Urban Design, Hong Kong

A new proposal knits together a series of public spaces on Hong Kong Island's western side to make a historically austere neighbourhood more citizen-centric

eople have always been drawn to waterfronts. They offer an opportunity for work, a connection to the world beyond and a chance to clear the mind with a fresh sea breeze. But for generations of urban planners, waterfronts have represented something else: a place to dump inconvenient infrastructure.

That has certainly been the case in Hong Kong's Western District, also known as Sai Wan, whose shoreline has long been blocked from public access by a sewage treatment plant, pumping stations, a wholesale market, cargo yards and the spaghetti-like pile of roadways leading to and from the Western Harbour Crossing. The few open areas along the water are beloved by nearby residents, but getting there means dodging lorries, trudging past tall concrete walls and burrowing beneath highway flyovers.

Massimiliano Dappero has a plan to change that. After leading the masterplanning team at Lead8 — the firm that proposed connecting Hong Kong's harbourfront with a series of public spaces called the HarbourLoop — the Italian-born urban designer launched his own practice, Persone Studio, in November 2019. That was just before COVID-19 hit, and while the pandemic may have disrupted Dappero's work plans, it gave him plenty of time to think about his own front yard.

‘I came to Hong Kong ten years ago and I've lived in Sai Wan for six of those years,' he says. ‘I've observed what people do in the city's

Urban designer Massimiliano Dappero has plans to make his neighbourhood on Hong Kong Island more citizen-friendly by connecting nodes of public activity using a simple intervention: a yellow marking that both visually demarcates and binds the public spaces