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Office of Urban Regulation

Design Rules and Design With Rules!

Cities as cultural products are neither ‘built’ nor ‘planned,’ at best they are guided and steered in a certain direction. Therefore, rules and regulations are one of the few tools that are actually suitable to guide future development within such collective and complex urban settings.

We strongly believe that the field of (urban) design should not simply adhere to these standards as some neutrally existing context but should actively engage in discussing them in order to make them subject to design as well. read more

Office for urban regulation

Ridge Line Protection

Hong Kong

In order to allow the city to remain visibly a settlement at the edge of mountainous terrain, the ridgeline of the mountain range is protected. The city has the discretion to determine the number of meters of ridgeline that must be visible from the harborside lying opposite.

  • The visual importance of Hong Kong’s ridgeline.
  • View corridors across Victoria Harbor to protect a 20% offset of the ridgeline.

Rule category

Motivation
View Management: preservation of imporant views of the city
The Kind of Rule
Rule that works as reference, ratio, or dependency.
Domain
Rule that has a strong influence on urban density and its distribution.
Rule with direct impact on architectural or urban form.
Rule that regulates building heights.
Scale
General Declaration: General declaration, motive without specific scale.
General Land Use: Rule that specifies land use in general.