve our cleaning worker. This is a feasible prototype for a new generation of government refuse collection points that can stand as an icon of functionality and community pride.

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Since 2015, Good Seed have supported over 80 social projects, all dedicated to bettering the lives of different people in Hong Kong through innovation. Focusing on projects launched in 2018-2020, this book tells the stories of 25 of these projects, charting not just their success, but also hardships and failures along the way. They show that initiating and sustaining an innovation project is no easy task, but by following a desire to do good for society, anyone could become a change maker.

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The Transitional Social Housing Action Project covered three sites with varying physical and socio-economic environment, i.e. a temporary work site at the intersection of Tung Chau Street and Yen Chow Street West in Sham Shui Po, the former SKH Stanley Village Primary School in Stanley, and the Ma Wan Old Village. The Report provides a comprehensive documentation of the cross-sector and trans-disciplinary co-creation process which has contributed to enriching the knowledge in the planning, designing and implementing transitional social housing projects in Hong Kong.

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As a SoInno Action Project for promoting "Elderly-friendly Employment", we examined "Chan Un Chan Third Age Volunteers Centre cum Community Kitchen” operated by the TWGHs and published "The Toolkit for the Age-friendly Community Kitchen", which illustrating universal design on 8 aspects namely "Layout & Furnishing", "Operation Routing & Logistics", "Labels & Signage", "Equipment", "Training", "Inspections & Records", "Menu & Recipe" and "Incentives" for age-friendly community kitchens.

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"Co-Designing Iron Trolley for Cardboards Recycling" is one of the SoInno Action Project to promote "Elderly-friendly Employment" with the aims to improving the trolley used by elderly waste pickers. After a more than 6-month co-creation , the process and detailed design are ready for public reference. Don't miss out!

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The interim report highlights the issues and challenges in identified in the season 1 co-creation process and at the Symposium and the seven conceptual design schemes developed by the co-creation teams.

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A book recording 31 successful and touching stories of the Good Seed projects. Good Seed programme has supported 45 social projects since 2015. Some of them generate unprecedented solutions, some of them successfully converge societal goals, some of them are in full swing, some of them has already hit the sack. In this book, 31 adventurers have been recorded with a humanistic perspective instead of merely numbers and assessments, for they are only humans with good hearts trying to do good for Hong Kong.

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One of three JCDISI projects featured in the Hong Kong Report on the State of Sustainable Built Environment 2020 (Hong Kong Report 2020) to showcase Hong Kong's accomplishments in striving to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals among the 102 selected projects.

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One of three JCDISI projects featured in the Hong Kong Report on the State of Sustainable Built Environment 2020 (Hong Kong Report 2020) to showcase Hong Kong's accomplishments in striving to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals among the 102 selected projects.

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One of three JCDISI projects featured in the Hong Kong Report on the State of Sustainable Built Environment 2020 (Hong Kong Report 2020) to showcase Hong Kong's accomplishments in striving to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals among the 102 selected projects.

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Supported by the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre For Steel Construction (Hong Kong Branch), JCDISI worked together with Leigh & Orange Limited and WSP to investigate how the modern technology of MiC can help address the unprecedented challenge of transitional housing in Hong Kong. After months of investigation, the study aims at identifying key technical issues and proposing an adaptable solution in form of a relocatable MiC building system prototype is now released.

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For high density urban areas, promoting walkability is conducive to enhancing age-friendliness of cities and communities. Walkable environment enhances the levels of physical activities, which will finally improve physical and mental health of older people. This paper measures walkability scores for the whole territories of Hong Kong, based on residential density, street connectivity, and land-use mix. Results indicate that downtown areas (i.e., Hong Kong Island and Kowloon) have higher walkability scores than New Territories. Area-based walkability is positively associated with population density and employment rate in tertiary sectors, and is negatively associated with household income and size of the land. Interview with planning professionals suggests that different planning paradigms in downtown and New Territories give rise to various levels of walkability. Land lots are smaller, and the streets are narrower in old urban areas, which promote human and commercial activities. However, the highly congregated development mode has negative impacts on the public health. Future development shall seek a balance between plot size and diversity in the zoning process. Quantitative methods should be enriched by other methods to propose strategies oriented to the enhancement of elderly livability and well-being.

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Population ageing and building stock ageing are usually tackled as two separate subjects and each has already received much attention. However, the Hong Kong community at large is less aware that the combined impact of population ageing and building ageing, i.e. “double ageing”, is a much more complex issue to address. If not tackled properly and in a timely manner, “double ageing” as a socio-economic issue will have significant impact on the sustainable development of Hong Kong, significantly affecting the liveability and resilience of the city. The first objective of this paper is to elaborate on the problems and evaluate existing efforts in tackling the challenge. This paper advocates an integrated, people-centric “double-smart” approach to leverage the merits of smart ageing and smart city in tackling double-ageing and bring positive changes for the city.

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The supply of social welfare sites and premises is perceived by the general public or social welfare counterparts to fall under the realm of land and urban planning. This perception is not incorrect. Yet, I wish to point out that as a pre-requisite to accomplish the concerned tasks, both planners and the Planning Department (PlanD) must secure the collaboration and cooperation of various parties. We also need to view from the perspective of social innovation in opening up our minds, broadening our horizon, triggering collective wisdom, and coordinating the endeavours and cooperation of different parties with a view to identifying the possible way forward for increasing the supply of social welfare sites and premises.

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Around the world, countries are hosting rapidly accelerating aging populations, with many establishing and implementing building guidelines to ensure successful aging-in-place as a response. Universal design has been adopted as a general approach, with the endorsement of UNCRPD and WHO. Best practices have also been proposed in some nations to set an even higher standard to guide the industry. At the same time, the prevalence of dementia is increasing. Following the emergence of Evidence/Research-Based Design and Salutogenic Design, design for the elderly no longer comprises discrete considerations of mobility or sensory deficits, but incorporates a continuum of physical, mental, cognitive and psychosocial factors in one holistic approach. Such an approach will benefit people of all ages. For a vertical city like Hong Kong, it can be adapted to suit high rise living and mass ground movement of the densely distributed city network. ("Double Aging" refers to the phenomenon of simultaneous occurrence of an aging population and aging building stock, having profound impacts on society and urban living.)

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It has been nearly a half century since Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China began promoting the accessible environment in the early 1970s. Starting from describing the international transformation on the concept of “Disability”, this paper first sorts out the theoretical development in Hong Kong including “Physically Handicapped and Able-Bodied”,“Barrier-free Design” and “Universal Design”; Then clarifies the promotion mechanism of the accessible environment from the perspective of policies and regulations, investments and the coordination between different institutions; After that, the achievements on residential buildings, public spaces and tourist attractions are introduced. At last, how mainland China can learn from Hong Kong’s experiences and apply that in construction tasks of related facilities when promoting the accessible environment are discussed.

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Prof. HSIA Chu Joe specialises in architecture and urban research in Taiwan. His book “The Tale of Three Cities” offers a collection of notes on three cities, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Taiwan, in the global information age. Limited copies available upon request.

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Mr. CHAN Koonchung, a prominent writer and cultural figure in the Chinese-reading community, laid the groundwork for social innovation by extrapolating local wisdom to construct the parameters of a good society. In his book, “Living Out the Contradiction of Our Time”, he explored the types of education and social innovation that will allow the next generation to respond to unstoppable advances in technology. Limited copies available upon request.

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Prof. Matthew TURNER, Professor Emeritus of Edinburgh Napier University, has had a long career in Hong Kong that has allowed him to witness the city’s transformation; he is undoubtedly an interesting and knowledgeable figure to envision Hong Kong’s future. In his book, “Tête-à-êtet” addresses two related questions, namely “what is social innovation?” and “what does social innovation mean and what could it mean for Hong Kong?”