The site is divided into 8 individual zoning envelopes, 100m x 100m x 15m (deep), floating 10m above a common base/open park, each to be developed by different developers. Each development will have hybrid programming of both condominiums for sale and commercial space of office and/or hotel for lease. Each development must be sustainable, meeting or exceeding the LEED Gold Rating. These envelopes are laid out in a way to allow maximum openness for views and wind both through and from within the site. The 13% openness inside each envelope further increases the openness. Street life will be brought back at the base level, and a landscaped park is formed on top of the base, open to the public, and connected to the piers that house the not-for-profit programs. Corresponding to each building envelope, there will be a pier constructed from the initial sales profit of the development. Totaling 8 in number, with the same simple structural section, these piers with their open floor plan provide loft space for the not-for-profit activities.
There will be a review committee set up to review application from individuals or institutions who are devoted to not-for-profit-based progressive and creative thinking and research. Once approved for the space and funding, they will be allowed a certain period of time to be the researcher-in-residence for their own work in a self-organizational fashion inside the space. These piers become the incubators. These spaces are also open to the public from the park above, encourages an open dialogue between the research and the public. Mobile work platforms that are attached to the incubator provide an extended dimension. When detached, they float between the incubators for the exchange of ideas. They are the communicators.
Ultimately, it is the hope that this policy can be applied to other prime urban water front sites in Hong Kong. Imagine- a network of these incubators will gradually form, and Hong Kong, once again, will become the place for experimental urbanism.
