LANTAU SOUTH

Introduction

Regenerative design goes beyond sustainability’s do-less-harm imperative to aspire towards a do-more-good design paradigm. In an age of global climate crisis, this studio explores the regenerative approach which understands the contexts of life-in-place, co-evolving human-natural and architectural reciprocities in partnered relationships that not only restore but positively regenerates the ecosystem.

We design for appropriate redundancies, resilience and reciprocities and adopt alternative development strategies that act as catalysts for positive environment-behavioural change. We investigate radical architectural positions that enable and build “capacities of people to design, create, operate and co-evolve regenerative socio-ecological systems in their place”. 

Lantau South possesses some of Hong Kong’s most picturesque ecological and cultural treasures. Coastal village clusters from Shui Hau to Pui O date back to the Song Dynasty where different ethnic settlements have co-evolved a rich landscape of cultural practices. This inhabited coastline maintains a diverse topography of mudflats, wetlands, beaches and forest, and teems with local biodiversity (shellfish, horseshoe crabs to water buffalos, rare amphibians and butterflies).

This year’s studio takes the government’s Lantau Tomorrow Vision (2018) and “Conserving the South” initiative as a point of departure and uses regenerative design as the thematic drive for our architectural speculation. We co-created conservation strategies for selected village settlements and their hinterlands by engaging residents and stakeholders. Together with interdisciplinary collaboration, we propose innovative scenarios with radical architectural interventions as catalysts to enact regenerative conservation for Lantau South.