How urban renewal can keep Yau Ma Tei’s street life alive

The Cultural principle celebrates the vibrant, diverse and inclusive nature of Hong Kong’s local culture. With walkability in mind, the Connectivity principle focuses on the pedestrian experience in order to sustain street vibrancy and improve movement throughout the district. 

Their proposal, “Heartbeat of the City, Voices of the Streets”, is centred around the proposed “Cultural Belt”/ Civic Node in Yau Ma Tei, as part of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) Urban Renewal Design Ideas Competition for the District Study for Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok (YMDS). The competition asked teams to demonstrate how the study’s new planning tools could be applied to two real-world sites, one around the Central Urban Park in Mong Kok, and the other around the Heritage Park in Yau Ma Tei, as proposed in the YMDS.

A young cross-disciplinary team with background in architecture and urban planning believes this vibrant fabric can be strengthened through holistic urban renewal.

In Yau Ma Tei, street life, wet markets, night-time food stalls, small workshops and informal gathering spaces are tightly interwoven, giving the district its distinctive character and strong sense of place.

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Under the Communal principle, Yau Ma Tei is positioned as a heritage and cultural hub that links historic landmarks and introduces new venues for events, thereby sustaining and promoting the area’s appeal as a tourism destination.

From left: Ar. Cheung Hoi Lan (Sandy Cheung), Chen Lok Ching (Vanessa Chen), Ar. Chan Wang Fung (Raphael Chan), Chung Yin and Cheng Chun Hei (Alex Cheng), the young winning team for “Heartbeat of the City, Voices of the Streets”, celebrate their first-prize (Area around the Heritage Park in Yau Ma Tei) victory at the URA x HKIA Urban Renewal Design Ideas Competition Ceremony.

Putting this philosophy into practice, the team focused on keeping activity at ground level. “We’re not trying to replace everything,” says team leader Sandy Cheung. “A lot is already happening there. We think those activities should continue.”

This thinking is most visible in their approach to Connectivity. Adopting a creative reinterpretation of the proposed multi-storey “Civic Node” in the YMDS, the proposal introduces a continuous green deck that stitches together fragmented plots and roadways, enabling multi-level circulation. At the same time, strong visual and physical connections to the ground-level streets are carefully maintained.

“We saw the ground as broken into pieces,” Cheung explains. “So, we tried to stitch it together, not close it off.”

The multi-level green deck, featuring landscaped terraces, playgrounds and public spaces, links nearby destinations via open areas.

The “needle and thread” for this urban stitching are the new planning tools from the YMDS. Transfer of plot ratio (TPR) shifts development potential to allow more generous public open space at street level and strategic planning of denser developments. Street consolidation areas (SCA) enable blocks and road areas to be merged where needed, therefore creating larger, coherent pedestrian zones without reducing overall development capacity.

Paradoxically, while creating more open space, the team also believes that density is treated as part of Yau Ma Tei’s cultural identity. “Yau Ma Tei is already dense,” notes team member Vanessa Chen. “The narrow gaps between buildings and tightly knit street blocks create a sense of intensity that defines the district. If the urban fabric becomes too loose, the area would no longer feel like Yau Ma Tei—it would lose the character people recognise,” Chung Yin adds.

In their proposal, the 3Cs—Culture, Connectivity, and Communal—are articulated through the integrated application of TPR and SCA. Development potential within the proposed Cultural Belt/Civic Node area is transferred to other sites earmarked for higher-density development, thereby releasing ground-level space for public enjoyment (Communal) while enabling the construction of the multi-level green deck to improve walkability and circulation across the district (Connectivity). SCA is further applied to sites along Shanghai Street to create a generous ground-level space for a new “Wok Lab”, a communal food-focused hub that brings together a wet market, culinary craftsmanship, cooking classes, and workshops, exemplifying both the Communal and Culture principles.

“Renewal should be guided by how people use the area and what matters to them,” says Chung Yin. Alex Cheng adds that the key question is how to carry forward the sense of warmth that defines the district.

By creating the right conditions, including open ground planes, connected spaces and flexible frameworks, the team believes the district’s street life can continue to evolve naturally over time. 

Their approach demonstrates that redevelopment and preserving local character are not in conflict. Redevelopment can act as the enabler and facilitator for a more vibrant, human-centred future.

Even in a design competition, the team acknowledges the practical gap between concept and delivery, noting that acquiring sites, engaging residents and working out viable development models will take time and considerable effort.

That process would require genuine understanding of the perspectives of different stakeholders, where views may differ, but discussion can help refine the outcomes. As they put it: “The role of professionals is to bring together the voices of locals and translate them into design.”

Looking forward, the team envisions their work as a catalyst for inspiring the next generation of professionals to carry the YMDS vision forward in the decades to come. This vision extends beyond the application of new planning tools to reshape Yau Mong; it seeks to rejuvenate other ageing districts across Hong Kong through such strategies and mechanisms, with a view to creating better living environments and a more sustainable future for the community as a whole. 

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