Our campus landscape shapes our experience

Connectivity, collaborative spaces, activity spaces, greenery are integral parts of the outdoor environments at a university. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is using its outdoor spaces for more than just a connection from one building to another. Careful planning and visionary strategies are here to bring new meaning to PolyU’s campus landscape, taking into account the key factors including sustainability, quality, and community.

A well-maintained university campus landscape communicates to students, staff, and visitors the university’s aesthetic, social, and environmental values. “When creating an inviting atmosphere on the campus, there are many factors to keep in mind. We need beautiful, lasting, and impactful designs that demonstrate vitality. We need engaging landscapes that deliver an enjoyment of scenery and an attractive palette of colors in layers. The traditional college campus has grass and trees, but that’s no longer enough nowadays. We want more than just green,” says Sandra Kam, Senior Facilities Officer (Landscape and Tree Maintenance) from the Facilities Management Office (FMO).

A university campus is a dynamic, constantly changing environment. When it comes to campus landscape design, PolyU pays much attention to effectively balance the aesthetic with the practical, and to create a positive long-term impact on sustainability. The University has its dedicated Landscape Master Plan that sets the tone of landscape development in the coming three years. This plan is a helpful tool in creating a landscape environment that meets the diverse needs of all campus stakeholders. “The plan outlines what we want to achieve, and puts forward a vision which comes along with some very challenging recommendations. It is time for new, transformative, and exciting landscape planning approaches. We want to instil excitement and liveliness to current iconic spaces and other zones on campus. We also have to deal with landscapes and areas that were not realizing their potentials,” Pure Wong, Facilities Officer (Landscape and Tree Maintenance) adds.

According to Sandra and Pure, the potentials to rejuvenate the PolyU campus are huge. “You can see a lot of greenery on our campus. That’s our strength and our foundation to move on. The zoning of our campus presents great opportunities for absorbing new elements. We plan to introduce new plant species such as fragrant flowering plants and theme gardens to different zones. We hope to build a landscape with impressive plants that act like a highlighter to emphasize certain moments of their campus experience. We hope to convey the special character of each zone to impress the campus users. They will combine to shape the experience of our students and staff while simultaneously maintaining a consistent overall campus aesthetic value. Our students and staff can enjoy the beautiful and interesting outdoor spaces to study, work, and relax.”

Changes do not come easy. Introducing new ideas to the campus landscape requires careful planning and a thorough understanding of the existing landscape pattern, such as open and green spaces, architectures, paths, and walkways. It is common for any outdoor environment that trees are planted to provide enclosure and shelter, and soft landscape is sometimes used for hiding undesirable views. Sandra and Pure are therefore seriously examining the distribution, density, and variety of the trees and plants on campus to identify areas for improvements and room to accept new elements. They comment that new elements have to fit well with existing campus design, particularly the overwhelming brick-red towers and linked wings. Together with members of the Landscape and Tree Maintenance Team, they come up with new proposals and bring in more seasonal flower species to positively enhance the campus environment and attract campus users, including Mauranthemum paludosum (白晶菊) for Spring, Pelargonium (天竺葵) for Summer, and other species that flourish all year round such as Lantana camara (馬纓丹), Tulbaghia violacea (紫嬌花), and Petunia cultivar (矮牽牛). A good mix of new plant species and shrubs coming in different forms, heights, and colors will be introduced around the Stephen Cheong Kam Chuen Memorial Plaza and Logo Square, delivering high visual values and energy to their surroundings.

Besides, fragrant flowering plants that give off an appealing aroma are now visible on campus, which add another layer of enjoyment and pleasure to the campus. Plant species with colored foliage are added to enrich the campus environment with colors and deliver mood-boosting benefits. The team also makes fascinating suggestions on bringing stylish potted plants and new arrangements to mega campus events like the PolyU Education Info Day and Congregation, aiming to boost visual interests and break away from the traditional monotone setting. Team members are working hard to increase plant density and executing improvements on poor soil on identified locations.

Effective teamwork brings success. Sandra and Pure receive much encouragement from the Senior Management, who doesn’t hesitate to give the green light to their new ideas and suggestions. They are also happy to be part of a family of gardeners who share similar values. These gardeners have a very busy schedule spending good parts of their days outside to perform landscape maintenance duties all over the campus, such as trimming, watering and planting. Regardless of their responsibilities, all of them are passionate about their work and care about the green spaces on campus.

The Landscape and Tree Maintenance Team puts sustainability at the forefront of their landscape practices and new plans. Treating water as a valuable resource, the team is reviewing proposals to save water and reduce the need for irrigation through a better irrigation system and plant selection. They plan to add more perennial plants instead of annual plants to avoid replanting. They are also exploring possibilities to introduce more native plant species that can adapt to the campus conditions and enrich biodiversity. The idea of using sustainable planting materials and locally-generated biochar to improve soil structure is highlighted. Besides creating multi-layered tapestries of color and texture on the outdoor environment with a good matrix of plant species, they are working to establish different theme gardens at different zones over the campus. Rock garden, Japanese Zen garden, herbs garden, tropical garden, and butterfly garden at different zones amid the brick-red towers are in their visionary blueprint. “All these lead to a mutual interaction between the quality of outdoor spaces and quality of life on campus. Our students and staff can feel much relaxed and derive the most enjoyment when strolling around the campus.” Sandra and Pure point out.

Campus landscape is a key element and one of the most defining aspects of an institution’s identity. It has profound impacts on the quality of daily life for students, staff, and visitors. With new ideas from the Landscape and Tree Maintenance Team and increasing investment and resources from the University, PolyU looks forward to embracing a campus landscape that promotes students’ and staff’s awareness and responsibilities for the environment while we can all simultaneously relieve the tensions and frustrations of everyday life. We can experience, understand, and enjoy the sustainably and managed green landscapes on campus, and become stewards of the natural environment.