The prize award ceremony for the Design Ideas Competition for the Kai Tak River•Kai Tak Development, under the theme of “Meandering Sentiments”, was held by the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) last Thursday. The competition began last August and the response was overwhelming, with a total of more than 90 entries coming from Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. The winning entries are of high quality and most of the design ideas successfully highlighted the innovative architectural and landscape elements. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the winners.

You may know that Kai Tak River was known as Kai Tak Nullah until just a couple of years ago. It serves as a main drainage channel for the collection of stormwater runoff in Kowloon East. It originates in the Diamond Hill Comprehensive Development Area, passes through Wong Tai Sin, San Po Kong and the Kai Tak Development (KTD) Area, and finally discharges into the Kai Tak Approach Channel to the north of the former airport runway. It is an important landmark connecting the KTD Area and the hinterland of Wong Tai Sin.

In 2010 and 2011, the Government launched two public consultation exercises on the development of Kai Tak Nullah. The outcome showed that there was strong public support for turning the nullah into an attractive green river corridor through the urban areas, along with leisure and public activities serving the community while enhancing the flood-relief capacity of Kowloon East. To meet these aspirations we have renamed the nullah as Kai Tak River, and plan to transform it into an urban river corridor with unique townscape features that will facilitate public activities and make it an important part of the KTD Area.

To enhance public engagement in the Kai Tak River enhancement works, the CEDD, together with the Architectural Services Department, the Energizing Kowloon East Office of the Development Bureau, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Planning Department and six professional institutes, namely the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, the Hong Kong Institute of Planners, the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors and the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, organised the Design Ideas Competition for the Kai Tak River under the theme of “Meandering Sentiments” last August. The competition was divided into a Professional Group and an Open Group, while the entries would serve as important references for the future amenity and landscape works on both sides of the river, thus realising the development vision of “public engagement”.

As the theme of the Design Ideas Competition, “Meandering Sentiments”, suggests, both sides of the Kai Tak River will become a new green landmark where people can meander along the flowing river, turning it into a place of sentiments – as well as a place of energy, familiarity and friendliness. We look forward to the transformation of Kai Tak River into a people-oriented place with a mixture of vibrancy and tranquility for enjoyment and relaxation, integrating with the surrounding districts and thereby creating a more closely-knit community.

While most of the development projects in the KTD Area are still in the design or construction stage, members of the competition’s jury panel are delighted to see that most of the entries attributed great importance to the overall environment of Kai Tak River and took into account the surrounding developments in the design process so as to maintain consistency. It is even more heartening to see that the award-winning designs made use of simple rather than complicated solutions, and focused on the use of space to provide the community with more room for activities and other purposes.

The winning entries in the Professional Group excel in scale and proportionality, with many green designs echoing the Kai Tak vision of creating “a green web for sustainable development”, and connecting with nearby residential and commercial areas through the use of landscape features. The unique landscape design adopted  not only reserves adequate room for the growth of vegetation, but also provides plenty of space for various public activities and possibilities.

The CEDD will display the winning entries at roving exhibitions in Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin and Kwun Tong. Please visit an exhibition to take a closer look at these excellent designs.