The international chapter of AIA had its annual conference this year in Hong Kong. The conference included presenters from around the world as well as many tours to experience the city and the Territory.  I spent a week there. The below impressions are necessarily limited.

Towers, mountains and the sea

Whether seen form the water, the street or above, Hong Kong is foremost the experience of the vertical: A packed men-made space surrounded by green and jagged mountains. Two physical verticalities, the one attention seeking at day and night, the other serene and seemingly eternal.

Towers, the harbor and jagged mountains are the    characteristics of Hong Kong (Photo: Philipsen)

Nature provides a silent frame which stands witness to human ambition and vanity. In Fung Shui, the woods are protectors and providers to be respected and protected in turn. Hard to know if the woods surrounding the metropolis are preserved by this traditional respect, by zoning or the forbidding grades, likely a combination of all. The famous silhouettes of Hong Kong perfectly illustrate the yin and yang of city and nature.

Tree felling is a fung shui taboo. Old trees are believed to be closely linked to the fortune and development of a village,.....