In 23-24 March 2018, the first ever Sandbox event in town - the CollaborateHK Sandbox Charrette was held, for a round of community envisioning exercise! 

The 24-hour workshop aimed to explore feasible community-led initiatives of vacant sites in Hong Kong and brought together over 100 participants from all walks of life, including community leaders, scholars, professionals, and business representatives. Participants were split into 8 groups to propose a feasible and creative framework for a chosen site, among which 6 sites were in the North Hong Kong Island and the remaining two are vacant schools in Stanley and Hung Hom. See the Info Pack for more details of the sites!

Advisory clinics were also arranged for each team to meet practicing professionals from various industries and evaluate the feasibility of their proposals.

Here are the highlights of the events:

Next, the 8 teams will revise their site activation proposals and get ready to present their final design. See you all in the Sandbox Summit in May!  

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【CollaborateHK Sandbox Charrette】

Across the city, it is easy to spot vacant sites left idle. Constrained by political and administrative boundaries, these hidden gems remained underutilized, waiting for their opportunity to shine and be transformed into popular, well-loved public spaces that generate social benefits for all.

In view of the growing call for community-led initiatives, urban development should become more flexible, and free from the current, rigid technical planning process. Community members should be empowered with a voice that impacts real action plans. We believe city planning should be inclusive, people-oriented and sustainable.

With the aim to foster public initiatives in Hong Kong, Very Hong Kong is undertaking an independent study of a possible new policy framework, CollaborateHK, to encourage bottom-up and community-led initiatives. CollaborateHK will be a platform for all to share their aspirations, as well as to facilitate potential cross-sector collaboration between the community, government, and business sectors.

Frequently adopted in urban researches, a “Sandbox” is an effective way to test innovative ideas without impacting existing regulatory frameworks. From March 23 to March 24, 2018, the CollaborateHK Sandbox Charrette will bring together participants from NGOs, professional institutes and the general public to explore feasible community happenings for 8 selected vacant sites. VeryHK also invites an advisory panel to evaluate the feasibility of team proposals and the CollaborateHK framework. 

Date: 23rd-24th March 2018
Time: 6pm-9pm; 9am-6pm
Venue: 8/F, Prince’s Building, 10 Charter Road, Central
Hub: Central