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Get Lectured: University of Hong Kong, Fall '24

2024-08-20T19:50:00-04:00

The fall semester is almost upon us, and to go with it, the University of Hong Kong has shared its public programs information to kick off our annual Get Lectured events roundup for the 2024-25 academic year.

The ‘Good Life’ series begins with the Atelier Bow-Wow co-founder Momoyo Kaijima on September 12. She is followed by Harvard GSD dean Sarah M. Whiting on September 17. Columbia GSAPP dean Andrés Jacque follows on September 24. Next year’s Venice Architecture Biennale curator Carlo Ratti follows him for a lecture on (what else?) SENSEABLE CITIES on September 26.

The popular sculptor Danh Vo will speak on October 31, preceding a lecture from e-flux journal co-founder Nikolaus Hirsch on December 3. Another by Beatriz Colomina concludes the term on December 5. All events take place in Knowles Hall and will begin at 6:30 PM unless otherwise listed.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

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Zaha Hadid Architects' XRL Topside Development construction reaches roof level in Hong Kong

2024-05-28T18:25:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has posted a new construction update on its forthcoming XRL Topside Development at the Hong Kong High-Speed Rail West Kowloon Terminus.

The project, which adds 3.2 million square feet of civic, office, and retail spaces above the existing train station, includes two pairs of towers connecting with a large landscaped central plaza area and a sculptural pavilion, each designed to resemble flower pedals and located at either end of the site.

Rendering: Superview, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Rendering: Atchain, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Construction has now progressed to the roof level of the new structures. The firm says they are targeting a LEED Platinum certification as well as other industry credentials for sustainability on the development, which also yields a total of 100,000 square feet of garden terraces.

Rendering: Atchain, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Rendering: Hayes Davidson, image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

UBS is said to...

Arup Hong Kong employee targeted in $25 million deepfake scam

2024-05-17T16:56:00-04:00

British multinational design and engineering company behind world-famous buildings such as the Sydney Opera House has confirmed that it was the target of a deepfake scam that led to one of its Hong Kong employees paying out $25 million to fraudsters. A spokesperson for London-based Arup told CNN on Friday that it notified Hong Kong police in January about the fraud incident, and confirmed that fake voices and images were used.

“Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised,” an Arup spokesperson told CNN. The employee in question was apparently misled into believing they were in a video conference with senior finance staffers that were in reality deepfaked impersonations.

Deepfake attacks on business have been on the rise international for several months as the technological sophistication of audi-visual mimicry continues a rapid development.

Arup currently has 34 offices worldwide.

China Evergrande ordered into liquidation after $300 billion debt spiral

2024-01-30T19:15:00-05:00

A court in Hong Kong has ordered the winding up of Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, dealing another blow to investor confidence as China’s ailing real estate sector continues to weigh on its economy. The liquidation order, made by the city’s High Court on Monday, comes after the embattled Chinese real estate giant and its overseas creditors failed to agree on how to restructure the company’s massive debt during talks that lasted for 19 months.

Evergrande’s liquidation could also set the stage for an unprecedented political showdown between Hong Kong and the mainland, as Reuters speculated on Monday.

The company had amassed over $300 billion in public and private debts since being ordered into negotiations in 2021. Overseas creditors are currently owed a reported $25 billion. Dexter Roberts, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, was one of several experts to compare its collapse to the failure of Lehman Brothers in the American market in 2008.

Ronald Lu & Partners completes Hong Kong tower offering ‘nature on every doorstep’

2023-12-28T12:34:00-05:00

Hong Kong-based Ronald Lu & Partners has completed a residential development in Kowloon described as a “real forest building.” Named Garden Crescent, the scheme was designed with the philosophy of “nature on every doorstep.”

Image credit: Ronald Lu & Partners

Externally, the building features slanted structural supports to create solid and void spaces that are designed to create multiple avenues for natural ventilation and passive cooling. On the podium level, the scheme’s biophilic elements include a landscape of trees, shrubs, and plants aimed at improving air quality, reducing the urban heat island effect, and enhancing the local microclimate.

Image credit: Ronald Lu & Partners

As the tower rises, voids in the form create six multi-layered green courtyards. Designed to be fully accessible to birds and insects in an effort to repopulate the area’s biodiversity, the courtyards are also intended to give residents imme...

Snøhetta's green, mixed-use AIRSIDE development opens in Hong Kong

2023-11-11T11:21:00-05:00

Snøhetta’s AIRSIDE, a LEED Platinum-certified, mixed-use development in Hong Kong, has officially opened.

Located at the site of the former Kai Tak Airport district, the approximately 1,912,424-square-foot project merges into the surrounding urban landscape by creating direct access between pedestrian transit areas, retail spaces, and elevated landscapes. The development comprises an approximately 699-foot-tall tower with a second tower and its base in a continuous form.

The building mass comprises five interconnected volumes that gradually step up from the Kai Tak River, which lends the 699-foot-tall tower an inviting presence at ground level. The building’s sculpted forms create a series of human-scale urban spaces at this level, in addition to rooftop gardens. Landscaped plazas contribute to further integrating the development into the surroundings and creating an engaging pedestrian realm.

An expansive elevated garden sits atop the podium containing the building’s central atr...

M+ museum receives donations from Herzog & de Meuron including Bird's Nest stadium model

2023-03-21T13:51:00-04:00

Hong Kong's M+ museum of contemporary visual culture has announced a two-phase donation by Herzog & de Meuron, the firm behind its design.

The first phase of the donation consists of a section model of the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Beijing National Stadium (in collaboration with artist Ai Weiwei), known as the “Bird’s Nest”, which was the main site at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Installation view of the National Stadium section model at the M+. Photo: Lok Cheng. Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.

The second phase will include a selection of process materials from the firm’s key projects in Asia and elsewhere. This donation makes M+ the first museum in Asia to boast a significant holding of materials related to the work of Herzog & de Meuron.

Detail of the National Stadium section model. © Herzog & de Meuron. Photo: Lok Cheng. Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.

The “Bird’s Nest” model is currently on display in M+’s East Galleries as part of an ongoing exhibition titled Things, Spaces, Interac...

42-story tower catches fire in Hong Kong

2023-03-04T08:00:00-05:00

A 42-story building under construction in Hong Kong caught fire late Thursday, showering a bustling shopping district with sparks and debris and lighting up the nighttime sky. Onlookers flocked to the waterfront neighborhood of Tsim Sha Tsui to take in the spectacle, as the flames made their way through the skyscraper and the scaffolding around it and explosions pierced the air.

The sight lasted for a period of 9 hours before emergency workers finally extinguished the blaze. Only two injuries were reported by Friday evening.

For architectural educators wishing for a change of scenery, the University of Hong Kong is hiring

2023-02-01T11:25:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Senior Designer at Extell Development Company, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open position on Archinect Jobs for a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Architectural Design at the University of Hong Kong.

The role, based out of Hong Kong, calls for applicants with postgraduate and professional degrees in architecture, with preferences given to “those holding professional qualifications and/or a Ph.D. degree in Architecture or an affiliated discipline, and to those who have experience in teaching and practicing design in a multidisciplinary context.” Responsibilities for the position will include conducting research, teaching architectural design studios, and supervising theses for postgraduate students.

The Slab Tower by University of Hong Kong alum Myriem Rhmari Tlemcani. Image credit: Myriem Rhmari Tlemcani

Why the role interests us

The latest opening at the University of Hong Kong comes at ...

Snøhetta unveils new urban farm design in Hong Kong

2022-12-21T18:26:00-05:00

Snøhetta is nearing completion on a trio of clubhouse designs set in the densely populated center of Hong Kong’s Pavilia Farm residential development in Tai Wai.

As a space for social interaction and shared experiences, the project serves residents of Pavilia with a vital piece of communal infrastructure while also providing urban farming capabilities and a contemplative connection to nature in what can otherwise be considered a hyper-urban environment.

Image: New World Development

“Pavilia Farm is a project that highlights the importance of creating new green, urban neighborhoods. More people live in cities than ever before — and that trend is likely to continue to increase in the future — so we need to build in a way that can make it sustainable — both environmentally and socially,” Robert Greenwood, the Managing Director of Snøhetta Asia said in a press release.

Image: New World Development

“The Pavilia Farm and the clubhouses are small but perfect examples of how that can be don...

Rocco Design Architects' Hong Kong Palace Museum is officially open

2022-12-09T19:14:00-05:00

A new civic landmark in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District is being celebrated after Rocco Design Architects Associates (RDA)’s Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) officially opened its doors to the public.

The 30,000-square-meter (323,000-square-foot) museum’s design pays homage to the Beijing Palace Museum, from which it drew 900 of its collection’s objects, relying on a vertical sequence of three stacked atria that reference Hong Kong’s dense urban landscape in order to draw visitors upwardly through an interior again based on the “spatial experience” of the Palace’s sequential courtyards.

Image courtesy Rocco Design

The new building sits adjacent to the Cultural District’s Art Park and offers sweeping views of nearby Victoria Harbor. Museumgoers enter the structure through a pavilion that frames a “grand elevated plaza” in a nod to the gates of Beijing’s Forbidden City. Once inside, a spine-like central staircase connects the 7,800 square meters (84,...

OMA, David Chipperfield, and Sou Fujimoto team up to design $1.4 billion cultural-retail complex in Shenzhen

2022-07-22T17:38:00-04:00

A team consisting of David Chipperfield, OMA, and Sou Fujimoto is leading the design of an expansive, $1.4 billion cultural-retail complex on the coast of Shenzhen.

Called K11 ECOAST, the development will span more than 2.4 million square feet and be located in Prince Bay in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District. The project is being jointly developed by Hong Kong billionaire Adrian Cheng’s New World Development Company Limited, along with China Merchants Shekou Holdings in Shenzhen.

Image courtesy K11 Group

The project is part of the Chinese government’s effort to develop its Greater Bay Area region, which includes southern cities, such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, into arts and business hubs by 2035. Cheng’s vision for K11 ECOAST is to establish a new creative and cultural destination for the region. The complex will consist of a mall, multi-purpose art space, office buildings, and a promenade. The complex’s design places an emphasis on balancing the architecture with the surrounding coastal...

Hong Kong's legendary Jumbo Floating Restaurant capsizes in the South China Sea

2022-06-23T13:48:00-04:00

Hong Kong's iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant has capsized in the South China Sea less than a week after it was towed away from the city, its parent company said Monday. The restaurant was towed away last Tuesday. The company said it planned to move it to a lower-cost site where maintenance could be carried out. It said that prior to its departure, the vessel had been thoroughly inspected by marine engineers and hoardings were installed, and all relevant approvals were obtained.

The Wes Anderson-like former fine-dining establishment served some rather well-regarded Cantonese cuisine to diners for more than forty years before being closed and decommissioned earlier this month following the Covid-caused economic downturn of 2020. The three-story vessel reportedly went down in heavy seas near the disputed Parcel Islands chain last week while in the process of being towed to an undisclosed “lower cost site,” according to Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises, the management group responsible for the remaining entity.

Hong Kong’s provisional government had been working on “the rebirth of the floating restaurant” before the sinking, but will now have to shift focus to other preservation efforts as the Jumbo reportedly went down in a spot of ocean more than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) deep.

'Zaha Hadid Architects: Vertical Urbanism' offers a new perspective on ZHA's innovations in tall building and urbanism

2022-02-21T15:26:00-05:00

A closer look at one of the most innovative approaches to tall building design in the industry went up in the gallery of the Hong Kong Design Institute after “Zaha Hadid Architects: Vertical Urbanism” opened to the public last Wednesday.

By utilizing a wide array of various forms of media, including technical drawings, models, renderings, and VR experiences, the show’s curators arranged a three-pronged exhibition that highlights the work of the firm’s five-year-old design education and research group ZHA CODE, explores their considerable regional output, including the forthcoming 36-story Henderson development for the central business district of Hong Kong, and, importantly, showcases ZHA’s innovations in supertall building and verticality across the world.

The Peak Project, Hong Kong, 1982-1983. Image courtesy of HKDI.

Thallus, Installation, 2017. Sculpture developed by ZHCode with ZHD in collaboration with AiBuild, Odico Formwork Robotics, Armadillo Engineering. Image courtesy of...

In one of Hong Kong's fastest-changing districts, a community-driven installation marks the physical memory of past lives

2021-11-30T15:23:00-05:00

As part of an effort to enhance the quality of life for residents of Hong Kong’s North Point district, a new public art installation will provide an inspiring space for a reimagined kind of citizenry brought on by the neighborhood’s contemporary transformation and supported by the Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC).

Suzanne Li, Eric Chan, and Joyce Fok are the trio behind the installation. The Hong Kong-born designers represent O&O Studio and REhyphenation respectively and were selected along with five other designs to create projects as part of the museum’s Via North Point Festival.

Image © Studio Kevin Mak

Meant as a reflection on the public uses of the causeway, the installation Siu Kai Fong utilizes some of the communal furnishings best upon the neighborhood by its residents.

Stating that they were looking to include “pieces that have stories to tell,” the architects reached out to community members, schools, and local businesses for donations which eventually...

Jacques Herzog previews the M+ Museum and more of HdM's upcoming projects

2021-11-02T12:48:00-04:00

Architecture is the art of facts. You do a building or you don’t, and if you do a building, do it right. We shouldn’t have a moralistic standpoint. But make things so that they work, they are sustainable and they are beautiful.

The 71-year-old architect discussed the highly-anticipated M+ Museum which finally opens this month in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District. The Guardian also talked to Herzog about an upcoming library project for the state of Israel as well as his new headquarters for drugmaker AstraZeneca.

“Architecture continues to be a great business because it’s all about life,” he told the Observer's architecture critic, Rowan Moore, saying that he spent the pandemic contemplating "actually what I can do. I’m not so young any more. What do I want to do and how helpful can my business be in that endeavour? I’m pretty happy, but I’m also somehow scared of how vulnerable the world has become.”

The new museum opens on November 12th.

AaaM founder Bob Pang is leading a team of architects dedicated to preserving Hong Kong’s brutalist past

2021-09-14T07:56:00-04:00

Pang, of AaaM Architects, set out to locate Hong Kong’s Brutalist past with other local design professionals, who formed a team of architectural sleuths. They identified more than 70 buildings, 15 of which now feature in an exhibition showing how the architectural style made its mark on Hong Kong’s educational, industrial and religious building

The St. Stephen’s building was designed by Tao Ho, who died in 2019. Ho was also responsible for Hong Kong’s Bauhinia flower flag design, as well as its still-standing Arts Center, which opened in 1977.

The exhibition came together with the help of an AaaM intern named Alison Chan Lok-yan, who created building elevations for each of the 15 structures by hand using pencil and a grey paper material commonly used by architects in the 1970s.

Pang told the South China Morning Post brutalism reflects “the social conditions of the time and should be considered for conservation.” A full look at the group’s effort to preserve some of the city’s brutalist past can be found here.

Herzog & de Meuron's new M+ museum in Hong Kong finally gets an opening date

2021-09-09T08:00:00-04:00

An opening date has been set for the long-anticipated M+ Museum in Hong Kong after years of delays.

The $750 million project from Herzog & de Meuron is being heralded as Asia’s largest and most significant center for contemporary visual art and was seen as the centerpiece of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District when it was first announced in 2003.

Construction wrapped earlier in the year on the 700,000-square-foot facility which houses a 6,400-piece collection of contemporary art, media, and architecture across 33 galleries with a host of other amenities that includes three cinema-sized theaters and a research center.

Photo courtesy Kevin Mak. © Kevin Mak Courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.

Featuring a terracotta-clad facade with a south-facing LED display, the museum forms a T-shape with a podium and tower that stands over a triple-height installation space meant to give visitors a vertical orientation to the new...

Building tall isn't necessarily better for the environment, according to new research

2021-08-19T13:05:00-04:00

Vertical living may not be the most environmentally friendly way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Colorado, Edinburgh Napier University, and the University of Cambridge. The study, published in the journal npj Urban Sustainability, suggests that low-rise, high-density cities are more environmentally friendly than their high-rise, high-density counterparts, though both are still more sustainable than low-rise, low-density sprawling suburbs.

The researchers arrived at their conclusion through an analysis of an urban environment’s life cycle GHG emissions (LCGEs), which include both embodied and operational emissions. By feeding 5,000 urban environment simulations into an algorithm, with varying height and densities, researchers concluded that taller urban environments significantly increase LCGEs (+154%), while low-density urban environments significantly increase land use (+142%).

The tea...

Take a look inside Herzog & de Meuron's recently completed M+ museum in Hong Kong

2021-03-15T17:24:00-04:00

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup, the new M+ building has recently wrapped up construction and is set to open to the public later this year. This permanent home for the museum of contemporary visual culture is prominently located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District on the Victoria Harbour waterfront.

The M+ building, exterior. Video: Fallout Media. Courtesy of M+

The 65,000 square-meter / 700,000 square-foot structure will house 17,000 square meters / 183,000 square feet of exhibition space across thirty-three galleries as well as three theaters, a mediatheque, a learning hub, a research center, museum shops, restaurants, a tea and coffee bar, a members lounge, office spaces, and a roof garden.

The M+ building, roof garden and LED facade. Video: Fallout Media. Courtesy of M+

"M+ certainly has the potential to become the major visual culture museum in Asia," said H&dM founding partner, Jacques Herzog. "It best expresses where we sho...

Snøhetta designs mixed-use building on former airport in Hong Kong

2020-12-09T11:42:00-05:00

Snøhetta has designed a mixed-use building in Hong Kong, named Airside. Commissioned by Nan Fung group, the 176,000-square-meter structure is located in the center of the former Kai Tak airport. A 200-meter tall tower set atop a podium fit with roof gardens and urban space at ground level, the development will be Snøhetta's first in Hong Kong.

"We are proud to be working on an urban project of this scale with such a strong determination to offer an inviting space for the people of Hong Kong. As Snøhetta’s first built project in Hong Kong, we hope that this building will serve as a place for both commercial activities and recreation for many years to come," said Snøhetta Managing Partner Robert Greenwood in a statement.

The Kai Tak Airport was formerly the international airport of Hong Kon from 1925 to 1998. It is currently growing into a new Central Business District that, according to Snøhetta, is due to be a fresh focal point of urban development and commerce.

The five volume bu...

Keeping Hong Kong flood-free

2020-07-29T17:58:00-04:00

The city's complex drainage system protects Hong Kong from once-disastrous flooding caused by seasonal typhoons. But will it be strong enough to withstand the effects of climate crisis?

CNN's James Griffiths on the challenges of building a vast rain water-draining tunnel network in one of the world's densest cities and how well it is prepared for ever-intensifying climate and security threats.

"At present, some rain is collected and reused for irrigation and flushing water, but most is still dumped back into the sea, a bitter situation for a city that imports over 70% of its fresh water from across the border in mainland China," Griffiths writes. "With rising temperatures potentially leading to greater water-insecurity around the world, Hong Kong's ability to do more with the water that literally falls upon it is more important than ever."

How the Hong Kong protests are reshaping the city's urban design

2019-12-30T19:54:00-05:00

The reconfiguration of these mundane sites into spaces of political expression show how Hong Kong’s public space “is clearly made by the people, not something simply given by the state, and certainly not to be taken for granted,” said Jeff Hou, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington and the co-editor of City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy.

Facial recognition takes center stage at Bi-City Biennale in Hong Kong

2019-11-21T18:59:00-05:00

The Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture of Hong Kong and Shenzhen that opens this December is set to become "the first exhibition to use Facial Recognition and Artificial Intelligence on its own premises," according to biennale chief curator Carlo Ratti. The focus is created "in order to prompt a critical reflection on how digital technologies are impacting urban life," a press release from Carlo Ratti Associati explains.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology-based architect aims to "explore the new urban condition of cities that can 'see'" with the exhibition focus, which will inform a linear exhibition space situated within a high-speed railway station in Shenzhen that connects Mainland China with Hong Kong.

Image courtesy of Carlo Ratti Associati

Hong Kong has been gripped by powerful protests in recent months as the public there struggles against attempts by China to imposition of its legal jurisdiction on the island, which is supposed to enjoy administrative and eco...

New skyscraper church in Hong Kong seeks to "create a peaceful and solemn" place of worship

2019-10-31T13:57:00-04:00

The Rocco Design Architects-designed tower, which will hold the Wesleyan House Methodist International Church, sits on a teardrop-shaped site in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. With 800 square meters of plot and 11,000 square meters of program, the task proved challenging for the design team. The resulting solution manifests itself as a vertical church that integrates the sanctuary, chapels, activity halls, social service floors, and pastoral offices into the tower.

A pragmatic consideration was implemented in the adjacencies of the program. A large congregation hall sits above the main sanctuary, inviting worshippers to gather after the service. Offices and pastoral residences are situated on adjacent floors, providing a seamless connection for its residents, while still seeking to retain distinct identities.

The exterior language of the structure flexes a subtly curved facade with a solid core east facing wall sporting casement windows as opposed to a curtain wall. A sustainable effort inte...

Density in life and in death: A look at Hong Kong's towering cemeteries

2019-09-09T16:15:00-04:00

[Finbarr Fallon's] photo series Dead Space explores how these monuments are designed, and how their history contrasts with Hong Kong’s more modern developments. “I have always been intrigued by how city-specific cemetery design can be,” Fallon says via email. “While death is universal, its memorialization practices are not. I found it fascinating that extreme density and verticality continue to be a defining characteristic of Hong Kong’s dwellings for both the living and the dead.”

Hong Kong's towering high-rise cemeteries can reach up to 60-stories in height. Regarding the photo project, Fallon writes, “The images juxtapose residences for two diametrically opposed groups—the high-rises for the living, and graves for the dead."

Hong Kong protestors take aim at Chinese urban surveillance infrastructure

2019-08-26T13:00:00-04:00

Widespread protests focused on countering China's quasi-colonial reign over Hong Kong continued over the weekend, as demonstrators began to take aim at the city's widespread surveillance infrastructure, The Guardian reports.

Organizing in response to reports that Chinese authorities are using smart lampposts to collect personal information, including facial recognition data, on Hongkongers, protesters over the weekend trained their efforts on removing some the city's new smart city infrastructure as local police fired tear gas. Australian news outlet ABC News reports that 400 of the smart lampposts are due to be installed in four of the city's urban districts, including 50 lampposts in the Kwun Tong area, the site of this weekend's protests. During a march this weekend, protestors used electric saws to destroy several of the lampposts, while others topped the lights with ropes.

Protestors in Hong Kong are cutting down facial recognition towers. pic.twitter.com/bTvb8uis7V
— Jordan ...

Is your city running out of space? Hong Kong says: Just build more land

2019-07-25T07:23:00-04:00

Under the ambitious “Lantau Tomorrow” plan, Hong Kong will first build a roughly 2,500-acre island—roughly the size of 1,000 football fields—around the uninhabited Kau Yi Chau Island to the northeast of Lantau. This may be followed by an additional 1,700 additional acres of land reclamation around the island Hei Ling Chau, which is roughly two miles from Mui Wo and visible from its shoreline.

CityLab reports that under a new aggressive urban growth plan, Hong Kong will create a pair of new islands totaling over 3,200 acres in area in order to create new high-density urban neighborhoods.

Record-breaking affordability issues on the island have pushed wait times for public housing passed the half-decade mark, while by certain estimates, CityLab reports, the average Hong Konger must wait 25 years to be able to afford to purchase an apartment in what is currently the world's most expensive real estate market.

Under the Lantau Tomorrow plan, CityLab reports, the city could provide between 150,000 and 260,000 new housing units with up to 70-percent of those homes earmarked as public housing.

What makes a city vertical?

2019-07-18T13:38:00-04:00

Which is the world's most vertical city? You might think of Hong Kong, given its famous skyscraper skyline, but by different measures of verticality other cities come out on top

"According to building data research company Emporis," writes Matthew Keegan for the Guardian Cities series, "Seoul in South Korea has more high-rise buildings, with 16,359. Emporis defines a high-rise as a building at least 35m, or 12 storeys tall. In second place is Moscow, Russia, with 12,317 high-rises, followed by Hong Kong in third place, with 7,913."

Watching Hong Kong grow up. Reflecting on China's land of skyscrapers

2019-04-05T12:57:00-04:00

If there is any place in the world where the skyscraper reins supreme, it is Hong Kong. From a distance, these tall, towering structures fill Hong Kong's skyline with forms that touch the clouds. Hundreds of these towers reflect off of Victoria Harbor creating a sense of hyperrealism as people look to these enormous structures. However, why does Hong Kong have so many skyscrapers and what makes the display of these large corporate and residential buildings a sight to see?

Jardine House's porthole windows. The circular shaped windows are quite popular and favored in feng shui. Image © Steve Webel

In a recent New York Times piece, writer Sam Lubell shares his perspectives of the city. When discussing the variation of structure type and building materials, he explains the beauty of Hong Kong's structural variation. "Many (despite an infamous exception or two) incorporate ancient principles of feng...