The Hong Kong Architecture And Urbanism Centre

The aim of the project is to design a car park and an architecture and urbanism centre that represents the student’s personal vision of what Hong Kong architecture is.

The site, located in Yau Ma Tei, is an old 10-storey car park that includes a public library and offices. The old car park was iconic, but it did not relate to its environment, which included open spaces, such as a community garden and playground, various surrounding buildings and a highway that passed right through the building at the fourth to sixth floor.

CHANGING GRADIENT
The redeveloped building will house the architecture and urbanism centre at the first floor, with five storeys of car parks above it. The highway will now cut through the third and fourth floors.

In reimagining the building, the designer proposes a building that relates and respects its surroundings, from its structure and space to its façade and function. The concept is to design a buffer to represent a changing gradient that leads from the open spaces to the building, emphasising the site’s relation to the city around it.

The first floor is designed with a slight incline, together with a mountain landscape in the interior, to emphasise the gradient concept. This causes the space between floor and ceiling to reduce as one moves deeper to the back of the building. The space function is also designed to move from public to private as one goes from the entrance of the café to the library and exhibition area, and to the lecture room behind.

COLUMN SPACES
Columns are used to create specific spatial qualities in the building. The different-sized columns carve out various defined spaces for different activities and functions.

At the front of the building, the columns are farther apart and made from thicker polished steel. They become thinner, closer together and made of dulled steel, as they progress through the building. The thick columns are 12 metres apart and can accommodate four cars. The normal columns are 6 metres apart for two cars, while the thin columns are 3 metres apart for single parking bays.

The car park floors comprise concrete panels, steel angles and circular glass blocks.

PROJECT DATA
Student Name: Yeung Long Yin
School: Curtin University
Instructor: Sebastian Saint-Jean
Project Name: The Hong Kong Architecture and Urbanism Centre
Concept Title: A Buffer for Representing the Gradient Change from Open Space to Building
Location: Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong
Images: Yeung Long Yin