Architects have come up with four very different designs to revitalise the Central Market building. But the public seems to have only one request - please don't turn it into another shopping mall.
About 100 people came face to face with the four design teams in a Designing Hong Kong public forum at the Fringe Club yesterday as they heard the teams elaborating their plans for the 72-year-old building.
All four teams suggested similar uses inside the market: open space, greening and cheap food outlets.
But many of those attending had a question that the designers could not answer: would the future management of the project ignore their creative plans and make it a mall?
'A shopping mall seems to be the end point all the time in Hong Kong,' one man at the forum said.
His feelings were echoed by a woman who suggested principles of management should be established.
'If they are heritage [buildings], their function should change within parameters,' she said.