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 atrium, establishing a signature public space that offers abundant seating, water features, and planted areas. At the core of the building is a roughly 645,835-square-foot multi-story retail atrium filled with natural light. 

This makes way for a spacious community gathering and social space. A tower containing 1,184,030 square feet of grade A office space rises above the elevated tower. The development, in addition to nearby, under-construction cultural and leisure facilities, will become a public landmark for the area. They aim to attract start-ups, creative enterprises, and established businesses.

“The building negotiates scales ranging from the urban to the human: it shapes a meaningful, inviting, and vibrant public realm for the thousands of people that will pass through it each day while bringing a new icon to the skyline and a focal point for the district,” said Robert Greenwood, Partner and Director of Snøhetta’s Asia Pacific region. “The building heralds the reinvention of this storied part of Hong Kong’s cityscape into a dynamic new neighbourhood.”

Snøhetta’s design for the project refers to the legacy of the textile industry. Every element of the development evokes aspects of textiles and tailoring through design moves, like weaves, folds, tears, and cuts.

 AIRSIDE is the first private development in Hong Kong to be awarded five of the highest green building certifications. The roof and podium levels feature approximately 14,531 square feet of photovoltaic (PV) farms, making it the largest PV farm of any commercial building in Hong Kong. It is also the first commercial development to connect to the Kai Tak District Cooling System, which uses chilled seawater distributed from a central plant for climate control. There is also a first-of-its-kind automatic underground bicycle parking system.