Land Development vs Conservation Game with Storefront for Art and Architecture
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New York-based Storefront for Art and Architecture, in partnership with Hong Kong Design Trust, held events across Hong Kong from 7-9 July as part of Storefront IS (International Series) Hong Kong. The three-day program included public city walks on urban transformation, dialogues on cross-border issues, and mixed-media performances exploring density, sustainability and development.
At the closing event, Ashley Scott Kelly hosted a game titled "Land Development vs Conservation Hong Kong". The game challenged participants to propose alternative sites for a new housing estate, taking into account an array of statutory regulations, development costs, and ecological characteristics. Teams debated over five maps revealing landscape character, vegetation and species richness, land cover, zoning, land vacancy, and features such as landslide risk and slope maintenance.
For scoring, a grid of 50 x 50-meter squares was overlaid on each map, summarizing that map's developmental and environmental costs. The team that selected a development site with the least total cost won. Additionally, teams were given the opportunity to "swap" or trade 0.5 hectares of their chosen site with an area of lower development cost, so long as that new area was exceptional in its environmental or conservation value.
This game uses a scoring system that challenges players to assign value to places based on qualities that aren't easily comparable yet must be considered. While these maps are but a small sampling of all ecological criteria necessary for sustainable development planning, the game sparks dialogue and raises awareness of such criteria, encouraging a wider understanding of development threats and opportunities across the territory. The game does include controversial components, such as reductive environmental valuation and "swapping" or trading of Green Belt areas, however, it is created in the spirit that increased knowledge leads to more rational debate. Lastly, these maps are an approximation of actual information and do not necessarily draw from the sources noted (remember, it's a game!).
Credit for the idea and format of the game is given to Stanford's Natural Capital Project and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), who created similar games for protected area planning.
Teams play Land Development vs Conservation Hong Kong, a landscape planning game, at Storefront IS Hong Kong.
Landscape planning game uses one of HK Development Bureau's planned housing development sites.
Game participants consider landscape character, vegetation and species richness, land cover, zoning, land vacancy, and features such as landslide risk and slope maintenance.
Game participants consider landscape character, vegetation and species richness, land cover, zoning, land vacancy, and features such as landslide risk and slope maintenance.
Game participants consider landscape character, vegetation and species richness, land cover, zoning, land vacancy, and features such as landslide risk and slope maintenance.
Game participants consider landscape character, vegetation and species richness, land cover, zoning, land vacancy, and features such as landslide risk and slope maintenance.
