About Freedom Ball

Freedom Ball questions whether the Hong Kong government controls the use of public space for the benefit of Hong Kong people.

We do this through simple and striking interventions in public spaces which encourage the public to engage directly with activities which are currently banned in the space.

The principles of our interventions are that they challenge the rules in a way that is positive and engaging and encourage the public to join in actively.

Our aim is to change the way that public spaces are managed, designed and controlled so that they meet the needs of Hong Kong people.

自由波向政府質疑: 政府控制公共空間的使用是否有利於公眾利益。

我們通過在公共场所舉辮一些簡單而又引起大家矚目的行動:鼓勵公眾直接參與一些仍然被禁的活動。

這些行動的宗旨就是: 大家用正面而又有趣的形式鼓勵公眾積極投入這類活動,挑戰僵化規條。

我們的目的在於改變公共空間的設計和管理模式, 最終能符合香港市民的需要。


Sunday, August 1, 2010

Another meeting

The LCSD invited me up to Shatin the other day to talk about progress since the workshop with Park Managers. This is their current plan:

There will be an LCSD workgroup led by two ADs (Assistant Directors) to re-vamp signage and furniture in Hong Kong parks and the design of facilities including, most importantly, fencing. They say that they have accepted the principal that accessible, multi-function lawn space should be a priority, which was one of the key issues to come of of the public feedback at the Shatin Freedom Ball. So thanks to everybody who gave and helped collect feedback as, to the LCSD's credit, they do seem to be responding, at least in principal, to feedback from the public. We will of course let you know when and if real changes start to appear (more on that later).

It was suggested that soft fencing will be used instead of the existing hard fences which was a concern for me as merely replacing hard fencing with more aesthetically pleasing soft fencing that still restricts the public from accessing the space doesn't really achieve any meaningful change. However, the LCSD assured me that they were committed to opening up space for public use and that fences would be removed altogether where possible and soft fencing used only where fencing was absolutely necessary. The devil is in the detail of course, so one of the key areas for debate is when fencing is necessary. Of course there will always be a need for some fencing for safety reasons but we're looking to see a fundamental shift in the balance between open and fenced areas.

The first trial of this programme will be in Quarry Bay Park towards the end of this year/beginning of next year (this was incidentally where the one of the first Freedom Ball events was held). The LCSD then plan to roll it out to another venue in the medium term and, based on feedback from this and the Quarry Bay project confirm a set of revised design principles by the beginning of 2012 which will be applied to both new and existing parks.

All in all an encouraging response from LCSD but we still need to see how it pans out in reality and we're still looking for feedback from the public, either here at Freedom Ball or send your thoughts directly to the LCSD if you prefer. So if you have any opinions about park design let us know, now is the time when your voice is most likely to be heard and incorporated into the changes that the LCSD are promising.

Simultaneously we also want to put some pressure on particular test cases to test out the stated philosophy and see whether it can/will be applied in the real world, and if not, why not. We discussed one of these examples at the meeting and I will talk about the details in my next post.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow..glad to know there are some positive responses from LCSD, well done!! David :-) sorry for not able to take a more active role here...just too full on the plate already :-( but always thinking of the issue.

David Biddlecombe said...

Thanks Cally and no worries, thanks for all your help so far.

maintenanceg said...

احدث موديلات قطع الغيار متوفرة الان من خلال صيانة كاريير فى جميع فروعنا فى كافة المحافظات .. كما بامكانك الان التواصل مع خدمة عملاء مركز صيانة فيليبس لتحصل على اسرع خدمة صيانة منزلية مزودة باحدث التقنيات التكنولوجية التى تساعد على الحفاظ على سلامة اجهزتك الكهربائية
تواصل معنا الان

صيانة said...

تواصل مع خدمة عملاء مركز صيانة يونيفرسال للاجهزة الكهربائية واحصل على اقوى الخصومات عند شراء او استبدال اى من قطع الغيار الاصلية من كافة انواع التوكيلات العالمية .. كما يمكنكم الحصول على صيانة دورية من المنزل مع افضل المهندسين المتخصصين فى صيانة جميع انواع الاجهزة الكهربائية فقط اتصل الان على مركز خدمة صيانة يونيفرسال نصلك فى اسرع وقت وفى اى مكان