Media

26^th June 2021 (Saturday), Atrium, The Mills Fabrica (4/F The Mills, 45 Pak Tin Par Street, Tsuen Wan)

The HSBC Rural Sustainability Programme initiated by the Centre for Civil Society and Governance at The University of Hong Kong will hold the “Different Paths to Sustainability: A Roundtable of UNESCO Award-winning Heritage Projects from Hong Kong” on 26^th June 2021 (Saturday). Since 2000, a total of 21 Hong Kong’s conservation projects has been awarded the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The winning categories included Award of Excellence, Award of Distinction, Award of Merit, Award for New Design in Heritage Contexts, and the newly launched Special Recognition for Sustainable Development; these awards recognise exemplary civil society-led conservation initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Special Recognition for Sustainable Development is a new award category introduced by UNESCO in 2020 to recognise outstanding conservation projects for their significant contributions to sustainable development. Among 48 applications from nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the Lai Chi Wo Rural Cultural Landscape was selected for this award, which marked Hong Kong’s success in conserving and revitalising the cultural landscape that goes beyond individual structures. 

In this roundtable discussion, representatives of five award-winning projects were invited to participate.  The projects range from those located in the urban cores to those in the rural areas, from private initiatives to public-private partnerships, and from early revitalisation and adaptive reuse of graded historic buildings to industrial heritage and cultural landscape not included in the official grading system:

• Award of Merit in 2007 - Little Hong Kong
  Mr Gregory De Eb, Company Principal, Crown Wine Cellars
• Award of Merit in 2013 - Tai O Heritage Hotel
  Ms Melanie Kwok, Head of Sustainability, Sino Group and Tai O Heritage Hotel
• Award of Excellence in 2017 - The Blue House Cluster
  Ms Connie Ng, Senior Manager, Community Development Services, St. James’ Settlement
• Award for New Design in Heritage Context in 2019 - The Mills
  Mr Him Lo, Senior Manager, Cultural and Community Engagement, Nan Fung Development Ltd
• Special Recognition for Sustainable Development in 2020 - Lai Chi Wo Rural Cultural Landscape
  Ms Katie Chick, Senior Project Manager, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, HKU

The five project representatives will review how they understand sustainability as a pathway to continuation of their conservation effort, and reflect on their contribution to the building of a sustainable community since receiving the UNESCO award.

Media representatives are invited to the event with the following details:

More details of the event can be found at https://ccsg.hku.hk/ruralsd/en/pages/academy/a-roundtable-of-unesco-award-winning-heritage-projects-from-hong-kong/.

Please find high resolution photos of the event here (more photos will be uploaded after the event): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1z82dQ1RbvBGUgW3hhKB25KC2u9vfbKgM?usp=sharing

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Anna Yau, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, The University of Hong Kong (tel.: 60896047; email: annawyau@hku.hk).