S KYHIGH C REATIVE P ARTNERS 天比高創作伙伴 S JS W ANCHAI C OM. C ENTRE M ODERNIZATION
AKE BAO DUN
Po Tat Estate, Po Lam Road, N.T., Hong Kong Apr 2002
CA3, Hong Kong Housing Department, HKSAR China State Civil Engg Co.(Phase 3)
Shui On Construction Co. (Phase 5)
SE1, Hong Kong Housing Department, HKSAR
BSE3, Hong Kong Housing Department, HKSAR
HK$ 545 million (phase 3)
HK$ 575 million (phase 5)
[master layout plan]
S CHOOL I MPROVEMENT P ROGRAMME 學校改善
工程計劃
addition of new extension and alteration to existing school block
Yuen Long and Tin Shui Wai area, N.T., Hong Kong
Education & Manpower Bureau, HKSAR
Chows Architects Ltd.
Mitchell, MacFarlane, Brentnall & Partners International Ltd.
Wong & Ouyang (Building Services) Ltd.
In Hong Kong, many schools were designed as a standardized module by Architectural Services Department which offered some functional spaces and provision for students and teachers. Many schools are stylish-less, dull and practically planned without really taki ng into the consideration the quality of which an institutional space should be achieved. However, these standardized-design schools always lacked of any interesting elements and gave a general monotonous and repetitive feeling. Clearly the school would hardly inspire the student’s thinking and help to develop their curiosity or creativity, but encouraged the character-less mode of learning. School Improvement Programme (Final Phase) was a government funded project to add a new annex to all schools, including many standard school in order to create employment in the withered economy after Asian Financial Crisis in early 2000s.
The programme was divided into ASD mode and Self-delivery Mode. ASD mode was generally taken by schools which had no project manager to supervise the whole project. In the case, Architectural Services Department (ASD) would offer project management in order to meet with government requirement. Self-delivery Mode would normally be adopted by school which were owned by some schooling organization. They would like to take up the whole sum of money and spent on their wish based on school’s genuine need.
Similar to other school in this group, we put a double-storey hall at the top levels so that it served as the secondary gathering space for students at higher level whilst the existing hall at ground floor served the students at lower level. For the elevation, pale green and grey, which was found in existing school was used and sharp yellow was chosen as the colour for the staircase core, which was designed as a feature element and new icon for the school.
z-duties
Group 3 (4 schools) ALL-372
HK$ 108 million
China Civil Engineering. Co. Ltd. 22 months june 2005
P341 chiu yang primary school of h.k. S324 sphrc kung yik she secondary school
S367 yuen long lutheran secondary school
S329 shun tak catholic english college detail design, preparation of tender
THE V ENETIAN M ACAO
project type team involved completion location client site area
B.S. consultant landscape design contract sum z-view
casino complex/hotel/conventional centre with landscape area
External work/Facade design/Entrance Buildings
July 2007
Cotai, Macau SAR
Venetian Macao Ltd.
980 000 sq.m.
Aedas (Macau) Ltd.
HKS Architecture ltd.
Hsin Chong Engineering (Macau) ltd.
Ove Arup Partnership
Parsons Brinckerhoff Asia
Urbis Limited
HK$ 2.4 billion
NEW INTERPRETATION OR OLD COPY CAT
Venetian Macao, a world famous project, spent only 2 whole years, non stopping 24-hour-7-day work cycle to complete. To me, It was a real big project but not a great project. In terms of its complexity in coordination and management, communication among clients, co nsultants and contractors is a web-like relationship. Thus, to make the work simple, all working members could make access into an online system called Aconex for sending all correspondence, instruction, e-tender and so. It might not be the best solution to a huge team but was efficient enough for this project.
Design quality was not the main key to this project. mainly worked in an external work and facade team and the task was how o transfer the design from Venetian Las Vega to Macau. But we had never studied the order of Venetian Architecture but instead just standardize some of the detail into different kit-of-parts in order to have a cost and time effective solution to the so-called venetian houses facade. For me, I could not really enjoy much during the design process
[master plan of entrance area]
T HE F ACADES
GFRC can provide a wide variety of complicated features and it was largely used in the feature resemblance in the construction of Venetian house-like facade. Its erection need a strong metal framing backing. In order to reduce the weight of GRC units, most of the bulky items were actually void inside. To make its outlook really similar to aging facade in Venice,.different textured paint can be applied to the GFRC pieces.
R IALTO B RIDGE
The difficulties in designing rialto bridge were to fit different GFRC moulding into the R.C. structure with minimum fixing frame. In order to achieve this, we had to carefully study the inclination, levels and dimensions of bridge structure and make the R.C. structure was just fit with its shape without much tolerance so that all features could fix on the structure accurately.
[rialto bridge elevation]
[palazzo sagredo] [palazzo pappadopoli]
[section] [roof edge details]
T HE C AMPANILE
The key feature of the entrance area, the campanile was designed to sit on a palazzo based (which was a direct copy from Las Vega but not Venice) to provide a access path for the viewing tower. The tower inself had an inclination of 90.3 degree, which made the size of plan dimish in size as it went upper. This unnoticeable angle required a lot of coordination among consultants and increase difficulties in wall facade cladding installation.
[campanile floor plan]
[LEVEL C-01]
[ROOF LEVEL]
[LEVEL C-02]
[LEVEL C-08]
[LEVEL C-20]
[LEVEL C-19]
[LEVEL C-17]
[LEVEL C-03]
retail and urban area revitalization
2011 (expected)
Fashion Island, Upper Paterson Street, 9 Kingston Street, Vancouver & Greenfield Mansion, Food Street Area, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Hang Lung Properties
5200 sq.m.
SLHO & Associates Ltd.
Martin Construction Co. Ltd.
Tysan Construction Co.
HK$ 30 million
The client, Hang Lung Properties, owned all G/F retail shops along 3 streets in Causeway Bay, the shopping heart of Hong Kong. This area, known as Fashion Walk, was a little bit off from the main shopper’s flow. However, due to lack of well-planned retail design, most shops away from the main shopping axis hardly attracted the consumers, which resulted in poor rental revenue and vacant lots.
In Hong Kong, shopping activities have been gradually absorbed into super mall and pleasant street shopping experience was rare. In order to encourage the street shoppers to dive into this forgotten area, we tried to re-brand and design a new image to this area in a way that all the irregularities of different buildings were to be systemized in a same flavour.
0 STRATEGY
STRATEGY 1 ceiling level designing a new ceiling feature to link up the fragments of shops in different streets
After preliminary study , we finally set up the aims with the client on this project:-
“…to raise the overall branding image, connect the disparate properties in the district, attract the right mix of patrons into the area and ultimately attract tenants of premium brand to settle in.”
In order to achieve the aims, our design focuses in 4 main directions. To give a clear identity to this area, LED lighting panels and Aluminium cladding with motif logos were designed as a ceiling feature for the canopies of all buildings along the shopping streets. As LED systems at different buildings could be synchronized to display the same image or pattern, a new dynamic effect would inject new life to the area, in which led the shoppers to explore Fashion Walk area. It also create a special street shopping experience and to link the shops into one identity, analogous to an outdoor shopping mall.
STRATEGY 2 facade layer introduce a double-storey shop concept by using shop divider which improved the grandeur of shops
STRATEGY 3 landscape re-paved the whole pavement with landscape elements to give a uniqueness to the area
STRATEGY 4 new landmark rebrand Hang Lung Centre as the new landmark of this area and divert shoppers to Fashion Walk
1 CEI-LINK(G)
designing different architectural elements at ceiling level to link up the fragments of shops in different streets and re-branding this area with a clear and strong identity. leading the shoppers to less-visited streets
O1
ALUMINIUM CLADDING/ MOTIF LOGO
White Aluminium cladding and interactive LED systems define the clear ceiling band running along all Fashion Walk Properties like a ribbon to give a new sense of identity and to link up the discontinuity of this shopping area. Stainless steel motif logo lighted up by cold cathode give interesting reflection from LED lights.
O2
2 RE-FACADE
creating grand ambience along elevations to upgrade the retail image by introducing vertical elements and designing a new order to allow future shopfronts design to match with the whole area in a harmony way
forming a new landscape fabric at floor level by designing different site furniture / urbanscape elements and repaving the whole area to link up the whole area
DOUBLE STOREY RESIDENTIAL ENTRANCE
As the residential entrances along the facade were not owned by client, we had to negotiate with the Ownership Corporation of the residential block to give permission to install new entrances with double storey design. It was cladded with white crystal glass panel to give a subtle ambience background to the shop front.
O4
ARCADE ENTRANCE/ BACK OF HOUSE AREA
O3 LED LIGHTING PANEL SYSTEM
The system is made up of standard panel installed with 3x3 RGB LED modules, which each represents one pixel of whole display.
It is designed with a software in order that simple patterns or animations would be played on the ceilings and it would offer a dynamic backdrop to the retail properties.
E&M room, exit door and similar BOH area was cladded in hairline finished stainless steel panels due to its ease in maintenance and durability. New side entrance to Fashion Island, similar to the design of residential entrance, was designed as a unique elements to create a sense of welcoming to shopping arcade.
O5
NATRURAL GRANITE STONE PAVING
The whole public walkway outside Fashion Walk area will be paved with greytone granite tiles in order to create a sophisticated ambience which makes a clear contrast to the colourful and dynamic LED lighting at ceiling. As there are lots of underground servicing, 100 x 200 granite blocks are chosen for easy maintenance and high durability. 3 type of granite in different texture and colour are chosen to provide random pattern.
O6
LITTER BIN WITH ASHTRAY
Due to easy maintenance and durability, the rubbish bin was made up of stainless steel. The top of bin is designed as sloping surface to prevent accumulation of rubbish on top. The top part was protruding a little bit outward to have a better weather protection and the front part is installed with a simple lock door for garbage collection. 016
[AWARD]
*HKIA Annual Award 2008 Special Architectural Award for Alteration and Addition Works
*Bronze Award of HKDA Asia Design Award 2009 (Spatial Category: Institutional/Office)
*Silver Award of International Design Awards (IDA) Interior 2011(Institutional)
A & A work in an existing carpark
5/F, Carpark Building, Tin Heng Estate, Tin Shui Wai, N.T., Hong Kong
1250 sq.m.
January 2008/November 2009 (extension)
St. James’ Settlement/Commercial Radio Hong Kong
SLHO & Associates Ltd.
Yan Lee Construction Co. Ltd.
Man Hing Engineering Co. Ltd. (extension)
TTC Consultants Ltd.
Richard Chan & Associates Ltd.
HK$ 10 million
S KYHIGH C REATIVE P ARTNERS
創作伙伴
CREATIVE RE-USE/ADAPTATION
Tin Shui Wai is a satellite town located at the northwestern frontier of Hong Kong and it has a lot of problems: high unemployment rate, juvenile crime, lack of facilities, drugs problems…etc. A NGO, St. James’ Settlement, took the initiative to collaborate with a local radio operator called Commercial Radio Hong Kong to set up a new training and employment program “Skyhigh Creative Partners” (Skyhigh), to reveal the intrinsic talents of these forgotten young people, which can be channeled through the right platform for the creative industry, and if found suitable, even offering job opportunity to work along with the professionals on real projects. Skyhigh will provide multi-media facilities and equipment, including studio, band room, audio-visual aids, computer and software provision. CR will liaise with professionals to introduce the media industries and invite established leaders in such industry to conduct workshops, shar e their working experience, and if found suitable, even offering the opportunity to work along with the professionals on real p rojects.
Tin Shui Wai was built as a residential district mainly of public housing and low cost government subsidized housing. The whole area was connected by a Light Rail System which encouraged the local to use public transport. Due to failure of city planning in early stage, it was planned with standard ratio of carpark provision regardless of generally low average income and the efficient rail netwo rk. And there was a lack of social welfare facilities around the community to cater for need of low-income group. As car ownership percentage was very low, it resulted in a lot of empty carparks in the area for years. To utilize this shorting, it was decided to house Skyhigh at one floor of a disused multi-storey carpark.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
When the brief was first received, the objectives were stated as follows:
1. To encourage young people to express, involve themselves in the community; take initiative to participate in creative industry.
2. To identify their potential in creative industries, further develop their talents into becoming experts in the profession.
3. To provide them with fieldwork practice opportunities.
Creativity is about original ideas, and the ability to see things from a different perspective. We felt that it is only right if the space speaks with the same attitude. Creativity is a mental process involves the generation of new ideas or concepts, or weaving new associations between existing ideas or concepts. It is about challenging the accepted norm, breaking through monotony, thinking out of a box.
Young people today are too often confined by the psychological box they live in, everything is given, and accepted without questioning. In order to develop their latent capabilities and abilities, enhance their skills, and most important of all, having the right state of mind, they need to be encouraged to breakthrough from these constraints.
The Idea – Thinking out of a box
The idea is to provide opportunity for the youth to think out of the box, to establish their self-confidence, to develop their creativity and to build a meaningful career as the ultimate
Architectural ExpressionBreakthrough the Grid
The existing site (car park) possesses a monotonous grid and a solemn tone; the expression of the façade treatment and form of each activity area is crucial in breaking through this “box”.
[layout plan]
THINKING OUT OF A MONOTONOUS BOX
Programmatically, the challenge was how to create a stimulating space that can accommodate a group of people, offering new environment to teach, learn and produce creative works, yet not bored them with the typical institutional settings, in order to inject this area with new life.
Our design is about challenging the accepted norm, breaking through the given monotony and to give the abandoned space/users with new life and meaning.
The arrangement of the plan and circulation is based on our initial idea, the users’ daily operation and existing physical constraints due to low headroom.
The first hurdle to overcome is to make arrangements of functional areas which has effect on the building services, and that include the a/c plantroom, and lavatories.
The existing site (car park) possesses a monotonous grid and a solemn tone; the expression of the façade treatment and form of each activity area is crucial in breaking through these. All the columns are absorbed behind slanted walls, and the low ceilings were shielded with a layer of skin which functions as lighting but also a surface to define the space underneath.
The original grid has been made disappeared. The entrance, reception, as well as the alignment of the perimeter walls were decided in response to the main access to the site as it must deliver impact while retain an element of surprise by not revealing all.
Essentially a deep plan, daylight became extremely precious in most areas. Walls, when connected to rooms on the perimeter, were opened wherever possible with transparent glazing so that the daylight can still be diffused into the central area. The way how the arrangement of opening was decided was partly due to the consideration of provision of daylighting while provide a reasonable degree of privacy.
[entrance]
ENVELOPE WITHIN
Through under the protection of the roof, the enclosure is still exposed to external elements, therefore the design of the envelope still requires the consideration of water protection.
The entrance, reception, as well as the alignment of the perimeter walls were also twisted a cloned copy and superimposed that onto the original form. Two superimposed elements came together formed an interesting dynamic elements which seemed to explode and shake itself to produce the power to break through the monotonous grid setting.
Spatially, through this twist, all columns are virtually absorbed into the spaces or shielded by the architectural features and create a more spacious room like open office and seminar rooms. Once inside the Workshop, the users cannot see any columns, which creates a strong contrast with the outside in regular grid.
[reception]
[control room]
[offices]
INTERACTIVE LEARNING SPACE
Other than the usual seminar space provided with live broadcast/recording studios and control rooms, the client requested for some informal space where it can operate as cluster, where the instructor can have a closer working relationship with the apprentice. A hexagonal shape was designed to meet such requirement. Each hexagon contains a different program such as music making,, animation production, graphic and visual art design. Plexiglas were used and installed at both skirting and privacy barrier to make it “float” above the floor as if it is levitating off the ground. Brainstorming areas were introduced as in-between spaces to provide sufficient space for creative thinking and group discussions in a less formal environment.
LOCKER
Identical but unique was implementation of the two rows of floating lockers. Constructed with 2 colour plastics, each is suspended by tension cables and facing a different direction, mimicking the many possibilities opened to a youngsters at different stage of their respective lives. These lockers also serve as a physical but not visual barrier to divert the traffic circulation and minimize disturbance to the hexagonal areas. We were also trying to question the meaning and relationship of a wall, a corridor, and storage entities. Can they not be the same but serve different functions at the same time?
CEILING
The ceiling treatment plays an important role due to the low headroom within the Centre. A hexagon module made with perforated metal was designed to visually screen off the low headroom and the rigid ceiling beams. And functioning differ from a traditional false ceiling, these hexagonal modules become light features and hide away the true height of the ceiling, yet offering added depth visually.
The hexagonal ceiling pattern was also used to define the teaching spaces, provide light and to cover the enormous building service ducts and existing pipes.
[magazine rack]
[lockers]
[music station]
WEAVING WANCHAI
St. James’ Settlement (SJS) was founded as a club for children in 1949. The club was originally operated in the temple of Northern King in Stone Nullah Lane, Wanchai. In 1960s, it started to extend its service group to teenagers, the elderly and those with mental health problems. Rooted in Wanchai, St. James’ has a close and deep relationship with the neighbourhoods for more than 50 years It is now one of the main NGO operating in Wanchai, which provides various services to different age groups.
SJS Wanchai Community Centre is one of the important indoor communal space in Wanchai. It is also the largest nongovernmental Centre funded by SWD in Hong Kong. In view of its unique character, the client requested to have a design not only to solve the existing functional and spatial problem, but also to provide the Centre with a new image closely linked with Wanchai. In order to allow more participations from the public on the design of renovation for the Community Centre, we also took part in seminar, presentation and workshop to communicate with the public so as to assist our understanding on their need and desire to the Centre.
Weaving Wanchai is the main idea for the design concept as it means to connect the Centre with Wanchai and its people in different dimension. Weaving is a textile craft in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced to form a fabric or cloth. It also symbolise the strong links made up by different small units, the people.
When the brief was first received, the objectives were stated as follows:
1. To abstract the image of Wanchai, which link up the history of SJS with the neighbourhood
2. To allow flexibility in the use of spaces so as to fa ciliate the different operation of Center from time to time as well as to allow daily intercourse among different age groups.
3. To allow public participation in the future to personalise their space by changing some elements.
FLEXIBILITY IN SPACE
The space is try to represent the neighbourhood of Wanchai and maintain it as flexible as possible while having a distinctive character so that the users can immediately have a sense of belonging when entering.
Leading from the entrance, it is the main unpartitioned interactive communal space where allows different daily activities,including children play area, TV corner, news reading space and game area, to be taken place at different corners. It aims to mix different users so as to enhance interaction among the neighbours. At times, its configuration can be changed to fit with the use of some special events or functions. A round-shaped reception counter marks the new heart of the centre in order to increase the efficiency on operation and supervision.
Passing the reception, there is a semi-open oval-shaped children library, which is located between 2 enclosed offices for the social workers. The full-height curved bookshelves hold not only children’s readers, but also some art displays, models, sculptures or framed photos. In case of large function, the library can also be an extension of the interactive communal space.
At the deep end of the centre, two multi-function rooms are interconnected by a movable partition. They provide spaces for activities or class for small groups, which requires some privacy.
WANCHAI ATMOSPHERE
The choice of materials is something that you can see everyday in Wanchai. The entrance portal is made up of zinc letter box, which functioned as suggestion box or leaflet holders. The bare surface allows users to draw on the pattern on their wishes so as to strengthen their sense of belongings to the Centre. An old roller-shutter is also designed as the door of second hand furniture corner.
The custom-made ceiling system is one that allows the suspension of ‘directed objects, representing the ever-changing impression of a vibrant community. The idea is taken from the concept of weaving and the units are arranged to form different patterns that can be operated by the lighting. The users are encouraged to hang picture, small ornament or other creativity to add in different atmosphere to the space from time to time.
Opposite to the reception, it stands a special design display wall taking the form of abstraction of Wanchai map. The wall is to exhibit some Wanchai artefacts or antique collected from the local community and it allows the users to re-read the Wanchai image in another layer.
master planning design
Qinqxiu District, Nanning, Guangxi Province, China
Jan 2013 (design)
Zhuhai Yupei New World investment Co. Ltd.
SRT (S&P) Architects Ltd
Commercial complex, villa houses, high-rise residential
266,667 m 2
600,000 m 2 (Phase 1)
FUTURE GREEN CITY
The site possesses very strong natural characters, which situates inside a steep valley full of greenery. In order to keep its original charm, the first idea to develop the project brief is to design a sustainable city to merge with the nature. Moreover, due to its close proximity to the universities, youngsters are expected to be the major target group in the future so that the architecture should carry a sense of energy and youthfulness. Therefore, our design concept for the Master Planning is to create a Sustainable City as a ‘Green Valley Hub’.
青 GREEN
means sustainability and environmental friendly. It matches well with the image and ideology of Nanning, which is known as ‘the Green City of China’. Green also means young and clearly harmonize with the New developed area as well as the young people living here.
谷 VALLEY
represents the relationship with site. By utilizing the slopes, the buildings are grown from the site and fit well with the terrain, so as to create a staggering order for the building mass. Hence, most of residential units can face with a view without any physical blockage.
CULTURAL ARTEFACT
In order to strengthen the bonding with the local context, our idea is to distill and extract the unique cultural symbols and connotations of traditional Guangxi community and re-interpret them with a new design language, so that the traditional culture can be injected with new meaning and inspiration. After detail study of the local culture, two cultural artefacts, Zhuang Jin (Local Embroidered Textiles) and Embroidered Lucky Ball are selected and further conceptualized as the design methodology in master planning design.
Embroidered Ball ]
坊 HUB
is a focus to collect the power of the Youth, allowing the confluence of different cultures, sport and activities into this region. Through distilling the local heritage, it aims to create new contemporary shopping spaces for Nanning.
[Zhuang Jin]
H OT S PRING V ILLA IN L AKE BAO DUN
master planning and architectural design
Wangfu Town, Yingde City, Guangdong Province, China 2015 (Phase 1)
Guangdong Baodunhu Ecological Tourism Development Co. Ltd
SRT (S&P) Architects Ltd spa villa houses, clubhouse, high-rise apartments, Serviced Apartments 160,000 m
[TRANSMUTATION]
trans•mute (tranz’mju:t,tra nz-,-ns-)
v. trans•mut•ed, trans•mut•ing, trans•mutes v.tr. To change from one form, nature, substance, or state into another; transform v.intr. To undergo transmutation.
It is more often than that we find a project site with no noteworthy historical attractions, nor landscape of extraordinary scenic value, but it may be famed with some unique cultural artifacts that can inspire the design conception.
TRANSMUTATION is to change such cultural artifact from its literal form to an architectural expression.
CULTURAL ARTEFACT
The site is located next to Lake Baodun in Wangfu town, Yingde City in Guangdong Province, which is within the 2-hour travel radius of Pearl River Delta. It was once a historical city, however not too many historical artifacts remained till this day, hence lacking glitter as a tourist attraction location.
Yingde is a place perfect for tea growing and its tea culture dates back for more than 1200 years and Yingde is reputed as one of the top three locations in the world to grow black tea. Ying stone, widely used landscape’s element in Chinese gardens and miniature gardens, is again one of natural resource found on the Ying Mountain, 25 km east of Wangfu Town. The quarry industry accounts for one-third of the local GDP, hence, Yingde is also named as the homeland of Ying Stone. Without a doubt, Ying Stone and Yingde Red Tea are the valuable intangible cultural heritages of this area. This strong cultural symbol and connotation of Yingde provide us with the direction for our project’s design conception.
The master planning concept was generated from the connotation of bio-physical structure of the tea leaf. The site, itself, with 2 curvy shore lines along the lakefront, resembled the overlapping of 2 tea leaves and it symbolically laid down the basics for traffic and transportation planning. Tea leaf is longitudinal in shape with venation of pinnate-netted pattern. The veins arise pinnately from a single midrib and split into veinlets. These, in turn, very much resembles a development’s vehicular and pedestrian’s circulation pattern.
By mutation, we borrowed the pattern of leaf venation and used it in our planning. The site was divided into 4 zones: a green buffer with medium-rise residential tower on the west, a resort hotel and themed commercial complex at far north, rental villa zone with clubhouse in the centre and the villas zone on the south. There are two villa zones (rental and sales) that took shape from the form of the tea leaf venation both in planning and architecture.
In the central zone, the tea leaf venation is interpreted as the network of waterways intended for swimming, and the theme is being picked up as vehicular circulation system in the south zone. Both the waterways and the vehicular circulatory system provide the vitality and connectivity for the development and hence serve as the life-line of the community very much like the venation of the tea leaf.
MATERIAL
In order to fabricate a true tea culture and mood, we transmuted the elements and essence of Southeast Asian vernacular architecture to the villa houses design. Southeast Asian architecture is known for its harmonious combination of different natural materials such as wood, bamboo and stone. It does not aim for extravagancy but attempt to create an affinity to nature, very much in line with the mood and atmosphere of the tea culture and palate. Natural local material that resemble the light brown colour of the black tea leaves, are used for the villa houses including sandstone and timber and painted in earth tone colours to harmonize with the environment. The roof eaves, projecting windows, screens, balcony and sundecks are all made of or finished with wood. Open roof decks or big balconies are fitted with wood trellises and planted with tea shrubs. Door number plates and entrance portal stones are made from Ying stones to give an architectural style unique and belonging to that locality.
材 質 。 【 】 【 】 功 能 。
PROGRAMME
With a view to promote the tea culture and Ying Stone of the Yingde culture, the façade of the the commercial complex in the north zone are finished in polished Ying Stones. A small museum dedicated to the exhibition of Ying Stones and tea culture are built inside the commercial complex to educate the public about the heritage of this area. Various size of tea houses are dotted within the sites for the convenience of the visitors.
Hot Spring Spa Villa and Residence in Lake Baodun
FORM
While key buildings like the clubhouse, resort hotel, commercial centre and spa clubhouse are scattered at different locations on the site, they adopted the same tea leaf concept in architectural language to form an architectural dialogue that links and unifies the whole project. The hotspring spa clubhouse as an example has an area of 1200 m 2, with one main floor and one sub-basement floor in a configuration resembling the overlapping of three leafshaped spaces accommodating different functions: lobby, catering and conference. A big leaf-shaped vaulted roof is lifted about 3 metres above the flat roof of the clubhouse and it provides a huge ventilated air gap and insulation layer that helps to cool down the enclosed space below. Any heat-island effect generated by the buildings’ microclimate can be reduced by the moving air current and hence reduce the air conditioning load of the building.
[TRANS-MUTATION]
Wangfu town is quite well linked transportation-wise with other main cities including Yingde, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Dongguan within Guangdong Province. It takes less than 2 hours driving to reach the site, a desirable feature for either holiday-making or as a weekend holiday home. The project is targeted for people who desire for a change of lifestyle away from the concrete jungle of their daily lives, truly looking for a transmutation in lifestyle to be close to nature and much healthier for the body and mind.
Yuecheng, Deqing County, Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China
May 2014
Zhaoqin Hengsheng Industrial investment Co. Ltd.
SRT (S&P) Architects Ltd
Entrance buildings, shops, sculptural park and themed garden 24,377 m 2 3,454 m
A NATIONAL HERITAGE
Dragon Mother (or Lung Mu) Temple is a national protected heritage building and cultural relic. It was first built about 2000 years ago, restored and rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. On auspicious days, a peak of over 50,000 visitors at any one time has been recorded in recent years.
Architecture is not grand but its impressive entrance portal, sculptured walls and pillars, main temple hall, dressing quarters, stone gazebos and the Dragon Mother’s grave instill a mystical simplicity to this classical representation of Lingnan Architecture.
NEW LIFE TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
The major features of the new complex include the main Dragon Mother Square, the cultural street, shops, the exhibition hall, visitors’ centre, the reconfigured ceremonial entrance to old Dragon Mother Temple, complimenting and forming an organically integrated whole with the original temple complex.
To design an auxiliary facility covering 30,000m 2 to the northeast of this magnificent heritage architecture and cultural way of life is a challenge. Functionally the new complex is to serve all the needs of the visitors and to blend in with the architecture and culture yet not to overpower the main temple.
[floor plan of entrance building] [section]
INHERITANCE OF LINGNAN CULTURE
The Cultural Park is not only functioned a sociable space for leisure tourism and celebration activities, but also take up an important role in inheritance of Lingnan culture in the contemporary context through a rational redevelopment programme and to educate public about the value of Lingnan architecture.
To achieve this, all building materials, including the green brick, roof files, eaves moulding, were sourced locally and recycled from old buildings. And we also studied the logic and rationales behind the details and style of Lingnan architecture, so we can apply the same principles to the building technology or detail treatment.
[main elevation of entrance building] [side elevation]
A PROCESS OF TRANS FUSION
trans•fuse (trans-fyooz )
tr.v. trans•fused, trans•fus•ing, trans•fus•es
1. To pour (something) out of one vessel into another.
2. To cause to be instilled or imparted.
3. To diffuse through; permeate.
4. [Medicine ]To administer a transfusion of or to.
Not all projects are blessed with a site of such scenic beauty that it already qualifies as a tourist attraction. For a tourism real estate development to become successful, we need to identity and extract its intrinsic value and distinguished qualities, and then through creative design, we strengthen the site’s inherent attributes to satisfy and fulfill the aspirations of the end-users.
Our first design concept is to instill external elements of value through creative design to enhance the intrinsic value of what is already present and existing – a process of TRANSFUSION.
[TRANS-]
Literally, the prefix ‘TRANS’ originated from the Latin word ‘trans’ with a meaning of ‘across, through, beyond’, whereas for the word of ‘transfusion’, ‘trans‘takes the meaning of ‘through’. The initial inspiration of the master planning and design comes from the natural beauty of the pristine water bodies. As a concept, we let the flowing river does the site planning for us - to ‘TRANS’-the land. The main stream of the river runs roughly from the northwest to the southeast ‘through’ the site and naturally ‘TRANS’ the land into a bigger Western parcel and a smaller Eastern parcel, forming natural land boundaries that we can designate different functions. Functions and program-wise we need to put our water, forest and hot spring resource to good use as design elements for each land parcel so that we can have a project that is attractive to the end-users in providing them with what they desire of a high quality retreat.
Great emphasis is placed on respect for people and the environment and to create a harmonious balance of life style and living environment for the end-users respecting and keeping as much of that was existing untouched.
LEGEND
Hotel and Enterprise Clubhouse
Villa House Area
Spa pools
Residential zone
Golf Course
Liuzu Cultural Centre
Tea Plantation Farm
Science & Technology Exhibition Area
Water Wonderland
Family Ranch
Pristine Forest Reserve with cycling track
Orchard
Boat Pier
Horse riding hill and Racecourse
Technology Education Zone
Botanical Garden
Supporting Facilities for Sport Zone
Refuls Colletion Point/Power Station
Sewage Treatment Plant
In between the West land parcel and the East land parcel, is a small peninsular and a piece of flat land flanked by the river and served by an access road from the project entrance. This area is designated as Phase 1 of the project. The peninsula and a small hill to its north is easily accessible from the main Country Road, hence the area is designated as the entry point and main focus of project where most of the main functions and activities happen. The area include an entrance plaza, a riverside mall, a grand resort hotel, a hot spring and spa clubhouse, cooperate clubhouses, and clusters of spa villas. Being the image-giver of the project, Phase 1 is a showcase to prospective investors and visitors, and to foster support for the continuous growth of the whole development.
[‘-FUSION’]
We studied the design of some European medieval cities, to understand their arrangement, space, scale, edge, texture and formulated all those findings. We aim to transfuse the spirit, mood and essence that a medieval town possesses into an Order, Setting, Scale and Space, that we can realize on the site so that the design is in harmony with the land.
{ZONING X PATTERN }
The traditional planning concept of medieval town consists of three these elements: castle + village + marketplace+ manor. One can see that this planning concept is reflected in the whole development of this project. The whole site can be roughly divided into 3 parts: more hilly terrain on the north, plateau on the south and a small triangular pocket of flat land to the west by the riverside.
{BIGNESS X CASTLE }
The Castle was the symbol for nobility and power, and where it was situated on high ground, became the town’s landmark and seat of focus and attention. The massing for the Castle was important because by its sheer size, it captured people’s vista irrespective from which direction. The building mass of the hotel which represent an area of roughly 20,000 m2 inevitably becomes the landmark of the site, both visually and functionally. It accommodates all functions that serve and fulfill the needs of the holiday-makers such as borderless pool, KTV, massage centre, catering services, banquet hall as well as that for business travelers such as business centre and convention centre. The hotel is built on a hill and it stretches from the mid-levels all the way to the hilltop, offering good provisions for any vertical traffic. In order to reduce the perception of its huge building massing and not to look too imposing on the surrounding environment, the hotel floor plates are planned to be formed by more numerous but smaller massing pieces, so that the floors may be progressively set back at each level creating landscape decking and green roof opportunities at the same time. This configuration also enable each floor to have the best view out, much better provisions for natural lighting and natural ventilation, and internal space is enhanced by a multi-storey atrium, all these features will ensure a truly enjoyable environment for the holiday-makers being constantly in close vicinity to the greenery outside
{OPENESS X MARKET }
Usually located near the periphery of the town, the Market Place served as the meeting point for local villagers and visitors. Hence it was also the town’s window where one sees the market place as being the big melting pot of different people and culture. In this project, we transfused the meaning of a market place into the Commercial Plaza design – which functions both as a reception space for visitors as well as a communal area for special activities. It needs to be friendly and open to serve its multi-purpose functions, and carry the holiday and festive mood so as to condition the new comers into such a frame of mind. The architectural metaphor used was the buildings are laid out in the form of welcoming arms and embracing visitors to enter the plaza gate from a smaller plaza and space, featured with water fountains, into the openness of big plaza blessed with a 360º unrestricted view of natural terrains and a golf course across the river. This different layering of spatial feeling and vista instill a pleasant feeling of anticipation and element of surprise. Functionwise, the commercial plaza is a fusion of relaxation and congregation. It houses sales centre, shopping mall, restaurants and golf clubhouse to meet consumption needs of different people for different purposes. They all nonetheless command an uncompromising view of the golf course and wilderness beyond thus maximizing the use of natural resources. To save on site excavation work, the two-storey commercial plazas are approachable from both levels meeting environmental criteria and favorable condition for second storey business operations.
{CLOSENESS X VILLAGE }
The most fundamental component of any medieval town should be the village houses, which at a glance look very much alike but in fact there are differences. They nonetheless skillfully and creatively adopt similar architectural language, such as chimneys, sundecks, eaves, and balconies, and invariably use local materials, with earthy color and textures coming from the natural materials being used, such as stone, masonry and wood. The eclectic formation of building clusters give pleasant surprises on spatial effect and view and instill character. This common language in architectural form and disposition induce mental and psychological dialogue and reinforce the inhabitants’ sense of belonging and identity with the community that they form a part. This thinking of what a human habitat should be like is carried to the design of the villas zones. There are two type of villa house, the stand-alone detached houses that stretch out in a linear fashion along the rivers’ east bank and row townhouses that form clusters behind the detached houses. As the townhouses sit on higher ground, and being staggered, there is no compromise on vista. The detached houses are planned to have higher individual privacy and guaranteed unobstructed view of river. Whereas the townhouses are planned in clusters, each cluster has its own private access and spatial hierachy. To further strengthen this feeling of affinity, an irregular-shaped scenic waterway is designed to link up most of the backyards of the villa houses, so that the inhabitants are provided not only with swimming and recreational enjoyment of the waterway but to lead a life style not very different from the medieval concept of “small town, big community”.
{PRIVATIZED X MANOR }
Manors are again a basic component unit of society in the feudal system of medieval Europe, where a country is under the rule of a Monarch; small towns may be under their own independent administration prescribed by a Lord. A manor can be seen as a politically independent entity of its own, which owned farmland, forecourts, chapel and manor house and serf settlements; hence manor houses were often located at farther distance from the village. Building on this concept of the Manor, the Corporate Clubhouses can be interpreted as an independent smaller entity within the bigger town community. They are managed solely by the owner and their design can be tailor-made according to the owner’s wishes. Scattered over a hill overlooking the commercial plaza and connected by a private winding hillside road, each Corporate Clubhouse is built on a lot with varied shape and size, and at different height levels on the hill. All the Corporate Clubhouse premises have prestigious-looking entrance gates and landscaped front yards; a spacious private garden areas to receive guests as well as private enclaves for personal leisure and recreational activities. The architectural design of the Clubhouses allow owners’ freedom for expression on corporate image and style. The Clubhouses are equipped with a full variety of functions including reception, catering and recreational facilities, corporate culture exhibition hall, and numerous deluxe suites which offered fantastic views of the natural terrain outside. Other than a communal spa pool, each guest suite is equipped with an outdoor hotspring pool for full enjoyment and relaxation in total privacy and in touch with nature.
scope of service location project area
project completion client architect main contractor contract sum
F A & A work to a new Child Care Centre
2/F, Shun Lee Estate, Kowloon Hong Kong
595 m 2
Jan 2020 (unfinished by MC)
S.K.H. St. Christopher’s Home Child Care Centre
3mm Studio Ltd
BTB Construction Co. Ltd.
HK$ 6 million
S CH K IDDLE S QUARE
In view of growing needs and the developmental stage of infants and children, the client is granted by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to operate an Aided Standalone Child Care Center (SCHCCC) with 92 places for child under 6 years old on site. Their objective is to provide day care for children in a safe, nurturing, stimulating and learning environment to enhance their growth and development. The theme “Natural World” is applied in the centre which includes a variety of care-giving, play, exploratory and learning activities to meet various developmental needs of the children.
GROWTH IN NATURE
As the site is located in the low floor of an existing old Public housing estate, the layout is subdivided into 8 linear rectangles which are linked by a long corridor at the centre, with a low ceiling height. In order to deal with existing site constraint, a open large square is inapplicable in this site. In order to meet with the client’s need and objective, we then divide the site into 3 zones in a sequence from most public to most private, and arranges the spaces from the most active ones to most passive one. Right after the main entrance and exception, it is the most active and noisy area, the Big Muscle Area, which can formed an indoor amphitheatre with rainbow-coloured cushion. It also creates the main function room in the centre where most big events would be held. Next the Big Muscle Area, it comes to several Play and Dine areas, where small group activities would be held. Each area has its different theme. The last zone is the most quiet area and a door is added to separated it from the rest. The area is known as the dormitory for the infants and child. In response to the Natural World theme, the whole centre is designed mainly with wood and soft green colour to give a sense of the nature.
A SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS PROJECT
COVID-19 has caused suspension of many businesses in Hong Kong. A large portion of visually impaired persons working as masseurs encountered severe reduction in working hours and unemployment as their industry faced frequent lockdowns and reduced customers.
Therefore, Our client Blind Union launched “Better Tomorrow Massage Coupon” in April 2020 in order to help a group of visually impaired masseurs with urgent financial security. With the sponsorhip sought from Social Welfare Department, the first social enterprise cafe combining massage and coffee has been established in Summer 2021.
RELAX/REFRESH/RECHARGE
“YAU” is a pun in Cantonese which symbolizes freeing the customers from worries. Enjoy a coffee and a massage altogether for rest and rewind and then keep going!
YAU CAFE not only provides job opportunities to visually impaired people, but also build up an incluusive platform to demonstrate their abilities to the public, so as to continue the self-help and mutual-help spirit among the visually impaired group in Hong Kong.
CALM / RELAX / NATURAL TOUCH
Designed to deliver a calm and relax atmosphere for its customers, light tone texture paint and a timber structure installation are combined with subtle, yet eye-catching floor pattern with concrete and aged brass, to carve out and emphasize the volume of the interior.
TEA HOUSE AS COMMUNITY MAGNET
To enjoy massage, a higher level privacy is expected from customers. But it seems to be contradict to another function of this space: cafe activities, which tends to be more public and open. In order to solve these 2 different privacy zones, a big wooden tea house is designed for massage activite, with movable wooden-panels installed in-between to subdivide into 3 box spaces. Each of such space can be separated from the cafe space by translucent cloth curtain, which allow certainly privacy inside the box but also keep spatially connecting to the main dining space. If the Tea House is totally opened up, it can function as a flexible space for small stage for small performance, exhibition or a lift-up reading space, etc.
SOMETHING ABOUT ZENO YU
I am a local-born, local-studying and local-practising Architect in Hong Kong. Graduated from Master of Architecture in the University of Hong Kong in 1999, In 2001, I was registered as an Architect under Architect Registration Ordinance (ARB) in Hong Kong and joined Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) as a Full Member. Since then, I have been working in different-sized architectural practices in Hong Kong and dealing with various scale local and China projects, both design and management, ranging from residential, educational, commercial refurbishment, A&A work, community projects and themed buildings in casino.
In order to strengthen my expertise, I went to London to study a Master course in MA Architecture, Cultural Identities and Globalization offered by the University of Westminster in 2010 and graduated with a Distinction honour.
I am a travelholic. I love travelling in lesser-known places and meeting different cultures and people. I also love movies, music, working-out and reading.
I am a cheerful, creative and adventurous person. Work smart and Play hard!
