About Our Centre

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Introduction & Background

Located in Nam Cheong, Sham Shui Po, the Jockey Club – The Conservancy Association Urban Forestry Green Hub was completed in June 2023 with funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. It is Hong Kong’s first urban forestry education centre, dedicated to promoting community education on urban forests.

By the end of 2024, the centre had welcomed around 18,000 visitors and collaborated with over 50 organisations and partners through exhibitions, art-inspired activities, seminars, and talks. These programmes help the public learn about the importance of trees and explore ways to take part in tree conservation.

From awareness and appreciation to developing attitudes and taking action, this journey of learning is at the heart of what the Jockey Club – The Conservancy Association Urban Forestry Green Hub stands for.

Hong Kong’s First
Urban Forestry Education Hub

Thanks to the generous support of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the “Jockey Club – The Conservancy Association Urban Forestry Green Hub (JC-CA Urban Forestry Green Hub)” officially opened in Nam Cheong, Sham Shui Po on 19 December 2024. The opening ceremony was graced by distinguished guests including Dr Chung Shan-shan, Chairperson of The Conservancy Association; Mr Arnold Hui, Deputy Executive Manager, Charities, The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Dr. Ng Tze Kwun, Kathy, Head of Greening, Landscape and Tree Management Section, Development Bureau (DB); and Mr Paul Wong Yan-yin, JP, Sham Shui Po District Officer (DO) of the Home Affairs Department. Representatives from government, social services and local community groups also gathered to celebrate this meaningful occasion.

Launched in June 2023, the “Jockey Club – The Conservancy Association Urban Forestry Green Hub” in Nam Cheong, Sham Shui Po has transformed a long-unused public space beneath a bridge into a vibrant meeting point for tree lovers and professionals. The centre serves as a community hub where tree conservation knowledge is shared through diverse and engaging programmes. From its design and construction to daily operations, the centre embodies eco-friendly and low-carbon principles. It has earned top honours, including the Platinum rating under BEAM Plus New Buildings, the Hong Kong Institute of Architects Award of Hong Kong – Institutional Building & President’s Special Prize in 2024, as well as the Special Citation on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals under the 2023 Green Building Awards — a testament to its innovative and sustainable design.

With the centre’s official opening, the “Jockey Club Tree Lovers” Urban Forestry Education Project was launched. Through hands-on activities such as tree-themed art workshops, exhibitions and tree surveys, the project invites participants to explore, appreciate and adopt tree-friendly practices. The centre also plays a key role in cultivating a culture of tree conservation in Sham Shui Po, giving the community more chances to connect with and care for the city’s urban forest.

For more information, please refer to the Chinese version.

Awards & Features

Introduction

The project is located under Yen Chow Street elevated highway in Sham Shui Po. The site sheltered by a massive highway structure has no vehicular connection and laying with densely complex underground services. Its lack of daylight, strict height limit and absence of vehicular access pose extremely harsh conditions to architectural design. The client aims to vitalize this formidable urban desert by establishing an urban forestry education centre. The centre is planned with five lightweight prefabricated steel structures organically integrated to the expansive space under the elevated highway. Interior and exterior inter-mingle and create a variety of activity and service spaces. Visitors are delightfully able to explore in it and learn the gifts by urban trees through engaging activities. The project showcases accomplishing an architectural solution flexibly and economically for an urban site with severe limitations.

Major Design Actions

The project design is required to embody resilience and sustainability while capturing unique opportunities imposed by its severely challenging environment.

Masterplan

Block Decentralization, Inside-out and Outside-in Spaces, Diverse Spatial Characters

Main entrance directly faces the MTR exit. The gross floor area led from the entrance is distributed into five steel main activity blocks and one concrete service block serving activity and service functions. Landscaping the strictly “no-building-permitted” Waterworks Reserve Area as the main event space, the design meticulously plans these compact blocks with intimate coherence to sit on locations fully complying with strict regulations. The blocks exclude circulation into the sheltered exterior as ventilatory paths. It is to increase interior efficiency and to enhance site cross-ventilation while creating a variety of spaces with diverse characters.

Mobile Architecture

Flexibility, Lightweight Steel Structure; Prefabrication, Elevated Platform

The site without vehicular access is acquired through government short-term tenancy scheme. The design suitably adopts a flexible mobile architecture concept which allows fast construction and easy transfer to another site when necessary. A recyclable lightweight steel structure by prefabrication construction method is therefore applied. Major structural components are by factory assembly and then transported in manageable size to the site for quick on-site installation. An elevated platform provides an underneath 450mm high deck space for running numerous services. It eases regular maintenance and avoids considerable permanent works such as ground excavation.

Place-making under the Elevated Highway

Explorative, Immersive, Inclusive

The place is designed to host inspirational, experiential and inclusive green actions. It welcomes visitors with a maze of explorative barrier-free circulatory routes leading to an amphitheatre, a green lab, an event avenue and other activity spaces. Visitors can enjoy tree view along the Nam Cheong Park site boundary as a green backdrop of the main space. On the farther side, immersive video projection on the highway structure for education show takes a site disadvantage (i.e. lack of daylight) into a highlight. The tactile sculpture outside the entrance embraces all to appreciate the centre objectives.

Pod pop

Located in Nam Cheong, Sham Shui Po, the Jockey Club – The Conservancy Association Urban Forestry Green Hub was completed in June 2023 with funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. It is Hong Kong’s first urban forestry education centre, dedicated to promoting community education on urban forests.By the end of 2024, the centre had welcomed around 18,000 visitors and collaborated with over 50 organisations and partners through exhibitions, art-inspired activities, seminars, and talks. These programmes help the public learn about the importance of trees and explore ways to take part in tree conservation.From awareness and appreciation to developing attitudes and taking action, this journey of learning is at the heart of what the Jockey Club – The Conservancy Association Urban Forestry Green Hub stands for.