From Cloud to Coast: The Physical Cost of AI in Hong Kong’s Borderlands

San Tin Tidal Ponds, Hong Kong SAR, with Shenzhen in the background. Image © Jonathan Yeung

Amid the rapid build-out of data centres and AI economies across the Greater Bay Area—and alongside the celebration of AI as a tool and "author," as featured in 2025 Hong Kong–Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Hong Kong)—a parallel question becomes unavoidable: how do the planning and construction of AI infrastructure actually begin to shape everyday life? Many of the facilities already...