Town Planning Practice

This book is the first systematic attempt to introduce the current practice and statistics of town planning in Hong Kong. Part I gives an analytical account of the practical and ideological context, discusses design principles and describes procedures of town planning with particular reference to change in use. The emphasis is on skills of plan interpretation and an appreciation of the intellectual disposition of planners and various objective constraints confronting them. Part II is the first of its kind in presenting and analysing the statistics of planning applications for 11 zones from 1978 to 1998. The success rates of planning applications as well as the main reasons used by the Town Planning Board for rejecting planning applications are elucidated.

Lawrence Wai-chung Lai won a Commonwealth scholarship to study town planning at the University of Sydney in 1983-84 where he obtained a Royal Australian Planning Institute (NSW) prize for outstanding academic performance. He worked as a Town Planner with the Town Planning Office, Lands and Works Branch and the Environmental Protection Department before joining the University of Hong Kong. He is now an associate professor in the Department of Real Estate and Construction at the University of Hong Kong. Ki Fong is a BSc (Surveying) graduate of the University of Hong Kong and is now working in the Lands Department.

“This treatise, written in lucid language and amply illustrated with useful figures, plates and tables, provides much fodder for further inquiries. It can no doubt constitute a key reference if not a benchmark for professionals, academics and students associated with town planning, including the disciplines of architecture, geography, law, planning and surveying.” —Professor C. Y. Jim, Head of Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong; Town Planning Board Member