#071 83 KING LAM STREET

• #071 83 KING LAM STREET •

Silver Award, Best Futura Project, MIPIM Asia 2021

Architectural design of a podium hosting a set of twin towers. The podium consists of a centrepiece of cascading parametric landscape of steps which winds its way up and down, left and right, connecting each level of the separated podium as a public space. Under the pair of cascading steps is a two tier reconfigurable and multifunction auditorium.

CONTEXT & SITE

COLLECTIVE’s King Lam Street project is located in Lai Chi Kok, an old factory and industrial district situated at the northwestern end of Kowloon in Hong Kong. In the last decades as Hong Kong’s economy has transitioned from industrial and manufacturing to finance, logistics, and tertiary sectors, the area’s industrial buildings has transformed into commercial properties. It has become a hub for various creative and fashion industries, who are attracted to the area’s readily available open plan and larger office spaces, with affordable rent yet located just a few MTR stops away from the city center.

The project consists of a major podium for a set of new commercial office twin towers situated in the old industrial heartland of Lai Chi Kok along King Lam Street. The building site is nestled between King Lam Street on the south and the rising lush green hillside of Lion’s Rock Country Park to the north. As one transitions from the busy Lai Chi Kok’s subway exits and main roads towards the site; the area begins to have the feel of a quieter and calmer cul-de-sac, where traffic is reduced and the green mountain backdrop starts to be visible.

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A PIXELATED LANDSCAPE

The podium is made up of 3 levels and comprises four main program components: 1) commercial retail and F&B shops, 2) two main office lobby entrances for each of the twin towers, 3) a reconfigurable and multifunction auditorium, and finally 4) a large continuous green landscape which extends from the second floor down to the ground level. Forming the centerpiece of all this is a cascading landscape of steps – the ‘feature steps’ – which rhythmically winds its way up and down, left and right, connecting each level of the separated podium. Its parametric surface is expressed as a series of pixelated steps with varying heights, thereby creating a landscape of stairs, seats, and planters. At the top of the podium, the pixelated steps conglomerate into another landscape of tree planters and green walls, blending into the site’s rising green back-drop. In addition to effectively linking the base of the two towers, this fabricated landscape, and its curated greenery is meant to be an intentional extension of the natural green mountainside into the city’s urban fabric.

TWO TIER RECONFIGURABLE AUDITORIUM

Inserted below the Feature Steps are two connected interior auditorium spaces – the upper and lower auditorium. The two spaces may be used as a single event space or partitioned to be used separately. The seats of the upper auditorium can also be retracted, transforming the room into a multipurpose open plan, thereby offering an event space as an additional amenity to office tenants. Architecturally, the auditorium space is distinguished by a unique stepped ceiling of varying heights, geometrically reflecting the parametric and pixelated nature of the exterior feature steps above.

Altogether, a series of generous and unique spaces are created, offering visitors, office tenants, and the public new interior and exterior community spaces within this former industrial neighborhood.