Housing in Place: Quality Living for Sustainable Hong Kong (HiP)

Housing in Place: Quality Living for Sustainable Hong Kong (HiP) was conceived by Dr. Juan Du, Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Architecture, to research and design alternative housing solutions and community spaces located in urban centres and neighbourhoods served best by public transportation and civic institutions. The project examines how the thousands of underutilised buildings that are temporarily vacant or awaiting lengthy redevelopment processes could be used to generate quality housing spaces in accessible locations, improve existing housing stocks, and provide crucial community spaces in areas with the highest concentration of population in need of social services. Partnering with Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong (Habitat), HKU’s Urban Ecologies Design Lab (UEDL) has transformed four floors of a vacant building in Jordan to provide quality spaces for emergency housing and community facilities.The HiP Emergency Shelter and Community Space will enable local NGOs to serve thousands of residents each month through meal distribution, legal consulting, and home improvement training.