The city acts as a laboratory: social, economic and political forces converge with land pressures and other variables to test the built environment and its effect on how people and communities function, interact and transform.

Urban strategies can manifest in any number of ways, whether highly-planned, as with Wong Tung’s comprehensively-designed Mei Foo Housing Estate; surgical, as with Urbanus’s speculative Urban Village studies; or informal and extra-legal, as with the Kowloon Walled City. They can also produce inventive approaches to infrastructure and spatial efficiency, at scales ranging from Andrew Lee’s space-saving Scissor Staircase to DLN’s “stacked” ATL Logistics Centre. On the other hand, Tao Ho’s unauthorised Container Office helps illustrate the frictions that sometimes arise between design and bureaucracy in a highly regulated environment.

Introductory Discussion

Restrictions and constraints at times invite people to push boundaries and think outside the box to come up with great design solutions. Discuss your views on the notion of freedom and control in relation to creativity. Would you prefer to respond to certain parameters as a way to stimulate ideas, or would you rather have complete freedom in creating? Think in terms of a number of creative fields including art, writing, and performance.

When considering Hong Kong as a site for construction, what sort of restraints do the unique features of the city impose?

How do architects respond to our cityscape through their projects? How do these finished designs reflect the living conditions of Hong Kong? Consider elements of density, verticality and efficiency that are distinctive of Hong Kong’s built environment as a response to regulations, lack of space and resources. While natural or man-made, can some of these restrictions be avoided through planning and consideration of land allocation policy?

What is the architect’s role facing such restraints? How do they shape the city in this regard? How can restrictions and challenges be transformed into assets?

Futher Reference

“Town Planning”, Planning Department, Hong Kong SAR Government, June 2013, link

“Urban Design Guide for Hong Kong”, Planning Department, Hong Kong SAR Government, November 2002, link

“Becoming a Planner: What Planners Do?”, American Planning association, link

Architecture and locality exist in a state of tension, with each defining the other through a range of complex mechanisms.

In its iconic, highly-mediated form, architecture plays a central role in the image-making of a city, as contemplated in Andreas Gursky’s photograph of the HSBC building and Iwan Baan’s image of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium. Architecture also draws, and sometimes improvises, on indigenous materials, typologies and techniques—for example, Rocco Yim’s Bamboo Pavilion, Urbanus’s Urban Tulou, and Ai Weiwei’s Caochangdi Home and Studio—while providing responses to the immediacy of a localised situation; Jiakun Architects’ Rebirth Brick project was a rapid reaction, using the materials at hand, to the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province.

Introductory Discussion

How is an image of a building created through photographic representation? How are elements emphasised and for what purpose?

How does architecture represent and shape the identity of a city? Consider the qualities that various iconic buildings are designed to embody and represent of their place. Why are some buildings more “iconic” than others?

What are other reasons for creating an impact with architectural projects? Are there different ways of telling the stories of architecture? Are there other purposes that the making of architectural “images” can serve?

Activity

Pick a well-known building. Present the building to others with a selection of five images. Focus on why you have selected these particular five images to represent the building. How do you think they best represent the building?

How does a photograph present an architectural building as an object, as part of a city, on its own, and in terms of utility? Focus on the viewing distance, the presence or absence of human activity, how the photograph is framed etc.

Futher Reference

Dear Deyan, “Can we still believe in iconic buildings?”, Prospect Publishing, 26th Mar 2005, link

Rich Heap, "Iconic Buildings: Only We Can Decide", The Global Community for 21st Century City Decision Makers, 14th Jun 2013, link

Dessen Hillman, "How To Make Architecture, Not Art", ArchDaily, 1st Mar 2013, link

Fred Kent, "Toward an Architecture of Place: Moving Beyond Iconic to Extraordinary", Project for Public Spaces, link

Architecture transcends geographic and cultural borders, morphing and evolving as it shifts among them.

By looking at the discipline’s complex flows of ideas and influences—for example, the impact of European and American modernism on Hong Kong and Asia; its localised adaptations, as seen in Chung Wah Nan’s Peak Tower and Tao Ho’s Hong Kong Arts Centre; and the appropriation, in turn, of vernacular typologies by designers from abroad, as exemplified by Paul Rudolph’s Wisma Dharmala Sakti — one can begin to understand how a multiplicity of architectural narratives has shaped our interconnected global condition.

Introductory Discussion

Make a list of architectural works that were designed by architects not native to Hong Kong. Are there any such examples in the part of the city you live in? Do you think the nationality of an architect matters? Does it imply anything when the nationality of an architect is or is not emphasised?

Consider the various as examples of cultural exchange shown in our exhibition as case studies. Think in terms of the context where these architectural projects took place, and the education and professional background of the architects.

Connections and contacts between different cultures are natural occurrences in architectural practice. Reconsider the concepts of “local” and “global” in the field of architecture. What does it mean to be local vs. international? Do you think it is necessary to make a distinction between the two?

Do these case studies change your views on the nature of influence in architectural practice between West and East? Do they disrupt the common hierarchy of “international” over “local”, or is such a distinction irrelevant?

Futher Reference

“Does the quest to participate in the emerging global, imported context have to be at the expense of local knowledge?
” -- Mark Hoisted, “A Global Context for Local Architecture”, Reports on AIA Committee Visit, Places/Design History Foundation and American Institute of Architects, October 2001, link

“Localization [is] the other face of globalisation … Localisation is closely associated with the politics of identity”
-- Robert Adam, “Architecture and Globalisation” (June 2007), Architects’ Review, February 2008, link

The digital age has transformed architecture, not only in practice, but also in how it’s conceived, consumed, produced and conceptualised.

Computer-aided design has made possible forms that previously weren’t achievable, such as the undulating curves of MAD’s Absolute Towers, while generating new architectural meanings, as with the barcode- and circuit board-evoking Digital Beijing by Studio Pei-Zhu and Urbanus. Elsewhere, digital fabrication techniques have combined with online platforms to redistribute architectural expertise and production, as can be seen with davidclovers’s Immuring. The digital construction of space has also produced entirely virtual cities, whether they be analytical tools— as with Hong Kong’s 3D Spatial Data—or fictional, simulated realities like Cao Fei’s RMB City.

Introductory Discussion

How does digital technology affect the design, representation and construction of buildings nowadays? Why do you think it is important to continue exploring new boundaries? How do you think the role of architects, their craftsmanship and professional skills shifts according to these changes in technology?

Computer-generated visualisation is one of the commonest means of presenting designs to clients, planning committees and the media. While initially developed by the military, computer-aided design (CAD) was soon extended to replace drawing boards in most architectural offices as they enable better organisation and updates of the thousands of documents in large projects. While model-making and hand-sketching are still important, CAD has almost completely taken over the production of the working drawings phase of architectural design.

Some would lament the loss of hand-drawing skills in light of such changes. What are your views? At the same time, why do you think sketching and model-making are still taught in architectural schools?

Activity

Technological advances constantly break through ideas which were once considered impossible. What do you think architectural practice will look like in the future? How can an architectural design that may be impossible nowadays be designed, presented and constructed in the future? Share with other your version of what it will be like to be an architect in the future.

Futher Reference

Matthew Allen, “Archeology of the Digital”, Domus, 15th May 2013, link

Timothy Carter, "Smart cities: The future of urban infrastructure", BBC , 22nd Nov 2013, link

Emilie Chalcraft, "In the future we might print not only buildings, but entire urban sections", Dezeen, 21st May 2013, link

“Archaeology of the Digital, 7 May to 27 October 2013”, The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) website, 2013, link

The future has a long history in architecture—as an attempted reality, in the imagination, and as a utopia and its dystopian opposite.

Fluctuating between fictive and real, and progressive and subversive, many architectural propositions reflect on the present by projecting into the future. MAD’s Beijing 2050 and OPEN Architecture’s 2nd Ring Beijing 2049 envision radical changes to China’s capital at a time of mounting social, environmental and other problems. Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid complex and Turenscape’s Shenyang Jianzhu University Rice Campus offer their own, differing visions of idealised scenarios— though enacted in the present. Meanwhile, critical observations like MAP Office’s Homes for China and Homescapes and anothermountainman’s Lanwei photographs show how architecture can emblematise both aspiration and overreach.

Introductory Discussion

What was housing like in various time periods in history? Research typical shelters and building types from as early as the Stone Age. What types of housing is built today? What will tomorrow’s dwellings look like? Why do you think styles and trends changes through time?

Architects do not just design and build cities; they also re-imagine them. In doing so, they expand the limits of what is possible while offering visionary ideas and, sometimes, critiques and provocations.

Consider Beijing 2050 and the 2nd Ring Road. How and why do you think the architects decided to come up with such proposals and urban solutions for China in 2050? What aspects of the current situation do you think the architects are commenting?

Activity

How has the future imaged by others besides architects? Look for other representation of the future in other fields and discipline such as movies, art or writings. Which one is the most convincing to you? Share with others these examples and why they are convincing scenarios.

Futher Reference

Rachel Nuwer, “Will we ever... live in underwater cities?”, BBC, 30th Sept 2013, link

“Life in 2050: How much space will you have to live in?”, BBC, 29th May 2013, link

Postcards From The Future Website, link

How do we document and represent buildings, whether still existing or lost, space, or even an entire city?

A building or an architectural project can be represented by a multitude of documentation materials, which may include drawings, photographs, models and newspaper clippings. Each of these records tells a story about various aspects of the project. These materials, forming an archive or a collection, are often best kept in places where they can be accessed by the public, such as a library, museum or other research institution.

Various types of materials reflect the different features and aspects of an architectural project. These include its background, its conception, design and construction process to the final outcome and reception by the public. Architects may use drawings and models to explore and visualise their ideas, or to put their ideas into reality.

Introductory Discussion

How can architects express their ideas, for themselves, clients and builders?

What different materials and media did you see in the exhibition? Make a list of all the materials you remember. Think of how each one presents information about the building project in different ways for different audience. Each type of medium has its specific function. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of the materials

Which of the exhibits were the most memorable? Discuss the most memorable, arresting, unusual, or interesting exhibits you found in the show. What strikes you as so special about them?

Refer to the following various types of materials that can be seen in the gallery, what do they reveal about the process of designing a building? What aspects of the project are illustrated through these materials? The tools an architect uses depend on the different stage of the design process, the budget, the needs and expectation of their clients, as well as the materials that are available to actualise their ideas. Can you think of more possible tools that help illustrate an architect’s ideas?

Drawings

There are different types of drawings that make up the architectural design process.

First sketch ideas are quick drawings put down at the start of a project as a study or as the basis for possible ideas. Often, sketch books are used for collecting and researching ideas.

Drawings

More detailed drawings or technical drawings are used to present more concrete designs. Whether it is the building’s exterior form or the details of the interior design, technical drawings play a crucial role as communication tools that help transform ideas into reality in the design and construction process.

Models

Model-making can be a process by which an architect examines various issues or specific features of the design such as its shape and form.

Models

Presentation models show the architect’s ideas in the most direct and representational way. These can be models of a building, or a site plan or even an entire city.

Plans

Presentation models show the architect’s ideas in the most direct and representational way. These can be models of a building, or a site plan or even an entire city.

Showing a series of horizontal layers of the layout of a building from above, floor plans are one of the most common types of drawings an architect uses for working out how rooms and spaces relate to each other.

Plans

A site plan is a top-down view of a building in its surrounding context, including other buildings, streets, plants, and driveways. They are often used to show the relationship of the building with other buildings and facilities in the neighbourhood.

Presentation materials and publication

Other presentation materials include publications and notes produced by the architects where they explain a design to an audience such as a client.

Documents

Other documents such as correspondence and paperwork reveal unknown aspects of the design and construction process that perhaps other materials would not ordinarily address.

Newspaper Cuttings

Newspaper clippings about the project provide a different angle in which the project is represented and perceived.

Photographs

Photographs are used to document and present the architectural project. They can be used as a reference on the site condition, or to present the completed building.

Video documentation

Video recordings are another way to document the physical space as one explores it, and are often used for research and documentation purposes.

Digital renderings

Computer-generated renderings are often used to present a virtual rendition envisioned by the architect, or to reconfigure a lost structure in digital format.

About Imperial Hotel (1916-1923), Tokyo, Japan

In 1913, the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright began work on one of the largest, most complex and significant projects of his career: a new building for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Designing everything from the building and its ornaments to the interiors, furniture and dinner sets, Wright, who is considered a quintessentially American modern architect, showed his inventive originality, but also his capacity for absorbing outside influences; while not directly attributable, traces of Japanese and other traditions can be seen in Wright’s work. With the Imperial Hotel, Wright left an imprint on Japan. But it can also be said that Japan and other cultures left an imprint on Wright.

About Frank Lloyd Wright (b. 1867- 1959)

Best known for his projects including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Fallingwater residence in Pennsylvania, Wright’s “Prairie Style” architecture was influential to American modernism and urbanism on numerous levels.

Wright was particularly known to be an admirer and avid collector of Japanese art, especially Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, helping the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other American institutions develop their collections. When Wright made his first trip outside the United States in 1905, it was not, as one might expect, to Europe, but instead to Japan.

Discussion

What does the drawing reveal about the cultural ties and relationship between the American architect and the Japanese team?

Wright is just one of countless examples of how trans-cultural influences have long shaped architecture, a discipline that has only become more global ever since. What makes architecture “local” or “global,” and what does that distinction mean? Are the terms “local” and “global” really contradictory in meaning as they might appear? Are these terms relevant to a time when architectural practice is increasingly collaborative and trans-bordered?

Activity

Go out and sketch buildings in Hong Kong, whether modern or historic. Are there elements showing influences from other culture? Who are the architects behind these designs?

Further Reference

“Frank Lloyd Wright – Wright in Japan”, The Westcott House Foundation, link

Kathryn Smith, “Frank Lloyd Wright and the Imperial Hotel: A Postscript”, The Art Bulletin, link

About collage of New York Times Square and Mies's Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper (1987)

As professor, chair and dean at the school of architecture at the University of Hong Kong from1976 to 2000, Eric Lye Kum Chew was a pivotal figure in architectural education in Hong Kong and the surrounding region. Among other things, Lye helped bring international architectural ideas—as can be seen in his collage of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Friedrichstrasse skyscraper proposal superimposed on New York’s Times Square—into the discourse in Hong Kong.

About Court House Studies (1931-1938)

In the 1930s, the preeminent modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe undertook a series of “court house” studies investigating the relationship between interior and exterior space.

About Chinese Professor's Court Yard House (c. 1954)

Jackson Wong Chack Sang, who founded the prominent Hong Kong firm now known as Wong & Ouyang, was a member of the first class at the University of Hong Kong’s school of architecture. As a student, he took inspiration from many sources, including American popular culture and European and American modernism. His drawing of a proposed Chinese Professor’s Court Yard House shows his early attempt to reconcile traditional Chinese architecture with a modern vocabulary evocative of the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

About National Theatre and Opera House (1986-1987), Tokyo, Japan

Reacting against postmodern formalism, the influential theorist and architect Bernard Tschumi became known in the 1970s and 80s for insisting that architecture be defined by the events, activities and movements happening within. In 1986, Tschumi participated in the competition to design a new National Theatre and Opera in Tokyo with a scheme that incorporated notational elements of experimental dance and music.

About Wisma Dharmala Sakti (Intiland Tower) (1983 – 1985), Jakarta, Indonesia

The Wisma Dharmala Sakti tower in Jakarta is an important example of the American architect Paul Rudolph’s significant body of work in Southeast Asia in the 1980s. It was during this period, when he was facing professional difficulties in the United States, that the innovative modernist also designed the Bond Centre (now Lippo Centre) in Hong Kong and the Colonnade and Concourse in Singapore.

The building exemplifies the virtuosic forms, urbanistic concerns and climatic sensitivities for which Rudolph was known. Its rotated floor plates and deep, canted overhangs, borrowed from indigenous Indonesian dwellings, shield offices from direct sunlight and provide terraces on all floors while giving the tower its striking silhouette. Planters cascade towards the forest of paired structural columns supporting the podium-level atrium, making the building a vertical garden within Jakarta’s central business district.

About the Paul Rudolph (United States, 1918 – 1997)

Paul Rudolph was one of the most prominent architects of the 1950s and 1960s whose complex interior spaces and brutal use of concrete helped define the modernism of that period. Having gained renown for his home designs early on while living in Florida, his best-known work is perhaps the building for the Yale School of Art and Architecture (1964), where he served as dean from 1958 to 1964. Among his students at Yale happened to be Norman Foster. By the late 1970s, however, he turned his attention to Southeast Asia, where his brand of modernism, and its suitability for tropical climates, was embraced while his work had fallen out of favour in the US. Significant projects in this region include the Wimsa Dharmala Tower (1988), Jakarta, the Bond Centre (now Lippo Centre) in Hong Kong (1988), and the Colonnade (1987) and Concourse (1994), in Singapore. With their intricate, interlocking spaces and atria, these buildings have influenced numerous other designs throughout the region.

Discussion

Paul Rudolph looks to local and vernacular architecture for inspiration for his designs. Why do you think it is important to study traditional architecture as a reference? What can we learn from buildings derived from a long history of design and metamorphosis? Do you think an architecture that reveal the culture, history, or the identity of the place offer a deeper bonding with the people?

Can you think of other modern buildings that reference traditional building design and features? Gather such examples and discuss whether the merging of the traditional with modern design works. Think of the intention of such approach, the function and aesthetic of the result.

Paul Rudolph’s buildings in Hong Kong have a direct impact on the subsequent work of Wong and Ouyang group, which was Rudolph’s local design partner on the Bond Centre.

Compare the design of these two buildings. In what ways do the designs reference Rudolph’s style? Discuss your views on the cultural exchange between foreign architects and those at local firms. As architectural practice is increasingly cross-boundary in nature, what does it mean to be labelled “local” or “international”? Are these terms relevant nowadays?

Select an ancient building form that interests you most and study its features. Think of new ways these features could be incorporated into a new building in our contemporary era. Come up with your own design, and present it with drawings, models or other materials. Explain how you could learn from previous designs.

About Teatro del Mondo (1979), Venice, Italy

A founder of postmodern Neo-Rationalism, the architect and theorist Aldo Rossi is best known for his monumental reinvention of building typologies rooted in memory, history and place, especially those of his native northern Italy. His ideas influenced architects around the world, including in Hong Kong. One of Rossi’s most iconic works, the Teatro del Mondo, was a floating theatre built in Venice in 1979.

About Peak Tower, The Upper Terminal of the Peak Tramway (1967– 1972), Hong Kong

The now-demolished Peak Tower designed by Chung Wah Nan was a key landmark of Hong Kong, and one of the city's most daring and highly engineered structures at the time of its completion. While clearly in the modern idiom, it was also designed to evoke the watchtower of an ancient Chinese wall, firmly anchored at its base but seemingly floating at the top.

The news of its commissioned came about in 1967, providing a much needed boost and discussion point for the city at a time when it was politically and economically strained by the Cultural Revolution occurring in China.

When it officially opened on 29 August 1972, the Tower’s ‘restaurants-in-the-clouds’ and indoor-outdoor observation decks immediately made it not just a major tourist lure but also a dramatic part of the Hong Kong skyline. Reported to symbolise the city's 'sky-high confidence in the future', the Tower was celebrated by having its image printed on the 500 HKD note.

About Chung Wah Nan (Hong Kong, b. 1931)

After graduating from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London in 1959, Chung started private practice in 1964 and later teamed up with British architect Alan Fitch, one of the designers of City Hall, to form Fitch & Chung. The partnership lasted until 1985. While working in the modernist vein, Chung, who is also known for his writings on traditional Chinese architecture and landscape design, has been influential in attempting to infuse modernism with historical Chinese concepts.

Discussion

What do you think of the design? Did you know the Peak Tower looked like this? What are the similar elements between the Peak Tower and a Chinese watchtower? Discuss how the architect has modernise the ancient building type by adopt the features to its design of a viewing tower. Why do you think he decide to reference and adopt such design features?

Also refer to Hong Kong Arts Centre as another comparative case study on this topic.

What sort of impact does a high-profile building project have on a city? Can you think of other buildings or architectural projects of similar impact? What effects will they have on the city? What messages do these projects, whether they are in the stage of merely being announced, in construction or completed. Refer to media coverage of such architectural projects, how are they described and represented?

About Hong Kong Arts Centre (1968 – 1977), Hong Kong

Having been given only a small piece of reclaimed land measuring 30 m2, Tao Ho managed to realise a vision of the centre for contemporary arts in the city. The reclaimed land was too soft for construction, and the reinforced-concrete building was finally constructed atop of a 2-metre thick concrete raft supported by more than 300 piles.
Ho managed to pack and stack a 200-seat recital hall, a 100-seat studio theatre, a rehearsal room, a 463-seat theatre, a sizable exhibition gallery with sculpture terrace, spaces for restaurants, a member’s club, artists’ studios, musical practice rooms, and offices functioning as rentable spaces to support the arts centre.
Sandwiched between two large buildings, there is no access from two sides. In response, Ho created a plan with an L-shaped service core that runs on two sides to accommodate staircases, lifts, lavatories, mechanical equipment, and storerooms. With this plan, an impressive vertical and asymmetrical foyer was also created.
In this promotional book published by the Hong Kong Arts Centre, one can find some of the elements that contributed to the design, along with still shots of the building and its interior when it opened in the late 1970s.

About Tao Ho (Hong Kong, born China, 1936)

Dr. Tao Ho attended Williams College, majoring in art history. He went on to pursue a master degree in architecture at Harvard University and was once a personal assistant to Bauhaus founder, Walter Gropius. After a decade of architecture practice in the US, he returned to Hong Kong and became a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, bringing the design infrastructure and sophistication he found in the States to Hong Kong. He also played a key role in the development of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA). In 1968, he founded Taoho Design, Hong Kong’s first native multidisciplinary design studio. Moved among various disciplines and thrived in combining an active public life with wide-ranging personal interests, he is one of the world’s most renowned architects as well has having been a prolific contemporary artist while in Hong Kong.

Activity

Faced with the difficulties of a site with limited space and asked to design a complex containing shops, galleries, theatres, studios rooms, and office space, Tao Ho realised his innovative and ingenious design solution for the Arts Centre that stacked up various spaces in this small corner footprint. Select a three-dimensional object and trace its form, viewing it from the sides, on a piece of paper. Now consider the shape as the elevation of a complex building. Decide what the building’s function will be: a residential complex, university, hospital, shopping mall or other. Use the sketch to create a cross-section of the building. Plan the use of space within the building. Think of what spaces will be needed, how people will use them and the relation between different spaces and the circulation of people.

Activity

Tao Ho’s design references a Chinese pagoda in its stacking design. Shown in his publication porfolio are references that inspired his design for the Arts Centre. Look for magazine spread with elements that interest you, and write down what strikes you about the images. Take an element and convert it into an idea for a structure. Keep a scrapbook of ideas whenever you are designing and creating. Ideas and inspiration often comes from the most unexpected places.

Further Reference

Tao Ho Design Website, link

“Milestone, History of the Hong Kong Arts Centre”, Hong Kong Arts Centre, link  

About 42 Sassoon Road Houses (1977–1979), Hong Kong

Built on a steeply sloping waterfront site in Pokfulam, the 42 Sassoon Road Houses comprise twelve three-storey, split-level garden houses designed by architect Remo Riva of Palmer & Turner. Known for deriving variation from within systems of geometric order, Riva articulated the buildings’ formal compositions based on a rigourous grid plan.

About the proposal for Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Campus (1987), Hong Kong

The 1987 proposal by Eric Lye Kum Chew and Joan Leung Hing Yee for the campus of the new Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) responded elegantly to its site in Sai Kung. Creating a “constructed ridge”, the main academic centre consisted of building modules organised linearly along two parallel axes and a large central space. Dormitories for students and staff, as well as other facilities, followed the site’s natural contours as they spilled down towards the waterfront. Referencing both Chinese landscape paintings and humanistic readings of the relationship between nature and science, the scheme won the competition to design the campus, though a different proposal was ultimately built.

About Electric House ( Kennedy Road Substation) (1967 – 1970), Hong Kong

Conceived by architect James Kinoshita and structural engineer Heinz Rust of Palmer & Turner (now P&T Group), Electric House was an electrical substation consisting of two piers supporting a horizontal building that elegantly bridged a valley, with a stream running beneath. On top, two parabolic hoods received and protected high tension cables coming from the surrounding hills. Palmer & Turner (P&T Group) (Hong Kong)

During the building’s early stages of construction, directors of Hong Kong Electric, the client, decided to move the company's headquarters to Electric House, turning what was meant to be a purely pragmatic switching station into a point of company pride.

About James H. Kinoshita

James H. Kinoshita is a Japanese Canadian architect and traveller, born in Vancouver, Canada. He received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Manitoba, and Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked for three years in America before setting off for Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, he got a job with Palmer and Turner, an established international architectural engineering firm with a practice widely respected in the South East Asia. He has been involved in projects in Indonesia, Singapore, Hawaii, and Sydney. When China started to open its doors in 1978, he became involved in China, recalling the firm's past glory of the many buildings they designed along the Bund in Shanghai. His significant projects in Hong Kong include the Hong Kong Hilton, America International Assurance, Jardine House, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Landmark. He is now retired and lives in Hong Kong.

Discussion

What is the relationship between the form and function of a building? Can you think of buildings that are remarkable for overcoming structural and technical challenges while also being striking in their form?

Activity

Using two different cards, each person comes up with a building design and a location. Imagine the type of building, as well. Will it be located in a valley, in the middle of the ocean? Will it be a hospital, a school, a residence? The sky is the limit.

Behind each respective card, jot down qualities of the location and the building including site limitations, and specific building features.

Collect the two sets of cards and shuffle them.

Each person draws a card from each pile.

Design a building according to the location and the building type, responding to the limitations set out on the back of the selected card.

Further Reference

P&T Group Website, link

About ATL Logistics Centre Phase 1 and Phase 2 (1984-1992), Hong Kong

Reflecting both the “stacking” phenomenon prompted by Hong Kong’s intense land pressures and the city’s role as one of the world’s busiest container ports, the ATL Logistics Centre is an innovative example of industrial infrastructure. Its highly functional design—an integrated network of enormous ramps, extensive parking bays, and internal roadways—set a new standard for logistics buildings by enabling continuous vertical access and rapid loading and unloading of cargo by container trucks. This alleviated frequent traffic back-ups in the port area while optimising land use. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it was the world’s largest multilevel industrial building in 1994.

About the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Building Design (1981–1985), Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts building comprises an ensemble of triangular volumes arranged in elegant response to the constraints of the site—namely, an underground MTR tunnel and water and sewer mains. The building design was selected in one of Hong Kong’s earliest international architectural competitions.

About Scissor Staircase (2006)

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts building comprises an ensemble of triangular volumes arranged in elegant response to the constraints of the site—namely, an underground MTR tunnel and water and sewer mains. The building design was selected in one of Hong Kong’s earliest international architectural competitions.

About Mei Foo Sun Chuen (1965 – 1978), Hong Kong

When it was largely completed in 1978, the Mei Foo housing estate comprised 99 blocks of 20-storey apartment buildings for over 80,000 residents, and was pioneering in terms of its scale, scope, and planning concepts. It was then the world’s largest private high-density housing development and Hong Kong’s first self-contained residential community, in which accommodation, transport, retail and recreational facilities were stitched together via an elevated continuous podium, making it a “city within a city”. Also innovative were its double-cruciform-shaped towers, accessed from the three-storey podium, which employed “scissor stairs” that provided the multiple means of egress required by building codes while using the minimal amount of space/

About Wong and Threadgill Architects & Engineers (Wong Tung & Partners Ltd, Hong Kong)

Wong Tung & Partners was founded in Hong Kong in 1963 by Shanghai-born Americans, Bill Wong and Albert Tung. It has affiliated practices around the globe. The company made its mark internationally in the late 1960s when it was commissioned to create a master plan and design for the Mei Foo Sun Chuen housing estate (1965 – 1978).

Discussion

Why it is important to consider the context in which a building will be built? How does urban planning affect people’s daily lives?

Discussion

The double-cruciform-shaped floor plan design allows each residential unit to have at least two or three sides that open out, allowing circulation and access to daylight. It also places service facilities including stairs, elevators, and garbage collection at the centre of each cross, eliminating the need for wasteful narrow corridors that were common in previous residential building designs.

This design solution is a direct respond to the dense living condition of Hong Kong by creating a more effective use of space. Such examples of creative solutions are all around us. Look for any kind of such gestures, small or large, that improve our way of life.

Refer to the Kowloon Walled City for comparison on such urban strategies. Think about intention and unintentional design solutions, and the planned and unplanned organisation of communities.

Activity

A building is not an island, but should be considered in terms of its context and surrounding community.

How does your home or estate relate to what's around it? Draw a map of your neighbourhood to understand these relationships. Start by visually tracking your daily routines on the map.

Look at what makes up this particular neighbourhood and evaluate your neighbourhood from the point of view of urban planning by making notes of how the roads, shops, houses and other facilities are planned.

What makes an environment comfortable and what annoys you? What is ingenious and what leaves you unimpressed? Is there room for improvement? What suggestions can you make?

About Hong Kong Adventist Sanitarium-Hospital (1967–1971), Hong Kong

The first hospital design by Hong Kong firm Wong & Ouyang, the Hong Kong Adventist Sanitarium-Hospital conformed to its hilltop site with a novel circular tower. The building’s radial, panoptic plan reflects a humanist medical planning approach that was gaining currency at the time; perimeter wards ring the central nurses’ stations, minimising the need for support spaces while allowing direct sightlines between caretakers and patients.

About Hollywood Terrace (1987– 1999), Hong Kong

The dense and textured fabric of Hong Kong’s Central-Western District calls for a careful response to the urban environment, and an intricate appropriation between private and public realms. A system of public spaces is developed in the form of a series of landscaped gardens and terraces that, together with the punctuating stairs and lifts, form an elaborate twenty-four-hour pedestrian access connecting Queen’s Road Central with Hollywood Road through and within the site. As the public thoroughfare interweaves spatially with private pathways, movement remains physically independent, connected only through an interesting play of visual empathies.

About Rocco Yim (Hong Kong, b. 1952)

Rocco Yim is one of Hong Kong’s most prominent architects, known for buildings that respond sensitively and inventively to the topographical, urbanistic, and infrastructural conditions of their context, especially in Hong Kong. Graduated from the University of Hong Kong, Yim initially joined the firm of Spence Robinson before starting his own practice in 1979. Soon thereafter, in 1983, he earned international attention as one of three first-prize winners in the competition to design the new Bastille opera house in Paris.

Yim’s buildings are studies in geometry and spatial relationships, evolving through addition and subtraction in response to programmatic, aesthetic-compositional and urbanistic requirements. Strong volumetric solids shift alongside voids; spaces become multi-layered, linked from both within and without. Yim has also investigated the reconciliation of his modern design vocabulary with historical Chinese practices and references. His Bamboo pavilion of 2000, in Berlin, created a decidedly contemporary expression of traditional bamboo construction. More recently, he has explored courtyard typologies, as is the case with his Distorted Courtyard House (2002) in Beijing, and metaphorical devices, as seen in his Guangdong Museum (2010).

Discussion

What does public space really mean? Discuss this term from the government, developers, and citizen’s perspectives. How could we strike a balance between their views?

Activity

As a group, select a district in Hong Kong.

Visit the district and sketch an overview map. Consider choosing a landmark as a starting point for exploration, and a central point for the map.

As you wander the city, think of how public and private places are connected and defined by the spatial and architectural designs. How are different spaces “created” in a dense district?

Notice human activities as you visit, such as the circulation and movement of people, and their interactions with the many spaces in the area. What effects does spatial design have on human activities?

Evaluate and examine the planning of the district, is there room for improvement?

About Container Office (1989–1992), Hong Kong

From 1989 to 1992, the Container Office in Kowloon Tong served as the studio for the prominent architect Tao Ho. Built by stacking 24 used shipping containers around a central atrium courtyard, the nevertheless highly-finished, two-storey structure provided ample natural light and ventilation and became a case study for Ho’s research into sustainable design. However, the Container Office did not conform to Hong Kong’s building codes and was accordingly dismantled. A series of correspondences between Ho and the Buildings and Lands Department lends insight into the tensions that sometimes exist between design and regulation.

About Taikoo Shing (1972-1988), Hong Kong

Occupying the site of the former Taikoo dockyards, Taikoo Shing was designed by Wong, Tung & Partners, which drew from the firm's earlier experience of planning the Mei Foo housing estate to create an integrated residential and commercial development. Taikoo Shing’s 61 cruciform- and diamond-shaped residential blocks are mostly linked by a rhizomic podium to facilitate pedestrian movement, with open landscaped areas helping to alleviate the “concrete jungle” effect. Shops and malls, in particular the City Plaza commercial and entertainment complex, became nodes connecting residential, office, recreational and other areas with roadways and public transport via sky-bridges and sheltered walkways.

About the IBA Lützowstrasse Social Housing Competition (1980), Berlin, Germany

Elia and Zoe Zenghelis’s 1980 competition proposal for social housing on Berlin’s Lützowtrasse is an important early work by OMA, a firm that has had wide influence, including in China. The competition was part of a broader effort to revitalise areas of what was then West Berlin, with OMA’s third-place scheme exemplifying the firm’s radically tactical and programmatic approach to architecture and urban planning.

About Metroplan,West Kowloon Reclamation Concept (1988), Hong Kong

A striking example of visionary architecture for Hong Kong, Metroplan, West Kowloon Reclamation Concept was developed in 1988 by architect Tao Ho with architecture and urban design students at the University of Hong Kong. It was undertaken in response to a request by the Hong Kong government for alternative ideas for a proposed land reclamation project in the area now roughly occupied by the West Kowloon Cultural District site.
Instead of infill, Ho and his students called for building an extended deck over the harbour, supported by caissons and forming an arm linking Yau Ma Tei with Tsim Sha Tsui. While creating a central spine for transportation and other services, the deck would support flexible and modular commercial development alongside cultural and recreational amenities. The plan is reminiscent of Japanese Metabolism—which in the 1960s had proposed transformable, floating megastructures—as well as vernacular waterfront architecture. In seeking to create an iconic attraction while supporting area land values, Ho’s proposal was responding to the commercial and market imperatives of Hong Kong at the time.

About Kowloon Walled City

Due to a historical anomaly, the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City existed under the full jurisdiction of neither the Chinese nor British colonial governments. This made it an extraordinary enclave, known for its lawlessness and unregulated development—but also for its vitality as a community of migrants, refugees and others inhabiting what was thought to be the most crowded piece of land in the world. The Kowloon Walled City was one of the most remarkable architectural and urbanistic developments, informal or otherwise, to have been part of Hong Kong’s built environment.

About aerial view from south west of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, 1989

Beginning in 1988, the photographer Ian Lambot spent four years documenting Kowloon Walled City, an enclave in Hong Kong that was claimed by both the British colonial and Chinese governments and consequently existed under the actual jurisdiction of neither. Accordingly, it became known for its lawlessness and unregulated development—but also for its vitality as a community of migrants, refugees and others inhabiting what was thought to be the most crowded piece of land in the world. Lambot’s aerial view captures Kowloon Walled City’s dense, informal development before its demolition began in 1993.

About Ian Lambot, (England, b,1953)

Ian Lambot is a British-born architecture photographer who originally trained as an architect. He moved to Hong Kong in 1979 and remained in the city for 20 years. During his time here, he worked for Norman Foster and Partners on the early stages of that firm’s design of the HSBC building, and set up an architectural model-making studio before becoming a freelance architecture photographer. In his latter role, he documented the construction of the HSBC building extensively. Collaborating with Greg Girard, he spent four years exploring the Kowloon Walled City before its demolition, and published the book City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, which features 320 photographs, 32 extended interviews, and an essay on the City’s history and character.

Discussion

The vertical village structure of the Kowloon Walled City manifested organically as the tenants and landlords altered and shaped their living environment as a natural response to the high level of living density that the place was famous for.

Think of growth in terms of a city: cities grow and adapt to changes to suit various needs of the community and society. Straddling a position between chaos and order, what can an architect learn from an exceptional case of organic growth that is the Kowloon Walled City?

Activity

Interview members of your family’s older generation regarding their impressions of the Kowloon Walled City. Ask them about the reputation of the place, and what the place was like.

Draw your impression of the Walled City according to what you have heard and seen. What is your impression of the famous Kowloon Walled City?

Refer to the photograph by Ian Lambot and video by Suenn Ho and compare how you imagined the place with the documentation materials.

What is the importance of these documentation materials? If these materials did not exist, how else could we perceive the demolished city? Is it important to keep records of places like the Kowloon Walled City?

While there is a need to develop and regenerate the city, whether for regulatory or economic reasons, what factors must be considered when deciding to tear down buildings and structures that might have historical and cultural value?

Further Reference

Barbara Basler, “Hong Kong Journal; The Walled City, Home to Huddled Masses, Falls”, The New York Times, 16th Jun 1992, link

EDW Lynch, “Photos of the Final Years of Hong Kong’s Notoriously Overcrowded Kowloon Walled City”, Laughing Squid, 24th Sept 2013, link

Rebekah Rhoden, “Kowloon Walled City Photographed by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot”, Lost At E Minor, 27th Sept 2013, link

Julian Ryall, "Arcade brings Kowloon Walled City back from the dead … in JapanKowloon's infamous slum is recreated in an amusement park in Kawasaki - from its eerie, narrow corridors right down to the rubbish", South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd., 1st Oct 2013, link

About Kowloon Walled City

Due to a historical anomaly, the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City existed under the full jurisdiction of neither the Chinese nor British colonial governments. This made it an extraordinary enclave, known for its lawlessness and unregulated development—but also for its vitality as a community of migrants, refugees and others inhabiting what was thought to be the most crowded piece of land in the world. The Kowloon Walled City was one of the most remarkable architectural and urbanistic developments, informal or otherwise, to have been part of Hong Kong’s built environment.

About research footage of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, 1991

While as a Fulbright Scholar in 1991– 1992, the architect Suenn Ho undertook a 10-month research project studying Kowloon Walled City. Included was over fourteen hours of video footage taken while Ho meandered through the densely-packed community as part of a “video mapping” exercise. Ho’s route offers voyeuristic glimpses, interspersed with snippets of conversation with various shopkeepers, at a time when Kowloon Walled City’s occupants were beginning to relocate prior to its demolition.

About Suenn Ho (United States, b. Hong Kong, 1961)

Suenn Ho, an American architect and urban designer, received her Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and her Master of Architecture from Columbia University. Ho was the designer and public outreach coordinator who helped redo Old Town/Chinatown along 3rd and 4th Avenues in Portland. In 1995, Ho received a research grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to investigate the distinct physical and visual patterns of historic urban Chinatowns in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. As one of the founding members of Northgate Group LLC, she was actively involved in the first Asian-friendly senior housing project in Portland's Chinatown Pacific Tower. She has also served on the board of the Portland Classical Chinese Garden and was a board member of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance as well as Transition Project Inc. In 2004, she joined MulvannyG2 Architecture as a Senior Architect. Besides her roles as an architectural and urban designer, Ho has also taught architecture at Columbia College, and the University of Hong Kong, University of Oregon, and Portland State University.

Discussion

In the preface to her research publication, An architectural study on the Kowloon Walled City: Preliminary findings, Ho notes her

interests in studying “the interrelationship between the Walled City’s architecture and its inhabitants” , a reminder of the people who live there that gave vitality to the place, and who shaped the environment.

What stories have you heard about the Kowloon Walled City? What are your impressions of it as a “non-designed” place? In what ways do you shape your own environment? Please write down and share examples of other spaces that are used in ways that are perhaps unintentional.

Activity

Interview members of your family’s older generation regarding their impressions of the Kowloon Walled City. Ask them about the reputation of the place, and what the place was like.

Draw your impression of the Walled City according to what you have heard and seen. What is your impression of the famous Kowloon Walled City?

Refer to the photograph by Ian Lambot and video by Suenn Ho and compare how you imagined the place with the documentation materials.

What is the importance of these documentation materials? If these materials did not exist, how else could we perceive the demolished city? Is it important to keep records of places like the Kowloon Walled City?

While there is a need to develop and regenerate the city, whether for regulatory or economic reasons, what factors must be considered when deciding to tear down buildings and structures that might have historical and cultural value?

Further Reference

“3D 九龍城砦 kowloon walled city”, We are making 3D model of Kowloon Walled City, 5th Oct 2013, link

"MulvannyG2 Architecture Welcomes Suenn Ho as Senior Designer", MulvannyG2 Architecture website, link

“Suenn Ho Champions Old Town Chinatown”, Old Town Chinatown Crier: The Crier, Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association, Fall Edition, 2005, link

About Rice Campus, Shenyang Jianzhu University (2003–2004), Shenyang, China

Built for Shenyang Jianzhu University, the Rice Campus by landscape architect Yu Kongjian of Turenscape incorporates a fully functioning, productive rice growing field as its centrepiece. The project is one of the most prominent examples of Yu’s environmentally and ecologically conscious design, which advocates working in conjunction with, instead of against, natural systems.

About Urban Village (2004–2005), Shenzhen, China

Focused on the once-rural villages enveloped by the rapid growth of Shenzhen, Urbanus’s Urban Village studies comprise an ongoing series of more than ten case studies focusing on how architectural insertions, subtractions and linkages can address the social and structural impacts of urbanisation.

About Digital Beijing (2004–2007), Beijing, China

Asserting China’s growing international profile, Digital Beijing, along with the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, was one of the main buildings constructed at Beijing’s Olympic Park for the city’s 2008 Summer Olympics. The building served as the control, data and technical support centre for the Olympic Games, with a design intended to symbolise the country’s technological ambitions, while using “low tech” construction techniques and materials, such as reinforced concrete and steel. Chosen in an international competition, the building evokes bar codes and circuit boards when seen from different sides.

About 3D Spatial Data Viewer of Public Housing Estates and Surroundings in Hong Kong (2006–), Hong Kong

The 3D Spatial Data Viewer of Hong Kong is a digital modeling tool embedded with the 3D Spatial Data of Hong Kong, developed in 2013 by the Hong Kong Lands Department. It provides an interactive spatial map of all the buildings, terrain and surface infrastructure of Hong Kong. An example of how advanced technology is being utilised in land and urban planning, the continuously-updated data used in the Viewer allows users—among them, architects, developers, engineers and others—to perform building analyses relating to noise and visual impact, sun and shadow effects, airflow and other environmental factors, while supporting a range of other applications including civil works maintenance, emergency and rescue operations, and even game development.

About PIXEL (2005–2007/2013)

MAP Office’s PIXEL series follows an imaginary particle named PIXEL as it travels throughout the Pearl River Delta region. In an array of narrative vignettes, the scaleless, mercurial and ever-shifting particle takes on the role of outside observer and commentator as it witnesses and participates in scenarios describing a region in flux. Though rendered in a flat, highly consistent manner, the drawings invite the viewer to unravel the layered heterogeneity of places and stories within.

About RMB City

Launched in 2008, RMB City is a virtual city created by the artist Cao Fei in the online world of Second Life. Examining the relationship between the physical and virtual realms, users and their avatars interact in this digital manifestation of China’s hyper-development, populated by dystopian versions of well-known buildings and landmarks from throughout the country.

About Cao Fei (China, b. 1978)

Cao Fei's photography, video installations and new media works look at aspects of role play, fantasy and simulated reality within today's media-saturated society. Her artistic practice poignantly captures the ways in which others imagine themselves amidst the hyper-transformative and often disillusioning context of contemporary China. Her recent project RMB CITY (2008 – 2011) has been exhibited in Deutsche Guggenheim (2010), Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2009), Serpentine Gallery, London (2008), and Yokohama Triennale (2008). Cao Fei also participated in 17th & 15th Biennale of Sydney (2006/2010), 52nd Venice Biennale (2007), Chinese Pavilion, Moscow Biennale (2005), Shanghai Biennale (2004), 50th Venice Biennale (2003). She also exhibited video works in Guggenheim Museum (New York), the International Center of Photography (New York), MoMA (New York), P.S.1 (New York), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Musee d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris (Paris), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo). She was the finalist of Hugo Boss Prize 2010, and won the 2006 Best Young Artist Award by CCAA (Chinese Contemporary Art Award).

Further Reference

Cao Fei Webpage, link

About Beijing 2050. 2006

Beijing 2050 proposes three hypothetical scenarios for China’s capital in the year 2050: a network of cloud-like structures hovering above the Central Business District; the transformation of Tiananmen Square and Chang’an Avenue into, respectively, a park and green boulevard; and the insertion of “bubbles,” housing public facilities and amenities, throughout the city’s historic hutong alleyway districts. Evolving from a project that MAD co-founder Ma Yansong began as a graduate student at Yale, Beijing 2050 is a speculative take on the future based on a critical awareness of both historical and contemporary social, structural and ideological developments in Beijing. In 2009, a fully functioning, full-scale “bubble” was constructed in a traditional courtyard house in the city.

About MAD (China)

Beijing-based MAD is one of China’s most widely recognised, leading-edge contemporary architectural practices. It was founded in 2004 by Ma Yansong, a graduate of the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture who later received his Masters in Architecture from Yale University. Having worked for Zaha Hadid, Ma is known for employing daring and wildly futuristic forms in exploring contemporary interpretations of Eastern notions of nature. His firm often employs conceptual methodologies that can be critical of its current-day Chinese context. In 2006, MAD became the first Chinese firm of its generation to notably win an international design competition when it was commissioned to build the Absolute Tower, in Mississauga, Ontario, the success of which prompted the addition of a second tower. The firm has been published and exhibited extensively, including at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale. In addition to the Absolute World Towers, its built projects include a museum in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, and the Hutong Bubble 32 in Beijing.

Discussion

While it’s unlikely such proposals will be realised—though one of MAD’s “hutong bubbles” was, in fact, constructed in 2009—what is the value in putting them forward?

Activity

What will your home look like in the future? Re-imagine your home and think about how you will live in the future. Will houses float in the air, be unusual in shape or require rooms for alien visitors and hover-cars?

Draw or make models of houses, buildings or cities that fit with your vision of the future. Picture yourself in the future you envisaged. What is your daily life like in this future and how is the built environment differ accordingly? Why do you think the future will look like this?

Further Reference

MAD Architects Website, link

leeji choi, “MAD architects: 'hutong bubble 32', Beijing”, desingboom, 23rd Aug 2009, link

Sarah Housley, "Hutong Bubble 32 by MAD", Dezeen, 14th Sept 2009, link

Brendan McGetrick, "Hutong Bubble", ICON, November 2009, link

Nicole Saieh, “Beijing Hutong Bubble / MAD”, ArchDaily, 24th Feb 2014, link

About Immuring, 2008 – 2010

Immuring is an explorative prototype for the cladding system of Lunar House, a 2,300 square-foot speculative house sold through Hometta.com. Users can purchase plans, as well as other aids for building the home, online. Embedded with dense networks of LED-lit, computer-generated lines, Immuring's three full-scale Corian panels for Lunar House reflect the architects’ interest in examining the threshold between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms via digital design and fabrication.

About davidclovers (Hong Kong)

davidclovers was founded by David Erdman and Clover Lee in 2007 in the United States. They have collaborated in designing and completing residential homes, interiors and exhibitions. As both academics and practitioners, their projects emphasise architectural massing and its material effects. The way they work and develop projects reflects both the thoughtful research of their academic backgrounds and their fastidious innovative capabilities as a practice. Combining digital modelling, prototyping and fabrication with standard construction methods each project integrates basic elements including ceilings, windows, lighting and structure in unique ways affecting space and inhabitation. In 2009, davidclovers relocated to Hong Kong where they have since completed a number of projects. David and Clover have lectured widely and have been published in numerous architectural journals, newspapers and books throughout Asia, Europe, and the US. Their work has won several international awards, and has been exhibited at leading arts institutions and in significant group exhibitions including the Venice, Beijing, and Korean Biennales.

Further Reference

David Clovers Website, link

About Linked Hybrid (2003–2009), Beijing, China

Architect Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid was one of the most significant architectural projects to rise in Beijing during the period around the city’s 2008 Summer Olympics. It proposes a more urbanistic alternative to the private gated developments seen throughout the city, while also exemplifying Holl’s interests in phenomenology, a mode of architectural thinking that emphasises the sensorial nature and ephemeral qualities of built space.
The 220,000 square-metre complex includes a ring of towers linked by aerial bridges that form a “filmic loop” while accommodating a number of public and semi-public functions. Built around the towers were parks, a school, and a hotel, cinematheque and viewing platforms placed among reflecting pools. Over 600 geothermal wells were installed to help heat and cool the project. As an ideal, Linked Hybrid’s mix of uses was aimed at creating a vibrant and “porous” urban space—begun, like all Holl projects, as a series of watercolour studies, and translated in an interplay of light, colours, overhangs and floating volumes.

About Absolute Tower (2006 – 2012), Mississauga, Canada

Led by Ma Yansong (China, b. 1975), Beijing-based MAD first earned widespread attention in 2006 when it won an international competition to design a condominium tower in Mississauga, near Toronto. Eventually consisting of two highrises, the Absolute Towers exhibit the organic, curvaceous forms that have continued to make MAD one of the most prominent experimental architecture firms in China.

About MAD (China)

Beijing-based MAD is one of China’s most widely recognised, leading-edge contemporary architectural practices. It was founded in 2004 by Ma Yansong, a graduate of the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture who later received his Masters in Architecture from Yale University. Having worked for Zaha Hadid, Ma is known for employing daring and wildly futuristic forms in exploring contemporary interpretations of Eastern notions of nature. His firm often employs conceptual methodologies that can be critical of its current-day Chinese context.

In 2006, MAD became the first Chinese firm of its generation to notably win an international design competition when it was commissioned to build the Absolute Tower, in Mississauga, Ontario, the success of which prompted the addition of a second tower. The firm has been published and exhibited extensively, including at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale. In addition to the Absolute World Towers, its built projects include a museum in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, and the Hutong Bubble 32 in Beijing.

Further Reference

“MAD architects: absolute towers completed”, designboom, 12th Dec, 2012, link

About 2nd Ring Beijing 2049 (2009 – 2011)

2nd Ring Beijing 2049 calls for the transformation of the city’s congested Second Ring Road into a “green lung” by the year 2049, the prospective centennial of the People’s Republic of China. Traffic would be diverted underground, replaced by a linear network of parks and cultural, recreational and athletic facilities. The Second Ring Road follows the former path of Beijing’s historic city walls, which were razed soon after the 1949 establishment of the PRC. Though not explicitly, OPEN's proposal evokes the Chinese architect Liang Sicheng's well-known, but unsuccessful, effort at that time to preserve the walls as a park.

About the OPEN Architecture (China)

OPEN Architecture is a Beijing-based firm founded in 2006 by Li Hu and his wife, Huang Wenjing. A graduate of Tsinghua and Rice universities, Li was previously in charge of the New York architect Steven Holl’s Beijing office, overseeing high-profile projects including the Linked Hybrid (Grand MOMA) in Beijing, the Vanke headquarters in Shenzhen, the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, and Raffles City in Chengdu. At the forefront of its generation of contemporary Chinese practices, OPEN is known for its experimental typologies that promote progressive urbanism and the social and sustainable potential of architecture. Widely published, the firm’s notable projects include the Gehua Youth and Cultural Center in Qinghuangdao, a planned ocean research centre for Tsinghua University, and a forthcoming high school outside Beijing.

About Cold and Warm Bodies (2003/2012)

Cold and Warm Bodies presents multiple juxtapositions of two surreal rooftop scenes in Hong Kong, each shot from various angles and distances. Lacking any clear narrative, the viewer is left to ponder the relationship between urban density and alienation.

About Homes for China (2005/2013)

Homes for China offers a critical reading of the repetitive, upscale residential highrises that dominate the cityscapes of Hong Kong and China. Its title, methodology and magazine format reference Homes for America, the artist Dan Graham’s 1966–1969 analysis of the standardised housing then being built throughout the United States. Transporting Graham’s research from American suburbia to Hong Kong, Homes for China dissects the formulas and tactics used to recalibrate architectural uniformity as mass luxury.

About Homescapes (2006)

A continuation of MAP Office’s Homes for China project, Homescapes overlays sprawling photographs of housing developments with catchphrases borrowed from developers’ sales brochures. Drawing from the imagery and lexicon of real estate marketing, the work point to the sometimes disjunctive ways in which notions of “home” are manufactured and conflated with middle class aspiration.

About Lanwei

Lanwei (“rotten end”) is a series of photographs depicting failed and abandoned buildings that were begun—but never completed—during recent property booms throughout Asia. Existing in a kind of limbo, these empty shells become relics hinting at miscalculation, hubris, and the vagaries of economic systems.

About Nature/Architecture, Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (2013), London, U.K.

In 2013, Sou Fujimoto was awarded the commission for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, a series of temporary structures designed each year by a different well-known architect for Kensington Gardens in London. Fujimoto’s final, built pavilion consisted of a cloud-like grid. However, it was preceded by numerous study models that revealed his well-noted design process and ongoing dialogue with lightness and permeability, complex spatial permutations and, especially, the relationship between architecture, humans and nature.

About Bird’s Nest #3

Iwan Baan is known for revealing the multiple and layered stories of architecture in his images of buildings and cities. This photograph of the Bird’s Nest stadium, taken while it was still under construction for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, shifts attention from that famous structure to the workers who are building it. In this way, Baan gives pause for reflection: largely anonymous, invisible and forgotten, the labourers can be seen watching television, taking a break from erecting an iconic building that is itself being built, in large part, for media consumption.

About Iwan Baan (Netherlands, b. 1975)

Iwan Baan is perhaps the most prominent and sought-after architectural photographer of his generation. Instead of approaching buildings as isolated and detached objects, he established a technique that positions even the most iconic examples of architecture in their human and spatial contexts. Working frequently for architects from Wang Shu and Ma Yansong to OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, and Steven Holl, Baan has, perhaps more than any of his peers, documented the astonishing development of architecture in China, and in other parts of the world, at the turn of the 21st century.

Discussion

Search for other representations of the Bird’s Nest and compare it with this image. What are the similarities and differences? What different stories does each image tell of the same building?

Through his lens, the photographer invites you to look at buildings differently. What are the stories of these construction workers? Who are the other behind-the-scenes people who make buildings like the “Bird’s Nest” possible? Imagine what they think of the building that they are constructing. Does considering their roles make you think about buildings differently?

Putting the focus on different types of audiences, to whom do you think the image of these iconic buildings are “made” for?

Focus on a number of high-profile building projects. Discuss the nature of image-making, and the impact it has on architural practice, nowasdays.

What do you think of the nickname “Bird’s Nest”? What other buildings have nicknames? Can you think of any? How do they help create an image of the building? For example, The Absolute Tower in Case Study 15 was nicknamed "Marilyn Monroe" tower due to its curvaceous, hourglass figure. Think of other buildings with which you can associate with something else.

Further Reference

Iwan Baan Website, Preview of the construction of the National Stadium - The Main Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, link

Karen Burshten, “Top 13 Nicknames for Iconic Buildings”, The Daily Traveller, 18 May, 2012, link

About Guangzhou Opera House #1

Iwan Baan’s architectural photographs approach even the most iconic building as not isolated and detached objects, but as sites of human activity. Baan’s images of two of the most famous examples of contemporary architecture in China – Herzog & de Meuron’s “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing and Zaha Hadid Architects’ Guangzhou Opera House—attest to Baan’s observational acuity, capturing the sometimes disjunctive relationship between architectural ambition and reality.

About Iwan Baan (Netherlands, b. 1975)

Iwan Baan is perhaps the most prominent and sought-after architectural photographer of his generation. Instead of approaching buildings as isolated and detached objects, he established a technique that positions even the most iconic examples of architecture in their human and spatial contexts. Working frequently for architects from Wang Shu and Ma Yansong to OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, and Steven Holl, Baan has, perhaps more than any of his peers, documented the astonishing development of architecture in China, and in other parts of the world, at the turn of the 21st century.

Discussion

Baan has also taken photographs of the same building without the audience. Search for the image and compare the two. Discuss the differences in styles and messages presented. Take a photo of the same building at varying distances with and without people, and then compare the differences.

How do scale and the relation between the human and the building affect the feel of the photograph?

Have you ever considered why photographs of buildings are often devoid of people and human activity? What difference does it make?

Do you prefer the grandeur of the architectural object glorified by the photographic medium, or the real life stories that are associated with the building revealed through the mediated lens of the photographer? What different purposes do these two approaches serve?

Activity

Study the people in the image. What do you suppose these people are thinking? Think of how they might react to the design of the space. Write a script of their thoughts and act it out.

About Exchange Square I, II & III (1981–1985), Hong Kong

Acting as a transportation and circulatory fulcrum for Hong Kong’s Central district, the near-identical commercial towers of Exchange Square I and II exhibit the sculptural geometries for which their architect, Remo Riva of Palmer & Turner, is known. The towers’ symmetry and striated facades are vividly expressed in Riva’s characteristically bold sketches and paintings.

About Hong Kong Shanghai Bank 1994 (1994), Hong Kong

The renowned photographer Andreas Gursky’s image of the HSBC building in Hong Kong inverts that architectural icon by capturing it at night. The innovative structural system that makes the building instantly recognisable becomes lost in the shadows, supplanted by its grid of windows, which are lit from behind to reveal the activities inside. Taken in the large format for which the artist is known, the photograph points to Gursky’s rigorous approach and interests in sites of globalisation.

About Andreas Gursky (Germany, b.1955)

Andrea Gursky is a visual artist who currently lives and works in Dusseldorf, Germany. Gurksy studied photography in Folkwangschule in Essen under Otto Steinert between 1978 and 1981, then at the Kunstakademine Dusseldorf in Germany from 1981 to 1987 under Hilla and Bernd Becher. Andreas Gursky has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at major cultural institutions including “Andreas Gursky” at the Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast (Dusseldorf, 2012), “50 Artists, 50 Years” at the MOMA (New York, 2012), “The Inverted Mirror” at the Guggenheim (Bilbao, 2012), “Postmoderism: Style and Subersion, 1970 to 1990” at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 2012), Venice Biennale in 1990 and in 2004, the Biennale of Sydney in 1996 and 2000. He is exhibiting two solo shows at the National Art Center in Tokyo (2013) and at the National Museum of Art in Osaka (2014).

Discussion

What new perspectives and impressions does this photograph of one of Hong Kong’s iconic buildings provide you? With his play of light and darkness, the photographer distils the building, which is often represented it its iconic skeletal form, to an abstraction that highlights its interior activities. Take photographs of other iconic buildings in your part of the city from unexpected angles or with unusual composition to produce images that differ from the usual representation of the building. Think of what you are emphasising beside the architecture. Are there stories and messages you want to tell others with this image?

About the International Competition for Bastille Opera (1986–1987), Paris, France

Rocco Yim first gained international attention in 1983 when, at the age of 31, he was named one of three first-prize winners in the competition to design the l’Opera de la Bastille in Paris. Fulfilling a desire for a new popular, national opera house, the building was one of then-President Francois Mitterand’s ambitious Grand Projets for remaking the French capital. Its location on the Place de la Bastille, the site where the French Revolution began, was historically significant, as was its intended completion date: the Revolution’s bicentennial. Though a different winning scheme was eventually built, Yim’s proposal deftly called for preserving the area’s ethos by maintaining its scale and radial street pattern while creating a vibrant new public thoroughfare that would cut through the opera complex. A high level of transparency would reveal the facility’s inner workings, engaging visitors and passersby in a spirit of openness.

About Bamboo Pavilion (1999–2000), Berlin, Germany and Hong Kong

Giving an innovative, highly-engineered expression to the traditional Chinese craft of bamboo, the Bamboo Pavilion was a temporary outdoor enclosure built in Berlin for the “Festival of Vision: Hong Kong in Berlin” in 2000.

About Ladders (2006), Venice, Italy

Ladders was included in Hong Kong’s first participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale, in 2006. Exploring architecture as an installation medium by reappropriating common features of Hong Kong’s urban landscape, it consisted of five hundred bamboo ladders painted in black lacquer and manually knotted into a gate-like volume spanned by 30 red neon tubes.

About 258 Caochangdi Studio (1999), Beijing, China

The artist Ai Weiwei is also known for his architectural work, especially in Caochangdi, the area of Beijing that he helped pioneer as an artist community when he moved there in 2000. Beginning with his own home and studio, Ai improvised on the abilities of local construction workers, using their concrete frame and brick infill construction techniques to develop an architectural vocabulary that he has since employed in dozens of buildings throughout the area and elsewhere.

About Hebei Education Publishing House (2000–2004), Hebei, China

Founded in 1993, Atelier FCJZ is the first independent architecture practice to have been established in post-1949 China, with its founder, Yung Ho Chang, known for adapting progressive ideas to China’s particular circumstances. One of the firm’s earliest realised projects, the Hebei Education Publishing House building was designed for a client whose operations required only three storeys, though economic pressures called for additional rental offices, conference and exhibition facilities, a hotel, and restaurants. To house the disparate programmes, Chang divided the building into three relatively independent components, with the client’s publishing house at the top and a range of in-between spaces—including a cafe, art museum and indoor basketball court—open to the public. The project was a significant, large-scale attempt in realising Chang’s vision of "micro-urbanism" by creating an urbanistic condition within a single edifice.

About Sifang Art Museum (2003–2013), Nanjing, China

For the Nanjing Sifang Art Museum, the centrepiece of a larger development with buildings by well-known architects, Steven Holl responded to the surrounding natural landscape by taking cues from the use of parallel perspective in traditional Chinese paintings. The building’s base of bamboo-formed concrete supports a twisting, rectilinear tube that rises and hovers above the ground, its angles creating a play on parallel perspective while helping to frame views.

About Urban Tulou (2005–2008), Guangzhou, China

Constructed in Nanhai, near Guangzhou, the Urban Tulou affordable housing project borrows the circular configuration of the traditional tulou communal dwellings of the Hakka people of southern China. As such, Urbanus’s building offers a community-oriented approach aimed at facilitating social interaction through culturally-rooted, typological reinvention.

About Rebirth Brick (2008 –)

The Rebirth Bricks project started as a response to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province. Developed to assist the rebuilding effort, especially in rural areas, the project allowed for the onsite making of new bricks by mixing debris from collapsed buildings – which had often been of substandard construction – with wheat branches and concrete. In attempting to decentralise the means of production, the project invokes multiple suggestions of renewal that extended beyond its recycling of materials. Since the earthquake, Rebirth Bricks has continued, though using rubble from demolition sites.

About Liu Jiakun (China, b. 1956)

Liu Jiakun is the Founder and Chief Architect at Jiakun Architects. His projects have been selected in world-wide exhibitions including “Chinese Young Architects’ Work Exhibition” in Germany, “Chinese Contemporary Architecture Exhibition” in France, “NAI China Contemporary Architecture”, “International Architecture Exhibition in Russia”, and “International Architecture Exhibition” at the Venice Biennale. He won the Honor Prize of the 7th ARCASIA, Chinese Architecture & Art Prize 2003, Architectural Record Magazine China Awards, Far East Award in Architecture and Architectural Design Award from Architectural Society of China, Audi Arts Design Award. His projects have been published by architectural magazines such as A+U, AV, Area, MADE IN CHINA, and AR. He has lectured at MIT, the Royal Academy of Arts, Palais de Chaillot in Paris and many universities in China.

Discussion

How do we pick up the pieces from ruins resulting from natural disasters? When do homes become ruins? Can we find elements that can help form homes from ruins?

How can architects re-evaluate their roles under unfortunate circumstances such as natural disasters?

Think of other examples of architectural responses to natural or man-made disasters.

Further Reference

Jiakun Architects Website, “Rebirth Brick Proposal”, May 2008, link

OFFICINA ALESSI Website, link

Andrea Chin, "venice architecture biennale 08: 'rebirth brick' in the chinese pavilion", designboom, 15th Sept 2008, link

Richelle db, “liu jiakun: rebirth brick project”, designboom, 12th Dec 2011, link

Building M+: The Museum and Architecture Collection

Welcome to Building M+ Online Learning Platform!

Designed to illustrate the interrelationship and thematic discourse between the exhibited collections in the exhibition, “Building M+: The Museum and Architecture Collection” (10 Jan – 9 Feb, 2014), the online platform serves as a teaching and self-learning tool for those with an architectural enthusiasm.

At the centre, you will find the thematic guides that reference the loosely-organised and overlapping “signposts” in the exhibition, showing the intricate interconnection of the exhibits. As you explore the platform, descriptions of each exhibit can be found by clicking the individual project. 16 focused case-studies, highlighted with thumbnails, contains additional background information, reflective discussion points and extension activities for those who are interested to find out more about the exhibition.

M+, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
Website designed and developed by Studio Hato

About the Exhibition

The fifth in the Mobile M+ exhibition series, “Building M+: The Museum and Architecture Collection” presents a preview of Hong Kong’s new multidisciplinary museum for visual culture, as seen through the lens of architecture. Offering a closer look at the future M+ building, scheduled for completion in late 2017, the exhibition tracks the ongoing development of the building’s design by the renowned Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron, with TFP Farrells and Ove Arup & Partners HK, and for the first time, reveals the other shortlisted proposals from which it was selected in an international competition held last year.

The exhibition also marks the debut of the museum’s growing, and unprecedented, architecture collection, illustrating some of the many approaches that M+ will take in conceptualising, collecting and representing the built environment. We hope that in these ways, “Building M+” will shed light on the important role of architecture—at the museum Museum collections are perpetually evolving, and are never finished nor complete. However, they do have beginnings.

In its first ten months of collecting architecture, M+ has acquired hundreds of architecture-related works to form the first collection of its kind in Asia.

Including drawings, photographs and print and video documentation, along with models, installations, digital animations and other archival materials—many previously unseen—the collection will help uncover, preserve, interpret and revisit the myriad narratives of the 20th- and 21st-century built environment. It will do so from our vantage point in Hong Kong, China and Asia, while linking these diverse geographies, and their histories and futures, with each other and the rest of the world.

By also including works from the museum’s visual art holdings and providing loosely-organised and overlapping “signposts” as thematic guides, this exhibition illustrates some of the museum’s various approaches to conceptualising and collecting architecture. Along the way, we hope it offers insight into the richness of the discipline as an expression of, and vehicle for, cultural aspirations and intellectual pursuits; economic, political and historical forces; social relations and value systems; and the constraints, possibilities and, sometimes, unintended consequences that help shape the world we inhabit. With an initial emphasis on works from post-World War II Hong Kong and contemporary China, as situated within broader global frameworks, we are pleased to present this first look at a collection that will continue to grow in scope and depth in the coming years.