As leaders of the Community Making Team at PolyU’s Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (J.C. DISI), we are dedicated to advancing community resilience and anticipatory practices through design thinking and social & participatory planning. The FSF network resonates with our mission to create regenerative, future-oriented spaces that empower communities to navigate uncertainty, particularly in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis (NM) mega development, where rapid urban transformation demands innovative models for sustainable development.

In J.C.DISI’s work such as spearheading the “PolyU Northern Metropolis Future Forum” (NMFF) series, we foster long-term, trust-based partnerships among NGOs, government, academia as well as grassroots leaders. These forums anticipate NM’s challenges, like land use pressures, tourism regeneration and URI (Urban-Rural Integration) planning, by co-creating masterplans that integrate digital transformation, cultural heritage preservation and social impact assessment. For instance, our collaborations explore regenerative tourism in rural NT sites, echoing FSF’s emphasis on niche projects that revive small house systems and local ecologies while centering indigenous knowledge in community-led transformations.

We see FSF field stations as vital “anticipation labs” for Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area (GBA) contexts: hubs hosting geospatial mapping workshops, scenario-planning for climate-resilient communities and URI fund initiatives that turn rural sites into regenerative settlements. By joining the FSF network we aim to contribute PolyU’s expertise in community-based research and mapping potential FSF sites in NM, articulating anticipatory practices like participatory GIS for regenerative niches, and connecting global insights to local action. This network can catalyze PolyU’s leadership in social innovation, scaling our NMFF model internationally.

Ultimately, FSF is important because it operationalizes hope through action – transforming reactive development into proactive, distributed networks of care. We are committed to joining regional FSF dialogues and contributing to the shared map of sites, and perhaps to be hosted in Hong Kong in short future.