Why did you bring Architecture Sans Frontieres (ASF), an international non-profit organisation, to Macau in 2012?
A few architects and I reckoned Macaus external support was not really that much at the time, by which I mean physical support as the citys external donations are always high. In 2012, the Portuguese branch of ASF approached us, asking whether we were interested in developing ASF in Macau. After we got to know what ASF primarily does, we agreed that Macau needed this kind of association. The city had the resources needed to run this organisation; people here are quite generous, coupled with our quite good economic environment. As such, we thought Macau had the conditions to help people in our nearby regions.
What does ASF aim to do for Macau or local people?
For the city itself, we target preserving historic architecture, particularly the [construction] skills required. A lot of local architecture has 400 or 500 years of history. It has very special characteristics affected by the Portuguese style and that from other places. These cultural characteristics, however, usually disappear gradually as a place develops. As such, we want to preserve it, we want to protect it while these [structures] are still here – especially when Macau has its own World Heritage, with preservation supported by the local government and cultural heritage protection law. We want to keep and pass these old architectural skills on to our next generations.
How many members do you currently have?
We have some eight core members, or say founding members. Our members come from different backgrounds teachers, engineers and lawyers as well as architects. We aim to recruit professional individuals but our basic requirement is that they are passionate and willing to spend their time to make a contribution. We dont have many people but everyone we have is willing to spend their private time on our work.
Do you think the citys awareness of your organisations objectives is high?
In fact, most of the people didnt know what we do in the beginning. They may wonder why we seek donations for the same project at different times. People here in Macau dont usually ask what their donations are to be used for as they are so used to making donations to people outside Macau despite they dont really know where the donations go. Thats why our operation is a bit different from others. We serve the people in need ourselves and we are the unit that actually works on the projects that we collect donations for. As such, we are always able to tell our donators where their money will go or has gone.
Is it hard to collect donations from local people as ASF is rather new in the city?
We never seek donations for ourselves but for the projects we do. In fact, when you try to collect donations for a project, it doesnt matter whether you are a big or small organisation, people are willing to donate if they agree with your aims. So, for us the only difficulty we have is whether people will give us a chance to introduce our project.
Preserving skills and nature
How do you preserve local architectural skills that may be lost?
We currently have a programme called Lost Skills in Macau. As I mentioned, many architectural [structures] in Macau have a few hundred years of history and are full of Western and Chinese cultural elements. However, the skills to build such architecture has already been lost in Macau. We dont have such techniques anymore. But they still exist in the Mainland and other places. As such, when we repair historic architecture, we always need to learn from the Mainland. For those old skills that are still in Macau, we hope we can learn them before they disappear. We plan to train local architects and construction workers about these to-be-lost skills by holding some workshops. After all, these skills are not only for repairing old buildings as they can also be injected into new projects. And we hope we can gain support from the government for these workshops, such as providing subsidies or venues.
ASF also focuses on preserving the citys nature. How do you see housing projects that may encroach upon Coloane?
From the angle of urban planning, an ideal citys green spaces should occupy around 60 to 70 per cent of its total territory. For example, in Hong Kong, despite its high density the coverage of its green spaces amounts to some 65 per cent. A natural environment is always good for people. Nothing can replace nature. The only natural environment left in Macau is Coloane. I feel it would be a pity if this were to disappear. Macau is a city with a very high density in that 70 per cent of our land is covered by buildings instead of green spaces. This is certainly not a good thing that our green spaces only amount to some 30 per cent. We now have our own coastal waters and new reclamation zones. Should we make the best use of them to increase our green spaces? Think about our next generation; I dont want them not to be able to see any green thing. I would like people to think what would be a better environment for them a high density living environment or one with better quality. Its very easy to build a residence, but its impossible to recover nature even if we want to.
Would you say there should be a balance between the preservation of nature and social development?
Yes, I do think so. To reach that balance, we may consider developing underground space or re-developing our old districts. In fact, many old districts in the city are very far away from our World Heritage [sites] so we can reconstruct them into high buildings. Yet, due to ownership or laws they still await re-development. Should we amend our laws or should we negotiate more in order to make better use of these old districts? Why do we need to put aside things that are already here and develop something new from nothing? More importantly, there have already been transportation networks in these districts that we dont need to add to, and may only increase the current traffic pressures we have.
Project Yolanda
ASF Macaus first project Project Yolanda is in the Philippines. Why is that?
The country was affected by a [massive] typhoon in 2013, and there were still many problems in the region one year after. We received a letter from a priest urging us to help build a church there. After that letter, we kicked off our study of the case, such as directly flying there to see the actual situation, and whether they really were in need of help. After that, we decided to focus on building two classrooms for a school, besides helping another four. Meanwhile, we wanted to make the whole thing more meaningful. Frankly, collecting donations is not a difficult thing. But we wanted to involve the participation of local students and residents to spread the message that they can also help people outside Macau. And we contacted the Macau Anglican College, which vice principle Robert Alexander has supported a lot. We also promoted our project in other education institutes. And we really like the participation of local schools as it is a very great opportunity to cultivate our next generation [regarding] humane knowledge. We hope students can pass these messages to their parents as well.
Are the expenses for this project all from donations?
Yes. They are mostly donated by individuals and companies in Macau, while individuals and schools actually occupy bigger proportions.
The public always wants to have a clear picture of the amount of donations that you spend on helping others and administrative fees
Yes, exactly. I can tell you that we have collected around some MOP350,000 for Project Yolanda, and we have already spent some MOP300,000 on it. Meanwhile, we dont really have administrative expenses as we dont hire anyone. Everyone participating in our organisation is a volunteer. And thats also the reason why we want to keep our scale small as it is quite unavoidable to spend on some administrative expenses if the scale is big.
Local project & restrictions
Are you engaged in any project in Macau at the present?
We are going to help Cradle of Hope Association to repair part of their residential [property]. Through a recent gala dinner, we collected some MOP68,000 in donations. We will spend some MOP50,000 on the local project, whilst the remaining part will be allocated to Project Yolanda. As Cradle of Home accommodates homeless children aged six years old, we do think this project is an urgent necessity for them. The project is not that big, but we hope it can benefit the children there.
Have you tried to seek donations from local big-scale companies or the government?
Weve tried. However, its quite sensitive for the government to support a humane project outside of Macau. Meanwhile, weve also tried with big-scale companies, but it didnt go smoothly as they dont understand why they need to donate for the same projects at different times. Only after the rejection of big-scale companies did we start to seek donations from ordinary local individuals and businessmen and schools, for which the gain is even bigger. I always think that the meaning of donation is not about its amount but how people give such donations to you. As a non-profit organisation, of course it would be a good thing if you can have support from the government or big-scale companies, but its even more meaningful if you are supported by local residents.
Construction costs in Macau are ranked second highest in Asia. How does this restrict your help for Cradle of Hope?
There are restrictions due to high construction costs. But local projects have their own advantages, such as you can receive more support from local people. Although our work for Cradle of Hope is a volunteer project its hard not to involve construction costs as we have a contractor and workers. Luckily, some suppliers are very willing to provide us with materials at a discount after knowing this is a charity project, one of whom was even willing to give us some materials free if they had stock. Yet, we still need to pay construction workers.
In the economic downturn local people are more cautious about their expenses; has your organisation felt the impact in terms of donations received?
More or less there will be an impact although we havent started our new collection of donations. But as an architect, you can notice local companies are more cautious about their expenses and their investments. And I believe the case for donations will be similar. However, as I said, the most important part is not the amount of donation you gain, but the process itself – whether you can educate local people; this is more important. An economic downturn doesnt affect this perspective.
What are the plans for the near future?
Wed like to do more for Macau in the short term. We have more members joining us shortly. They will continue executing our humane projects in the Philippines and our upcoming project in Nepal. And we hope we can successfully hold workshops within this year.
