Stepping out: how architects plan to get Hongkongers walking

There’s a movement afoot to get us all walking more – and not just from the 10,000 steps a day brigade.

Architects around the world are espousing the virtues of walkable cities, where not only do the streets and paths encourage pedestrian activity, but the buildings themselves are designed to promote people-flow.

Walkable cities are the cornerstone of “new urbanism”, an approach to spatial planning that promotes environmentally friendly habits. Its holy grail is a car-free city, to which several countries, including China, have publicly aspired. (Norway has proposed banning cars in Oslo by 2019, and France has already piloted car-free days in Paris).

US firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) masterplanned the Chengdu Tianfu District Great City, a self-sustaining, environmentally sensitive 1.3-square-kilometre satellite city on the outskirts of Chengdu, as a model for China’s future suburbs. The project, currently under construction, is based on the premise that 80,000 people will live in the Great City, which mathematically would make it one of the most densely populated districts in the world.

It won’t be completely car-free: AS+GG partner Robert Forest said that idea was discussed, but ultimately rejected (would people buy a home in a place where they weren’t allowed to own a car?).

But all day-to-day needs will be within walking distance of residential buildings, and you won’t actually need a car to get out of the city, as a multi-modal hub incorporating a high speed train, local subway and bus stations will provide adequate public transportation.