Revised arts hub park 'strays from Foster's plan'

A landscape architect has warned planning changes and budget cuts have put at risk the "urban forest" that architect Norman Foster envisioned in his winning master plan for the West Kowloon arts hub.

The hub authority has revealed that only 60 per cent of the park will be green space and its budget had been halved to HK$1 billion, saying the changes were needed as part of an overall cost-cutting strategy

But Patrick Lau Hing-tat, who was on a team shortlisted for designing the park in 2012, questioned whether the authority had gone too far.

"Is a park without much green space still a park? The latest move of the authority deviates from the original spirit of Foster's design," Lau said. "The green areas in Foster's plan cover almost 80 per cent of the park. The 60 per cent is a minimum requirement set by the Planning Department and the authority should do its best to honour the original design. The park is what impressed people from all walks of life."

The park covers 19 of the site's 40 hectares, providing a green belt of thousands of trees dotted with paths, sculptures and arts facilities, including a recently added modular theatre that will seat up to 1,500 people. The authority says the park will be the first part of the hub to open, partly as it's easiest to build.

When the authority's chairwoman, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, announced the revisions two weeks ago, she said the hub's underground structures - car parks, roads and exits for many of the buildings - would be left for the government to build. That is likely to delay the start of construction of some of the facilities.

At the time she denied the original HK$21.6 billion budget had soared to HK$47 billion, but would not give a revised estimate.