The main challenge facing urban designers in Hong Kong is the need to promote the health, well-being and happiness of the citizens and create a truly liveable city. Biophilia and biodiversity have vitally important roles to play in addressing this challenge.
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There is an extremely large body of scientific evidence citing the many and varied physical and mental health benefits of maintaining close connection with nature. Unfortunately, living in modern cities means modern society is becoming increasingly disconnected from it, especially the young who are often sucked into virtual worlds of electronic social media to the detriment of their physical and mental well-being. There is an urgent need to adopt biophilic design in our urban planning to enable our citizens, especially the young, to reconnect with nature and experience all the associated health benefits.
The Government already has guidelines to promote greenery in new developments and, in theory, this should provide ample opportunity to bring nature into the urban area. However, this potential has not been realised in the past because ‘greenery’ does not necessarily equate to nature, and not all greenery provides food and habitat for the wildlife which shares Hong Kong with us. Why is this?
The reason is the distinct lack of biodiversity in much of our urban greenery, due to planting designs that feature too few plant species and maintenance practices that actively discourage biodiversity through excessive pruning and excessive use of chemicals.
I visited a park in Tung Chung North recently. It covers about 1.5 hectares, yet I counted less than 10 plant species in the entire park and most of the shrub planting was monoculture that had been pruned to the same height. Such pruning removes all flowers and fruits, rendering plants useless for pollenating insects, hence no birds are attracted to feed on the insects or berries. There was certainly very little to stimulate any local residents’ interest in the natural environment. The park was dull, boring and, to me, extremely depressing because I know how much better it could and should be. Unfortunately, this scene is repeated, ad nauseam, throughout Hong Kong, yet it could easily be so different and so much better for both wildlife and humans. The solution is in how we design (hardware) and manage (software) the urban landscape.
Tamar Park. Vegetation biodiversity is very poor and maintained in a way that discourages wildlife and does nothing to stimulate visitors’ interest in nature. 
Tung Chung North Public Open Space. Heavily pruned, with very few species, this park is ‘green desert’ typical of many urban landscapes in Hong Kong. 
The biodiverse planting at the Bohemian Garden, Victoria Dockside, is attractive to both pollenating insects and humans.
To plan and design the hardware necessary to promote biodiversity and thereby biophilia, we need to adopt basic ecological design principles at both strategic and detailed design levels.
These include:
• Creating large scale blue-green corridors throughout urban areas to incorporate water bodies and physically connect with adjacent natural landscapes as far as practical, thus encouraging free movement of wildlife into and through the urban areas.
• Promoting the use of a greater number of native species, especially native trees.
• Avoiding monoculture planting designs by selecting a large variety of native and exotic species that provide food and habitat for local wildlife to enhance biodiversity.
• Planting in vertical layers with herbaceous, shrub and tree canopy layers to provide varied habitats for varied insects, birds and small animals.
• Developing ‘no-go’ areas with zero human interference in the middle of large planted areas so as to allow nature to develop freely.
To manage and maintain the landscape software to promote biophilia and enhance community wellness, we need to:
• Make natural history an important part of the school curriculum to let kids know more about human’s reliance on nature and natural processes for our survival.
• Allocate sufficient budgets for landscape maintenance, and build capacity in the local horticultural industry, raising both skill levels and wages to make it more attractive as a career, whilst improving workers’ knowledge on maintenance practices to enhance biodiversity.
• Ban the use of inorganic chemicals in plant maintenance as they will kill not only wildlife but also humans, albeit more slowly and insidiously.
• Provide name tags for plants with QR codes linking to websites for information to encourage people to recognise and learn about the plants around them.
• Provide nature interpretation facilities and green tours of local landscapes that inform and educate the public on the wonders of the natural world.
The biodiversity at Shing Mun Valley Park attracts many amateur photographers. 
Taikoo Square (opening in 2024) includes 225 different plant species, including 30 different tree species, several of which are highly uncommon in the urban landscape.
By designing biodiverse landscapes and promoting biophilic design, we can ensure the public can maintain essential connection with nature that fosters both mental and physical health. Let us make Hong Kong a truly biophilic city.
ALEXANDER (SANDY) M DUGGIE, Managing Director, URBIS Limited
Sandy is a registered landscape architect; a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects; and the Managing Director of URBIS Limited, a Hong Kong based design consultancy established in 1977. He has lived in Hong Kong and worked for URBIS since 1985. Throughout the years, he has contributed to several major territorial and strategic planning studies for the Hong Kong Government, and designed a range of private and public sector projects from small private gardens to large scale public infrastructure works. He is particularly concerned with the promotion of sustainable design and designing the public realm to meet the needs of modern society. He is also a Director of the BEAM Society Limited, a Director of the Hong Kong Green Building Council, a Director of the Professional Green Building Council, a Member of the Green Building Faculty of the HKGBC; and a Member of the HKGBC Sustainable Development Committee.
