Page 80 - The Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) 香港綠色建築議會

Researches
In 2008, to revitalise and transform
government-owned historic buildings into
unique cultural landmarks, the HKSAR
Government launched the ‘Revitalising
Historic Buildings Through Partnership
Scheme’ (R-Scheme). Under the R-Scheme,
non-profit-making organisations (NPOs) are
invited to submit proposals to revitalise
selected government-owned historic
buildings in the form of social enterprises.
Where justified, financial support will be
provided to the selected NPOs to cover the
cost of major renovation to the buildings,
nominal rental for the buildings and to meet
starting costs and operating deficits (if any) The Former North Kowloon Magistracy, built
of the social enterprise for a maximum of the
first two years of operation at a ceiling of
HK$5 million, on the prerequisite that the
social enterprise’s proposal is projected to
become self-sustainable after this initial
period. Since the launch of the R-Scheme in
2008, four batches of revitalisation projects
involving 16 historic buildings have been
rolled out. The revitalisation works for all
six projects under Batch I of the R-Scheme
have been completed and the six revitalised
78 HONG KONG REPORT ON THE STATE OF SUSTAINABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 2014
Conservation and Revitalisation of
Government-owned Historic Buildings in
Hong Kong
buildings are now open for public use. The
revitalisation works for the six historic
buildings under Batches II and III are in
progress and the proposals for revitalising
four historic buildings under Batch IV are
being selected.
Under Batch I of the R-Scheme, two buildings,
namely the former North Kowloon Magistracy
and old Tai O Police Station, have won the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Asia-Pacific
Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
in 1960, is a classic model of civic buildings in while retaining the building’s original
that period. After its completion, the building
housed one of the busiest magistracies
in Hong Kong. Due to the consolidation of
magistracies, the North Kowloon Magistracy
ceased operation in 2005 and the building has
been left vacant. Under the R-Scheme, it was
revitalised as the Savannah College of Art
and Design (SCAD) Hong Kong Campus for
the provision of non-local higher education
courses in art and design.
In 2011, the revitalised former North Kowloon
Magistracy received an Honourable Mention
in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for
Cultural Heritage Conservation Programme,
with the following award citation: ’The
adaptive re-use of the Former North Kowloon
Magistracy as an international university
of the arts has breathed new life into a
decommissioned 1960s government building.
The functionalist architecture style has
been respected and the original finishes of
the historically and aesthetically valuable
structure were recovered. Creative design
allowed for contemporary insertions to
provide the required educational facilities
fabric and spatial character. The project
demonstrates the possibilities of adaptive
reuse for public buildings of this typology
and is a model for successful public-private
cooperation under the framework of HKSAR’s
policy for retaining and optimising the value
of heritage buildings.‘