Carine Lai, Civic Exchange

Email
Photo
Carine Lai is a project facilitator at Civic Exchange with wide-ranging interests in urban design, well-being, gender and political development. She has lived in Hong Kong for most of her life, and wants to learn how to make it a better place to live. Carine has an MSc in international planning and a BA in political science and studio art.

Stories from Carine Lai, Civic Exchange

See all contributors
HK podium towers
The curious history of the podium-tower
May 24, 2013
If you live in Singapore, Vancouver, or practically any major Mainland Chinese city – anywhere that Hong Kong property developers or architectural firms have a presence – you may have noticed some podium-tower developments. These are large buildings with a wide podium base housing a shopping mall or car park, with one or more tall residential or commercial towers perched on top. If you live in Hong Kong, you are surrounded by so many of them that you have probably never given them much thought.
View more
Hong Kong's Olypic Station development
Walkability and vitality? Nice idea but not round here
March 05, 2013
Hong Kong should be a walker’s paradise. It is compact and dense, with a large number of amenities concentrated in a very small space. Few errands require the use of a car, and in fact over 90 percent of daily journeys occur on public transportation. Walk Score, a US-based website which calculates walkability based on the proximity and concentration of amenities in a neighborhood, gives much of urban Hong Kong scores of 70/100 or above. Moreover, Hong Kong has a vibrant street food and market culture, boasting areas with enough complexity and variety to keep people entertained for hours. Yet Hong Kongers do not seem to enjoy walking.
View more
Kai Tak Metropark
Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity in Kai Tak plan
November 08, 2012
Hong Kong’s new government recently averted another political firestorm when it shot down its own trial balloon proposing last-minute changes to development plans for the former Kai Tak Airport. The waterfront site in the heart of densely built-up East Kowloon has lain largely dormant since the old airport closed in 1998. In July, the new Chief Executive CY Leung came to office promising to tackle Hong Kong’s soaring home prices, and his administration indicated that Kai Tak’s plans would be reviewed with an eye to boosting the housing supply.
View more