Historic Revitalization in Mainland China

Historic Revitalization in Hong Kong

Conservation of historic buildings is an important element in the urban planning of Hong Kong. For any land use or development proposals that may have an impact on the historic buildings and their environment, the concerned government departments must seek advice from the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO). In addition, the Government has set up the Antiquities Advisory Board in accordance with the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance enacted in 1976. The Board, consisting of members with expertise in various fields, may advise the Antiquities Authority (currently the Secretary for Development) on any matters relating to antiquities and monuments so as to enhance public participation in heritage conservation.

1．Declaration of Monuments

Under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, the Antiquities Authority may, after consultation with the Antiquities Advisory Board and with the approval of the Chief Executive, by notice in the Gazette, declare any place, building, site or structure, which the Authority considers to be of public interest by reason of its historical, archaeological or palaeontological significance, to be a monument for protection. Afterwards, for the protection of the monuments, the Authority may stop any alterations to the monuments or at his discretion impose conditions that must be complied with during the alteration process. Up to March 2011, there is a total of 98 items of declared monuments.

2．Grading of Historic Buildings

In addition to declaring monuments, there is a grading mechanism established by AMO, under which historic buildings may be classified into 3 degrees:

Grade 1 (buildings of outstanding merits and if possible, every effort should be made to preserve them), like Old Tai Po Police Station, Lui Seng Chun ;
Grade 2 (buildings of special merits and efforts should be made to selectively preserve them), like North Kowloon Magistracy ;
Grade 3 (buildings of some merits and preservation in some form would be desirable) categories by reason of their heritage merits^① .

Though the grading mechanism carries no legal effect, it provides useful guidelines to the Government and the public in considering the means to preserve historic buildings. The AMO conducted a survey on the old buildings in Hong Kong (mainly buildings that were built before 1950) from 1996 to 2000 and recorded about 8,800 buildings. Then 1,444 buildings of higher heritage merits were identified for grading. Up to March 2011, 212, 366 and 577 (a total of 1155) buildings were respectively classified as Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 historic buildings.

①: In order to facilitate the assessment of the historical and architectural merits of buildings and structures, criteria including historical interest, architectural merit, group value, social value and local interest, authenticity and rarity are taken into account.

3．Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme

The Chief Executive in the 2007-08 Policy Address announced a series of heritage conservation measures including a new “Revitalising Historic Buildings through Partnership Scheme” (the Scheme) under which vacant historic buildings owned by the Government would be put to adaptive
re-use by social enterprises with a view to transforming them into unique cultural landmarks. The dual objectives of the Scheme, namely, to preserve the historic buildings and to put them into good use would bring maximum benefits to the public and help promote public participation in the conservation of the historic buildings. As most of these heritage buildings are located in the older districts, the new economic activities drawn in by the Scheme would bring in vibrancy and innovation, and thus catalyze the renewal to the benefits of these old districts. Since early 2008, 12 historic buildings have been identified for inclusion under the Scheme in two phases. Response is very good and over 150 applications were received. After detailed assessment, conservation and revitalization proposals considered appropriate for 9 buildings were accepted by the Government.