Housing minister Winnie Ho on Monday said that public housing tenants would soon be able to enjoy a better living environment that is more age-friendly.

This came as the Housing Bureau and Housing Authority offered a glimpse on their well-being design guide for residents.

The team came up with eight concepts - health and vitality; green living and sustainability; age-friendly; inter-generational and inclusive living; family and community connection; urban connectivity; upward mobility; perception and image - after visiting 26 housing estates across 17 districts to seek the views of over 3,000 residents.

For example, under the inter-generational and inclusive living concept, a special area would be set up for vehicles such as medical vans, allowing residents easy access to them.

“It may not just serve the elderly persons, although sometimes the health-related mobile services may relate to the elderly persons more, but there are also mobile libraries which the children and young mothers would be very interested in," Ho said.

Other facilities to improve the living environment include items such as exercise stations at convenient locations.

Ho also gave an example on how a facility could achieve age inclusivity.

“Very usually, we see the grandparents bring their grandchildren to the playground. So if the grandchildren were playing, where should the grandparents sit?"

"Can they sit comfortably under the tree when they watch the children play, and at the same time, can the grandparents can have a social chat to share necessary information? That is the kind of environment we want to create,” Ho added.

The pilot programme will be launched at five existing estates - Kai Yip Estate, Fu Shan Estate, Chak On Estate, Shui Pin Wai Estate, and Mei Lam Estate.

It is believed that Hin Fat Estate and Yip Wong Road Phase 2 (Yip Wong Estate) will be the first two projects built under the new guidelines.

Calvin Au, a researcher at the think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation, welcomes the introduction of the design guidelines.

Au told RTHK that the authorities have to design public housing based on the needs of residents there.

"Different people have different needs. The challenges would be how to pick the right design recommendation from the guide to apply to the right estate," he explained

"For the architect and policymakers, they really have to have a good sense of what is the population they are planning to serve, the data, so they know about the population mix and they know what they need."

Au also said it's important to cater to the needs of elderly residents.

"Our population is ageing, our building is ageing, and our senior residents have difficulty in their daily life.

"This guideline... can really gather resources across sectors and across society to really apply the newest technology and the newest design in a larger scenario such as public housing estate, which can really push forward the development of the age-friendly community."

The details of the guidelines will be unveiled next Thursday.

The well-being design guide was proposed in Chief Executive John Lee’s maiden policy address back in 2022.
_____________________________
Last updated: 2024-09-02 HKT 21:04