New Choi Yuen Village Eco-House Design

The design of Choi Yuan Village is a community re-habitation project in the New Territory of Hong Kong. Started as a protest against village re-location by the construction of High-Speed Rail Link, the movement marks a turning point for formulating alternative planning strategies for bottom-up development and organic agriculture, as well as green architecture and grass-root participation in rural Hong Kong.

The project completed a set of detailed designs for a low cost eco-village and its buildings, demonstrating sustainable design concepts including conservation of fishpond and orchard, allocation of commune land for organic farming, arrangement for a vehicular-free pedestrian system, as well as development of public spaces and infrastructures with rain water collection and waste water recycling. By formulating a typological based participation mechanism, as well as a set of architecture measures for facilitating natural ventilation and lighting, establishing rainwater collection and green-roof for each houses, the project opens up new opportunities for community architecture against the mainstream mode of housing development in Hong Kong.