Project: Convertion of the Wan Chai Market into an Anglican Christian Church

A TRUEST RECORD OF LEARNING PROCESS

ISSUE 3

NOVEMBER 2008

ARCHI. DESIGN PROJECT EXPRESS ARCHITECTURE + LIGHTING

still standing after 150 years......

WAN CHAI MARKET

Now is being converted into an Anglican Christian Church

W

an Chai Market was constructed in 1937. It is a Grade III Historical Building located at No.264 Queen’s Road East and Stone Nullah Lane in Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island.

Its architectural design was “influenced by Streamline Moderne (also known as Streamlined Moderne or Art Moderne) architecture, a popular style of building in the 1930s. It is often erroneously referred as a Bauhaus-style building.” (source: en.wikipedia.org)

General Background of Wan Chai Market How did the market develope throughout theses years?

During 1850s, the old Wan Chai Market was located at the junction of Wan Chai Road and Queen’s Road East.It was the earliest indoor market in the history of Hong Kong. At that period of time, the Queen’s Road was the only road running between eastern and western part of island.

In 1937s, the old market was being demolished, it was because the market was small but the demand was increasing. As a result, a new and large market building was being built to replace the old one in the same year.

Until 1995s, the former Land development Corporation abtained an approval form to Town Planning Board for a proposed larger-scale commercial redevelopment project with a private developer. At the same time, the issue of whether the market should be kept was a contraversal topic to the society.

Unfortunately, the Wan Chai Market closed down at 31 August 2008 and it served its function for about 71 years. It has been replaced its position by the latest Wan Chai Market as shown next. (at the Zenith, right next to the former market) How did the site relate to the surrounding?

In 1940s, the new Wan Chai Market (the red spot shown in the map below), a building style of “Streamlined Moderne”, had already been in place opposite to the old one.

During the Second World War (1940-1945), the Japanese troop occupied the basement of Wan Chai Market for the storage of corpses during the war period.

This ended until the war was over.

In 1961s, in order to increase the ability for competing with other market placed in the district, a renovation was then being carried out for improving its factilities and environment.

In 1966s, 2 external reinforced concrete staricases were built for connecting the roofgarden, but there are no direct connection with the interior of the market. http://issuu.com/studentwu/docs/protfolio_church

Due to the special historical background, Wan Chai, one of the district in Hong Kong, is an interesting zone. By years of change and development, some unique characteristics are being developed in Wan Chai.

From the three graphs on the right hand side, they represented different kinds of characteristic. The top one, the middle one and the bottom one are building height, building age and building type respectively. Each of them can tell its own story by itself. When they are putting together, another story will be shown as those graphs are interrelated to each others.

From the graphs, it shows that the newer the buildings, the taller the buildings are. It is because the building construction method is improved and the increase of the population when time goes by.

Wan Chai is keeping on developing, The increasing needs for communal facitilities results in most of them were built at the same period of time, according to the Town Planning Board.

The diagrams on the left hand side are showing the land form and the pattern of the site.

Streets formed grids first and then buildings grew within the void come afterwards.

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ARCHI. DESIGN PROJECT EXPRESS

Wan Chai is located at the coastal area on the Hong Kong Island, therefore coastal climate mainly occurs in this area.

Wan Chai is one of the busiest district in Hong Kong, many people are ceaseless coming and going to Wan Chai everyday. There are several means of transportation to travel there.

Private cars is one type of transport to arrive there, so beside those private car parks, government also provides public car parks along some of the streets. This is shown in the map beside.

Apart from private cars, mass transportation is another main method.

This includes MTR and bus.

MTR is one of the most important transportation system in Hong Kong. NOISE: High Noise Level because To travel towards the site, of Vehicle Stops at Bus Stops, after taking the MTR, people need to walk along Up-ward Slop and Traffic Lights the streets before reaching the site. This is shown by yellow arrows on the map.

Bus is another way to travel to the site. Although travelling by bus is slower than that by MTR, it can shorten the distance on walking as there is a bus stop right next to the site.

Since there are different means of transportation, noise will then be generated. From the noise distribution graph, it shows how the noise affecting the site.

WAN CHAI Wind would affect the natural ventilation of the site, which will also affect the design of a building.

The diagrams below show how wind travels around the site.

This diagram shows the wind path in the day time, which wind blows from the sea towards the land.

The flow of vehicles and stops of vehicles

greenery

What are the means of transport?

VEGETATION: Leisure area with most

How does the micro-climate affect the site?

Three different view points of the building Area with view available to the Market

What are the structural characteristics of the Wan Chai Market?

This diagram shows the wind path at the night time, which wind blows from the land back towards the sea.

Beside wind path diagram, sun path diagram is also impoartant for the design. It affects both inside and outside experiences of the building.

Summer morning

Winter morning

Summer afternoon

Winter afternoon

Summer evening

Winter evening

Both upper and lower diagrams show how the sun orientation and the surrounding affect the lighting quality of the site. For the upper one, it shows in elevation view, and for the lower one, it shows in bird’s eye view.

Summer morning

Summer afternoon Summer evening

Winter morning

Winter afternoon

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Wan Chai Market was constructed by reinforeced concrete.

Its columns and beams formed a framing system on a rotated grid. Columns are distributed along the grid.

There are two forms of columns, cylindrical and rectangular. For the cylindrical one, they are located at the circulation route of the market, and for the rectangular one, they are distorted to merge the walls and arranged more clossly at those curved walls.

In order to enhance the natural ventilation of the market, windows are all located at the top of each of the level, and also there are split levels in the market, which air keeps on travelling through the market according to the physical property of air.

The entrance lobby of the market is tall and the height of the room inside is shorter than that of the lobby, this also enhances the natural ventilation by increasing the velocity of the wind passing through the market.

On the facade of the Wan Chai Market, fins can be found there.

These fins are in the form of horizontal cantilevered slabs, which emphasize the horizontality of the whole building form.

Moreover, these fins are spanned so long to the air. This shows their main function, which act as a sun shading device. It is because the windows of the market are so tall and wide, long fins can prevent too much sun light reaching the inside of the market.

Last but not the least, the appearance of fins also acts as an evidence of why the Wan Chai Market is so famous in Hong Kong.

Winter evening

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A TRUEST RECORD OF LEARNING PROCESS

Design Process Wan Chai Market is a historical building, to charge its function from a market to a church, there is a need for exploring what building conservation is. In managing built heritage, it always refer to ‘conservation’.

Conservation is a general overall concept to embrace a wide range of intervention activities carried out on heritage resources, which included either artifacts or architecture or environments, aimed at sustaining the physical fabric with cultural significance.

As the whole image of the Wan Chai Market, included the facade, the structural elements and the interior space, not only be its important historical background, but also is an essential element in that particular place, Wan Chai.

Structure

Basement

1st Floor

2nd Floor

By studying both of the architectural issue (the structural elements, the plans, the sections and the elevation) and also the social issue, it is important to keep everything of the Wan Chai Market, so the conservation work should be as minimum as possible in order to keep the whole building simply and neat after m a market into a church.

Section

West Elevation (Facing Wan Chai Road)

South Elevation (Facing Queen’s Road) Schedule of Accommodation - Church hall Active: Activity Zone

- Group assembly area - Stage/screen area in front - Able to accommodate 200 worshippers

- 4 Prayer Rooms

- For individual prayer/meditation

Centre: Church Zone

- 4 Activity Rooms

- For small group gatherings

- Reading Area

Quiescent: Reading Zone

Original Main Entrance

- Storage of religious books - Comfortable seating - Natural lighting desirable

- Entrance Lobby - Administration Office with pantry - Priest’s Quarter - with toilet and pantry

- Storage Room - Toilets (Male/Female) - M/E services, circulation, etc.

Back Elevation (Facing Retaining Wall) Design Concept From the schedule of accommodation, those functions can be mainly grouped into three parts. They are church zone, active zone and quiescent zone.

After studying the site analysis, there are several factors controlling the design. First of all, the market is located at the crossroads side, noise would be an important issue that affecting the orientation of the functions. As shown in the graph, most of the noise sources mainly appear along the Queen’s Road East, however, there is not much found along the Wan Chai Road. As a result, quiescent zone would be oriented towards the Wan Chai Road which the noise there does not affect the users inside. For the active zone, it would be oriented towards the Queen’s Road East.

Moreover, as the main space, church zone need to be peacful, and it would be oriented towards the garden which located behind the building.

Finally, as the original main entrance is so significant to the building and the surrounding, so it will still be remained its function after converting to church.

Finalized Design Plans

Basement Level - There are 3 prayer rooms - 2 prayer rooms for group and 1 for individual - Business Area - Book store with a cafe beside - Toilets and Store Room

Ground Floor Level - Church hall is at the upper centre (200 seats).

- Administration office is located on the left hand side of the church hall and they are connected.

- One activity room is located on the right hand side of the church hall, it can be connected with the church hall if Mass is going to be held.

First Floor Level - Another activity room is located at this level.

- Priest’s quarter is located right above the office which the priests can access to the church and office more convenient way - Reading Area (Newspaper and Magazine)

Second Floor Level - Reading area (general religion books) with a cyber station - One activity room connected with an open space

Third Floor Level - Reading area (bible reading) with a study room, which users may have discussion inside - Activity Room

Roof Level - A green opened area which provides a space for users to relax there

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ARCHI. DESIGN PROJECT EXPRESS

Finalized Design

West Elevation (Facing Wan Chai Road)

Above: Examples of green roofs and the green roof that designed for the building.

Below: How the stack effect be taken place inside the church hall.

South Elevation (Facing Queen’s Road)

Back Elevation (Facing Retaining Wall)

These three diagrams are representing elevation (the above one) and sections (both left and right one) of the building after the conversion.

In fact, as the whole facade is an essential element of the whole building, so there will be an limited modification on it in order to keep its original image.

From the analysis, there are mainly two levels inside the building and the height of each level is nearly 6 meters. In order to increase the usable floor area, each of the original level will be sub-divided into two.

For the church hall, as the feeling of holy spirit is very important, besides lighting quality, a extra high room level is required as well, so the original second level will be subtracted. After the conversion, the church Greensward hall will have a height of 11 meters. For such Plant Growth Layer a high ceiling level, by giving openings on the top of Filtration Layer the ceiling, stack effect will be taken place inside the Drainage Layer PVC Drainage Layer church. Stack effect is the movement of air into and Waterproofing Layer out of a building. Since all of the openings are located Anti Puncture Layer on the top part of the church hall, stack effect occurs Concrete Structure Layer in a more effective manner. The diagram located on the left hand side shows how the stack effect occurs inside the church hall.

Nowadays, environmental protection is a hot topic around the world and this issue is also included in architecture.

In this project, as the original roof of the building is concrete, which always be heated up easily by sun A typical green roof structure light. This kind of heat can be easily transfered into the inside of the building, which increases the temperature inside. This will increase the energy needed to cool down the place. In order to decrease the energy consumed to cool down the space inside, a green roof is recommended. A green roof also known as “living roofs,” which there are several purposes that the green roof can provide for a building, such as absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, and helping to decrease the urban air temperature and combat the heat island effect.

By introducing a green roof for this building, not only can it benefit the inside, but also the surrounding of the building, the society.

Drawings and Photographs The images that located above are perspective drawings. 1. The image of the entrance of the church hall after the convertion.

2. The main entrance of the whole Anglican Christian Church.

3. This image shows the approach to the church hall after entering the building.

4. The inside of one of the prayers’ rooms (for group praying).

The photographs the located below are the images of the models that made during the project. 1.Study model for studying the structure of the building. 2. The finishing product of the building after convertion. 3. Four activity rooms are grouped together in the active zone. 4&5. Library that located in quiescent zone, there are totally four different levels for different users. 5. The entrance of the church hall.

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