Hawker Reload

Hawker Reload is a 4 years research and implementation project, which have saved the existence of 4,036 hawker stalls and all 63 street markets in Hong Kong from eradication. On November 2011, a fire broke-out during one quiet evening at Fa Yuen street; one of Hong Kong most prominent street markets. This fire have claimed 9 lives. Instead of improving the fire integrity of the hawker stalls that formed the street markets - each coloured green and sized 120(w) X 90(L) X 210(h), the Hong Kong Government contemplated on eradicating all street markets in Hong Kong. No one with the moderate intellects will agree to this, let alone architects. The university that Manfred Yuen was also teaching at(i.e. apart from running Groundwork), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, assessed the absurdity, and have pulled the first cross-departmental research team, to investigate how we may salvage our street markets, an indigenous Hong Kong heritage. Hence, our team aimed to investigate on how street markets and hawker stalls may still serve as tourist attractions hence serving public. The project is an obvious struggle: which lasted for 4 years. Not only we have managed to salvage all street markets in Hong Kong, we have persuaded the Government to spare a 3 million USD fund to be distributed among the 4,036 hawkers so that they may improve their stalls according to ta standard that we have prescribed, such that the fire integrity, electrical safety performances, and user friendliness, may all improve within their stalls. Our progressiveness was manifested rather backwardly; backing to the basics of human to human interactions. 1) Social engagements: for the past 120 years of colonial rule, none of the governmental /policy writing projects ever consulted the public in Hong Kong for public opinion and we were the first to introduce public engagement as part of our design brief formulation. We have interviewed 223 hawkers over 8 months, just to understand their needs. We have been stationed at the street market for weeks, so that the hawkers may express their view. 2) The users have choices : architects are no saints nor maestros. We are simply facilitators of the public opinions. After 223 interview, we realized that 70% o the hawker stalls' owners are 65 years old or above . Thus, we have provided a design guideline for the hawkers so that they choose what they want, which may in turn ease their operational stresses. We must also reduce the average cost to improve ones' stall, we have conducted multiple fire tests and have realized that 1.5mm galvanized steel are the best candidates to provide 1 hours fire integrity for hawker stalls(by that time, the fire truck would have arrived), which are 100% situated outdoor. Our design was by no-mean prototypes, because we do not believe that social architecture may survive with the absence of users feed-backs. Hong Kong street markets are the "must-see" for tourists and are the livelihoods for many. The absurdity to eradicate street markets, just for sanitary and/or fire integrity rationales, are beyond comprehension. Perhaps the paradoxical reasoning may lie within the realm of bureaucracy. With the slightest feeling of pride, our project had managed to save street markets from obliteration. Many tried to influence the world, but we only hope to influence locally; and with a bit of luck, hopefully, we may be able to tell other governments how important street markets are for the local economy and tourism.