Archinect - News

Kowloon Walled City: Life in the City of Darkness

2013-04-18T15:57:00-04:00

Kowloon Walled City, located not far from the former Kai Tak Airport, was a remarkable high-rise squatter camp that by the 1980s had 50,000 residents. A historical accident of colonial Hong Kong, it existed in a lawless vacuum until it became an embarrassment for Britain. This month marks the 20th anniversary of its demolition.

Gehry-designed Maggie's Centre in Hong Kong opens doors

2013-03-08T13:34:00-05:00

The scheme is the charity’s first purpose-built international centre and is Gehry’s second building for the organisation, having also designed Maggie’s Dundee in Scotland. The surrounding gardens were drawn up by landscape architect Lily Jencks - the daughter of the organisation’s founders Maggie Keswick Jencks and Charles Jencks. Maggie’s Hong Kong has been ‘offering free support for anyone living with cancer including friends, family and carers’.

In cramped Hong Kong, a home under the bridge

2013-02-28T16:12:00-05:00

It is in empty spaces like [under Hong Kong's overpasses] that a group is campaigning for the government to build youth hostels, arts performance venues, offices for small- to mid-sized businesses and, most intriguingly, temporary housing. The group sees this unused land as an opportunity to alleviate Hong Kong’s problem of young people not being able to afford to rent in the world’s most expensive property market.

Cramped Hong Kong Apartments from Above

2013-02-25T16:53:00-05:00

The Chinese Society for Community Organization produced the vertigo inducing series of photographs as part of a campaign to raise awareness for this type of living. It reminds us a lot of Skott Chandler’s House Watch series and Michael H. Rohde’s From Below, both giving us a unique perspective of the rooms we live in. The series also harkens back to the extremely cramped (and now demolished) Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong’s past. In some ways, things haven’t changed.

Previously: 16-square-foot apartment is a vision of tiny housing taken too far

Bing Thom & Ronald Lu Chosen to Design Xiqu Centre at West Kowloon Cultural District

2012-12-10T14:16:00-05:00

The two Hong Kong-born architects, Bing Thom in Vancouver and Ronald Lu of Hong Kong, were announced today as the collaborating lead architects on the architectural design of the Xiqu (Chinese opera) Centre, one of the landmark cultural venues for the West Kowloon Cultural District, scheduled for commissioning in 2016

Cities Without Ground

2012-11-26T11:37:00-05:00

Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook is a new book that maps 32 networks of interconnected above- and below-ground pedestrian walkways in Hong Kong. Written by a team of architects (Jonathan D Solomon, Clara Wong, and Adam Frampton) and recently published by ORO Editions, the book consists of a series of intricate drawings that display the variety and extent of Hong Kong's public space.

Hong Kong’s $60 Million Dollar Apartment

2012-11-18T23:38:00-05:00

While the design industry may not pay as much heed to star architects – or starchitects – as it once did, on a consumer level, they clearly still pack a punch. This is exemplified by the sale of an apartment in the Frank Gehry-designed Opus Building in Hong Kong which, according to William Lau of Midland Realty, reached a record-breaking sale price of nearly $60 million due to its ‘unique’ architectural design.

Seven Teams Shortlisted for New Art-Themed Park at West Kowloon Cultural District

2012-11-08T14:09:00-05:00

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) announced today a shortlist of seven design teams that have been invited to submit technical proposals for the development of Hong Kong's first art-themed park, 14 hectares of landscaped public space for arts and culture at the West Kowloon Cultural District, by the waterfront in Kowloon.

The seven shortlisted design teams (in alphabetical order) are:

Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau and VOGT Landscape
Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man with Grimshaw, West 8 and ACLA
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with Olin and Urbanus
Grant Associates / Wilkinson Eyre / WSP
Gustafson Porter / Michel Desvigne Paysagiste / Foster + Partners
Hargreaves Associates with Ennead Architects
James Corner Field Operations

Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

2012-11-01T13:46:00-04:00

Deep in Hong Kong’s core, 17 floors of a run-down building full of transients provide a key to understanding globalization from the bottom up. Gordon Mathews’s Ghetto at the Center of the World (University of Chicago Press, 2011) paints a detailed portrait of life in and around Chungking Mansions, a single property with two common retail/galleria floors with a basement, and three independent towers that rise above them.

Giant Architectural 'Golden Moon' Lantern Lights Up Hong Kong's Mid-Autumn Festival

2012-09-27T11:39:00-04:00

Surrounded by a reflecting pool dotted with floating lanterns, the six-story “Golden Moon” is the creation of Hong Kong-based architects Kristof Crolla and Adam Fingrut, who won a design contest to build the work. Constructed from bamboo and steel, it incorporates golden yellow and flame red fabric as well as 10,000 LED lights that illuminate it from within. The structure took 11 days to complete.

Frank Gehry Apartment in Hong Kong Sells for $61 Million

2012-08-30T17:19:00-04:00

Frank Gehry is arguably the world's most famous architect, and while hist projects are notoriously expensive to construct, they may be worth it, at least for residential developers. In Manhattan, the penthouses at New York by Gehry are up for rent for $60,000 per month, and in Hong Kong, an apartment in a newly completed Gehry-designed condo tower overlooking the harbor has just sold for $61 million. Talk about a Pritzker prize.

Inter Cities / Intra Cities: Ghostwriting the Future - Hong Kong at the 13th Venice Biennale

2012-07-30T13:57:00-04:00

The Hong Kong Institute of Architects and Hong Kong Arts Development Council will participate in the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia with an exhibition focusing on the vital urban, architectural and cultural regeneration of Kowloon East, Hong Kong SAR. The exhibition is titled “Inter Cities / Intra Cities: Ghostwriting the Future”.

Click here to see more Archinect News posts related to the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

Xiqu Center Shortlist Announced for Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District

2012-07-19T18:41:00-04:00

A shortlist of five design teams was announced this week by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA). The selected teams are now invited to submit proposals for the design of the Xiqu Center, one of the first landmark buildings for the West Kowloon Cultural District, the largest cultural project in Hong Kong to date.

16-square-foot apartment is a vision of tiny housing taken too far

2012-06-06T21:06:00-04:00

King’s Cube is the creation of MFA student Joe Yiu, who wanted to investigate the Hong Kong idea of an “ideal living space.” The apartment advertised in her video features art, houseplants, wood flooring, and “international-class marble” — at least, the model unit does — and residents dress in formalwear to show their status, but the space is too small for a kitchen, a bathroom, a dresser, a chair, or a particularly tall or wide human.

Gehry Luxury Tower Boasts Hong Kong’s Priciest View

2012-04-12T21:03:00-04:00

Built for Swire Properties Ltd. (962), the structure cost HK$27,000 ($3,477) per square foot to construct, including land premium. A standard high-rise apartment in the city can cost as little as $HK4,000 per square foot to build, according to Swire Chief Executive Officer Martin Cubbon. “Of course, it’s going to be enormously expensive by any standards,” says Cubbon. “In rental values and capital values, it’s going to command the highest numbers that Hong Kong has ever seen.”

Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point Passenger Terminal Proposal by WAU Design

2012-04-09T14:54:00-04:00

Shenzhen-based firm WAU Design has shared with us their proposal "Twisted Link" that recently won the team a Commendation in the Design Ideas Competition for Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point Passenger Terminal Building, a new structure between the New Territories of Hong Kong and Luohu in Shenzhen, China.

Unit Fusion Housing Project by Y Design Office

2012-01-03T16:37:09-05:00

International design and research collaborative Y Design Office has sent us the proposal Unit Fusion, a modular, plug-in high-rise residential typology for Hong Kong. As of yet, the 75-story tower project is still in its conceptual design phase.

Hong Kong's Skyline Prepares for an Addition by Frank Gehry

2011-09-15T13:43:00-04:00

The Opus Hong Kong is located at 53 Stubbs Rd. in the city’s Peak area, one of its most expensive neighborhoods. The cost of renting one of the 6,000-square-foot apartments in the 12-story, 12-unit apartment building has not been set yet, but Swire Properties has “every expectation it will break records,” Chief Executive Martin Cubbon said.