Move jails to make way for housing, architects say
Institutes back government's vision but say it's a mistake to get rid of community spaces - and suggest four facilities be vacated instead
Architects have proposed moving two jails, the police training school and a barracks and using the land to build flats instead of rezoning community sites, as the government has suggested.
The institutes, covering architects, planners, engineers and surveyors, said they supported Leung Chun-ying's land and housing visions but warned that delivering on those ideas would require extra efforts by government departments.
The architects suggested that the Wong Chuk Hang police training school, Kowloon East Barracks in Kowloon Tong and the Pik Uk and Stanley prisons should be moved further out so as to vacate more sites for flats. They did not say where the facilities should be moved to.
"We float this proposal because we want the government to think twice about substituting GIC [government, institution or community] sites with flats," Institute of Urban Design vice-president Vincent Ng Wing-shun said. "We are very concerned about that."
GIC sites are land used for community and educational purposes, including open space.
