Modern cities are often faced with “walkability” problems. They are plagued by high pedestrian flow, heavy traffic and ever-increasing industrial, commercial and leisure activities. As urban design in the past did not foresee the enormous changes of today, we often face an overloaded road capacity in the process of urban development......

Members of the community have commented that pavements along Castle Peak Road in Yuen Long town centre, also known as Yuen Long Main Road, and the nearby Kau Yuk Road are often jam-packed with people. The crowd includes local residents living in the surrounding areas who like to go to the town centre for their regular daily activities, as well as visitors from outside Yuen Long. To resolve the overcrowding problem of Yuen Long town centre, one approach could be developing new areas with commercial, leisure and recreational facilities in the vicinity of Yuen Long to divert locals and visitors from the town centre......

“Take fewer showers. Shower only once a day and wash your hair once every two weeks. Avoid wearing white clothing and don’t wash or change your clothes too often. Don’t take baths. If you have to use the bathtub, don’t fill it more than six inches deep – it would be even better if all family members use the bathtub together. Instead of brushing your teeth, eat an apple to clean your teeth after meals or before bed. Wash clothes or vegetables with the water used previously for washing your hands and face. Clean the floor with the water left over from washing your clothes .....”

Public facilities are closely related to our daily lives. We have to use a wide range of facilities throughout our lives, from the hospitals in which we were born to the crematoria in which we bid farewell to our loved ones. You may not know that most of these facilities are designed, constructed and maintained by the Architectural Services Department (ArchSD). Our ArchSD colleagues work hard behind the scenes and plan ahead in the design and construction of community facilities so as to deliver people-orientated, sustainable and cost-effective public facilities to the community, and to promote best practices in the construction industry as well as improve our living environment. The enormous efforts they make are best demonstrated by the numerous professional awards won by our public facilities projects in recent years. Here are a few examples......

Recently, the Panel on Development of the Legislative Council (LegCo) supported two funding proposals relating to studies on reclamation, namely the Strategic Studies for Artificial Islands in the Central Waters and the Planning and Engineering Study on Sunny Bay Reclamation. The move was an important step towards addressing the imbalance in the demand and supply of land......