Demographics That Might Provide Helpful Context for Their Responses
Ka Wai Kelly Lee is from Hong Kong and currently lives in Hong Kong
She is 22 years old
She studies Biology for major and astronomy for a minor degree
Key Findings from the Interview
Hong Kong doesn’t have lots of green area and people are used to not going to parks and other green areas, Hong Kongers are usually quite busy so basically only old people have time to visit parks
recent experience of visiting an urban green area in HK: visited Hong Kong Park; visited early this year (Feb), relaxing, refreshing, but kind of boring… they have a small museum dedicated to introducing tea culture, not a lot of people visiting it (it was on a weekday)
urban greening projects in HK: HK is on the right track to become ‘green’ —> 1. second year of middle school (visited shopping mall that has living walls and green rooftops and facilities such as solar panels to carbon emissions) 2. some greening techniques in HK: eco friendly building materials in HK, rooftop lake (small fish pond on rooftop to lower temperature) in HK (hasn’t succeeded yet) 3. many secondary schools in HK are adopting aquaponics (usually located next to corridor or playground)
reflections regarding the urban greening projects: think it is really good that the HK government is trying to turn a concrete city into a much greener one, think those novel greening projects are really suitable for the situation of HK since HK is very space limited.
major differences between novel projects like green roofs and conventional parks: 1. Novel projects save space, but are not always accessible to all people, elderly are less aware of rooftop gardens but they are the people who visit parks/green areas the most. 2. Some conventional parks are not well maintained and look old, but the rooftop gardens are more well-maintained and look newer since the HK government is trying to advocate for them
any expectations that haven’t been met by the urban greening projects: Maintenance is one of the issues; don’t have much expectations for greening projects in the beginning since there are more urgent issues in hk such as housing, so green is not a priority