About the CPD

In recent years, public engagement has been increasingly recognised as a key component in many public works projects. Yet, it not fully recognised among technical professionals.

This is the second session of a CPD series that aims to promulgate public engagement as an important means of encouraging bottom-up conservation process. It does not focus on technically how to conserve, but how to engage and empower the local community to participate in the process through exploration of the various difficulties in mobilising the local community, tools adopted, the local community’s expectations, how to compromise and reconcile, and how to make decisions etc. The ultimate goal of heritage conservation is not merely on heritage conservation of the physical features, but also community collaboration, partnership and empowerment.

The speakers of this session will share their experience in community engagement and partnership in three heritage projects – from planning and mobilisation, to participation and implementation, and all the difficulties, challenges, arguments and compromise in the process.

PROJECT BLUE: Viva Blue House

In 2017, the Blue House Cluster conservation project was awarded Excellence by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The jury citation commends that “the revitalization of the Blue House Cluster – Viva Blue House – provides triumphant validation for a truly inclusive approach to urban conservation. A broad alliance spanning from tenants to social workers and preservationists waged a grassroots advocacy campaign to save the last remaining
working-class community in the fast gentrifying enclave of Wanchai, which was threatened by demolition and wholesale redevelopment.”

Suki Chau and Kenneth Tse, social worker and design architect respectively in the project team, will share the toil, sweat and tears in the difficult process of engaging the Blue House residents and neighbours, and walking them all the way to the successful completion of this award-winning conservation project. They will also highlight the impact on the neighbourhood after years from the project completion.

PROJECT GREEN: 7 Malloy Street

Formerly known as Green House, this cluster of ten pre-war tenement houses at Mallory Street and Burrows Street, Wanchai was conserved and adaptively reused as Comix Home Base, which was officially opened in July 2013 but unfortunately ceased operation in July 2018. Since January 2022, it has been rebranded as M7 with a focus at promoting “cultural discovery”, “exchanges of the new and old”, “everyday living”, and “neighbourly networks”.

Eric Ho will dissect the community engagement process for this Grade 2 historical building, which went through a repositioning of its property identity, re-directing from the obsession with the hardware elements of this conversation project to human and user-centric points of view.

PROJECT RED: Maryknoll Convent

Maryknoll Convent School in Kowloon Tong, which was declared a monument in 2008, is well known to the general public as a beautiful red brick school complex in different, well blended architectural styles, including Art Deco, Romanesque, Neo-Georgian and Gothic Revival. Its convent building, which formerly served as living quarters for the Maryknoll sisters, is about to transform to a new function for the Maryknoll students.

Eric Ho will share how the process of engaging and listening to a diverse school stakeholder community – including students, teachers, parents, and alumni – was leveraged to reinforce the cultural value of the place and become instruments to facilitate the growth of its users.

About the Speakers

Ms. Suki Chau
Social Worker | St. James’ Settlement

Graduated from the Department of Social Work at the City University of Hong Kong and later obtained her Master degree of Arts in Communication from the Hong Kong Baptist University, Suki has been participating in community development and cultural conservation projects for 15 years. She has always been an advocator of bottom-up, community-led mode of community planning and conservation in Hong Kong. Apart from the Viva Blue House project in which she has been involved since 2006, Suki has also been a key team member of the “Hong Kong House of Stories” (formerly “Wanchai Livelihood Place”), the “Community Classroom” project, and the “ToHome” project (“House of To Kwa Wan Stories”).

Mr. Hugo Tsang
Social Worker | St. James’ Settlement

Hugo, an experienced social worker at St. James’ Settlement and the supervisor of the viva Blue Hospital project, takes charge of the overall planning of “Hong Kong House of Stories”, the “Community Classroom” project, Community Cultural Tours, and other public events related to community development.

Mr. Kenneth Tse
Founding Director | Meta4 Design Forum Ltd

Kenneth Tse was born in Hong Kong and grew up in the territory. He studied architecture at the University of Hong Kong, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Master of Architecture. After successfully acquired the local professional qualifications of practicing as an architect, he continued to study and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Sociology from the City University of Hong Kong, and later also a Master of Science in Sustainable Heritage with Distinction from the Bartlett School of the University College London.

Kenneth has been following the Blue House Community since 2006. He helped St James’ Settlement to establish the Hong Kong House of Story in 2007 at one of the ground floor shops of Blue House as a meeting place for the neighbours, and later participating in the objection to the Urban Renewal Authority’s plan of turning the building cluster to a tourist attraction spot. In 2008-2011 he prepared a revitalisation proposal and helped St James’ Settlement to win the project under the Revitalization Scheme. In 2011-2017 he took up the role of Design Architect for the Viva Blue House project, witnessed the construction progress, and coordinated the needs and expectations from various stakeholders.

Mr. Eric Ho
Director & Co-Founder | Architecture Commons
Founder | Neighbourhood Innovation Lab

Architect, entrepreneur, and urban thinker passionate about architecture and urban environments that have a lasting impact on society, Eric founded Neighbourhood Innovation Lab (NIL) in 2019 instigating a catalyst of systemic change through a range of strategic innovation options and experiments designed with and for city and regional governments, property developers, industry leaders, community organisations, and policymakers. He was the recipient of the Faculty Design Award at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Now he teaches architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and design strategy at Parsons School of Design.

His work has been published in New York Times, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Good Magazine and PSFK. His practice was selected among hundreds of companies as a start-up in residence by Urban-X, a startup accelerator built by BMW MINI. Spending most of his time in Asia, Eric is most passionate in finding new ways to disrupt the real estate industry and human-centred design processes for the built environment.