URA-HKIA design team’s ‘3Cs’ plan keeps Yau Ma Tei’s street life alive

In Yau Ma Tei, street life, wet markets, night-time food stalls, small workshops and informal gathering spaces are tightly interwoven, giving the district its distinctive character. A young cross-disciplinary team comprising architects Sandy Cheung, Raphael Chan, Vanessa Chen, Chung Yin, and Alex Cheng won first prize in the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and HKIA Urban Renewal Design Ideas Competition for their proposal ‘Heartbeat of the City, Voices of the Streets’. Their approach centers on a ‘3Cs’ principle – Culture, Connectivity, and Communal – demonstrating that redevelopment can strengthen rather than replace the area’s vibrant fabric.

The team’s key innovation is a continuous green deck that stitches together fragmented plots and roadways, enabling multi-level circulation while maintaining strong visual and physical connections to ground-level streets. They leverage two new planning tools from the District Study for Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok: Transfer of Plot Ratio (TPR) shifts development potential to create more public open space at street level, and Street Consolidation Areas (SCA) merge blocks and roadways into larger pedestrian zones without reducing overall development capacity. The team deliberately preserves density as part of Yau Ma Tei’s cultural identity – narrow gaps between buildings and tightly knit street blocks create the intensity that defines the district. The proposal positions Yau Ma Tei as a heritage and cultural hub, linking historic landmarks and introducing new event venues to sustain its tourism appeal.