https://www.scmp.com/rss/318372/feed Barry Wilson is an internationally qualified, multi-skilled, design and construction professional with 30 years of global experience in the private sector. In 2012, he received an award from the China International Urbanization Development Strategy Research Committee for his contribution to China's urbanisation transformation and is currently vice-president of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design and part-time professor at the University of Hong Kong. His consultancy practice, Barry Wilson... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Among the plethora of statistics, benchmarks and generalities in Hong Kong 2030 Plus, the government’s policy vision document, one word is conspicuous in its almost total absence – quality. The document says its vision is for Hong Kong “to become a liveable, competitive and sustainable Asia’s World City” but gives little clue as to how to get there, providing no measurable liveability targets and not specifying what liveable actually means or whose aspirations these might be. By contrast,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2182703/singapore-and-vancouver-can-create-liveable-cities?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2182703/singapore-and-vancouver-can-create-liveable-cities?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Jan 2019 23:00:15 +0000 President Xi Jinping’s comment at the 19th party congress, that “houses are for living in, not for speculation”, followed the continued tightening of housing measures across China since March, when cities began to introduce a sales ban. More than 40 cities now have such restrictions, with Xian, Chongqing, Nanchang, Nanning and Changsha having recently tightened controls – most have banned home sales for two to three years after purchase. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2119306/xi-jinping-says-houses-are-living-not-speculation-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2119306/xi-jinping-says-houses-are-living-not-speculation-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Nov 2017 00:31:23 +0000 There is a new realisation that air quality inside buildings can significantly affect health, productivity and happiness. The same is, of course, true for outside air quality, where one in nine deaths globally results from air pollution and the high costs of remedial health care far outweigh the preventive costs. Awareness of the health issues from emissions should be of particular concern in Hong Kong, where congested streets are common, not to mention the psychological stress resulting from... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2116714/when-will-hong-kong-tackle-health-menace-congested-roads?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2116714/when-will-hong-kong-tackle-health-menace-congested-roads?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Oct 2017 09:26:13 +0000 One of the targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to “ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services, and upgrade slums by 2030”. However, meeting poorer people’s housing needs is requiring larger subsidies, at a time when most countries are cutting back on public spending, or even pulling out of state-subsidised housing altogether. The US housing market, ­between 2001 and 2013, saw the disappearance of 2.4 million units for low-income earners. An... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112830/affordable-housing-all-only-shift-attitudes-governments?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112830/affordable-housing-all-only-shift-attitudes-governments?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Sep 2017 07:57:29 +0000 Our cities and lifestyles have been shaped by what’s gone before. In the midst of what is now the fourth industrial revolution, as the impossible becomes possible, we urgently need to relinquish outdated planning models, envision the world in which we want to live, and urgently take steps to change and shape it for the better. Time is against us. I am looking out of the window of my home. What do I see? Not so much into the distance, as the air is thick with smog. Down on the street someone has... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2102289/futuristic-urban-solutions-will-take-bold-vision?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2102289/futuristic-urban-solutions-will-take-bold-vision?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Jul 2017 10:08:50 +0000 Not everyone can own property and not everyone wants to. Germany, for instance, has some of the lowest property ownership levels in the developed world, with about half the population living in rental accommodation, a level comparable with Hong Kong. The difference for Germany is that it is mostly by choice as, arguably, the tenant enjoys greater rights and is afforded stronger protection from landlords. Germans do not sit around a meal table discussing how much their home has risen in value... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1863578/housing-hong-kongs-city-centre-must-be-affordable-both-rich?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1863578/housing-hong-kongs-city-centre-must-be-affordable-both-rich?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Oct 2015 03:00:45 +0000 I have lived in Hong Kong since 1994, coming to the city as an interested witness as to how it would respond to being handed over to China from its British manufacture. Following the events of 1997, when asked the regular question, "So what has changed since the handover?", I could easily respond "nothing". It seems, almost 18 years on, that the answer was never truer. Hong Kong has, it seems, gone into a long period of stagnation, its "can do" moniker being replaced by a "won't do"... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1817103/shenzhen-future-hong-kong-past?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1817103/shenzhen-future-hong-kong-past?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jun 2015 16:45:45 +0000 Shenzhen has recently said it will turn its airport into an "international hub". That means building a third runway with another new terminal, hot on the heels of having opened a second runway and a brand new eye-catching terminal just last year. Both Guangzhou and Hong Kong are "hub airports" that are granted state support but Shenzhen has limited international connections and doesn't want to miss out on South China's international air travel bonanza. Guangzhou has just completed construction... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1742794/how-can-hong-kong-compete-regional-airport-battle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1742794/how-can-hong-kong-compete-regional-airport-battle?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Mar 2015 16:52:30 +0000