Opinion | Hong Kong doesn’t need more trophy skyscrapers

Things have changed in recent years. The digital revolution, the decentralisation of knowledge, services and value exchange, the global pandemic, and the call for a healthy work-life balance have all called into question the traditional mode of work and office life.

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In May 2021, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon famously said he would restore the office to “just like it was before” and cancel all his Zoom meetings. However, in June this year, The Atlantic noted that the company is slashing its Manhattan office space as staff have not fully returned to the office.

According to CBRE, the global office vacancy rate was 12.9 per cent at the end of the first quarter of this year, with the highest rates in American metropolises such as Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Although our city’s white-collar workers seem to head to their offices day in, day out, Hong Kong office vacancy rate ranked eighth at 15 per cent, which is higher than the global average.

Don’t expect Hong Kong property prices to recover any time soon

In what could be the biggest commercial lease of the year, ICBC is reportedly taking over 10 floors at Cheung Kong Center II. However, occupation of the new office space is nothing more than a relocation from their current headquarters at 3 Garden Road. The question remains: who will occupy the vacant space?

Highly educated people realise they can work from anywhere. We now look for quality lifestyles in healthier and more sustainable living environments. We should be less dependent on cars and cherish walkable neighbourhoods, open public space and communities with cultural and intellectual diversity.

Buildings, on the other hand, account for around 40 per cent of the annual global carbon emissions. Most of them, particularly in Hong Kong, are air conditioned 24/7 with limited sustainability design measures.

Green buildings hold the upper hand in Hong Kong’s property glut

While skyscrapers increase density, the taller the towers, the more carbon they emit due to their non-stop facility operations and complex mechanical systems. Commercial skyscrapers now seem to be exactly the opposite of what we need for sustainable urban development.

Carol Ross Barney, who won the American Institute of Architecture’s gold medal this year, said cities need to restore “the missing middle” – low-to-mid-rise building typology within walkable zones – whereas skyscrapers “will just be trophies because they’re just not that valuable”.

London offers a great example of where networks of walkable neighbourhoods are interspersed with large parks, public squares and wide pavements, onto which restaurant and cafe tables spill, and have no or low-speed vehicle traffic and designated cycling lanes. The financial district is not emphasised as the urban core.

Instead, we now have the opportunity to create urban spaces that are people- and lifestyle-centric. In sustainable urban development, the metric we need to focus on – instead of building height – would be neighbourhoods with the lowest carbon emissions, the most greenery and public spaces, and the highest productivity.

Trophies are nice eye candy, but neighbourhoods with fresh air are really where we live and breathe.

Dennis Lee is a Hong Kong-born, America-licensed architect with years of design experience in the US and China