A brief background on the Growing Up pavilion – it is the winning entry of the Hong Kong Young Architects & Designers Competition, which was launched by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority for the first time back in April 2017. The pavilion is situated in the nursery where trees are being grown for both the future waterfront park and urban greenery throughout the city. Our proposal is in a sense a direct response to this site context, transplanting everyday urban and architectural elements from the city to the park.
Project Name: Growing Up Pavilion
Architecture Firm: New Office Works
Contact: info@newofficeworks.com
Website: www.newofficeworks.com
Instagram: instagram.com/newofficeworks
Facebook: facebook.com/newofficeworks
Completion Year: 2019
Gross Built Area: 240 sqm
Project Location: West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWJWC0xffoo&t
Status: Built
Project Credits
Client: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
Architecture: New Office Works (Paul Tse, Evelyn Ting) Structural Consultant (Competition Stage 2):
BuroHappold Engineering (Victoria Janssens, Christoph Tritschler) Roof Cladding Consultant (Competition Stage 2): Front Inc. (Evan Levelle) Structural Consultant (Technical Design): Simon Pickard Main Contractor: Sun Fook Kong Construction Limited Photography: Xu Liang Leon (except otherwise stated)
Growing Up – Pavilion for the West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong
|General Information
Project Description
Just as the process of growing trees requires good soil, so the process of growing culture requires a strong foundation of collective memories of the city. Growing Up captures everyday elements fundamental to Hong Kong, embedding and cultivating them within the fabric of a soon-to-be major arts and cultural centre. A large sloped roof is supported by a series of timber columns that, like the seedlings in the adjacent nursery park, grow from an intimate human scale to the harbour scale. A stepped landscape below, reminiscent of the city’s hilly topography, provides both seating and stage for different activities. “The design process was really an exercise in close observation of things around us, and how to lend significance to various elements that comprise the city – steps, walkways, the way different roofs shed rainwater, palm trees,” said Ms Evelyn Ting, Co-founder of New Office Works.
Despite its simple volume, each angle of the pavilion reveals a different sense of porosity, materiality, and scale. The north and south elevations are characterized by transparency, the surrounding trees a seamless backdrop between the pavilion’s slender columns. However, as one moves around and the columns overlap in perspective, the pavilion edge becomes more solid and frames the waterfront view. The pavilion appears the most dense from the east, the structure of the steps forming an intricate screen to accentuate the transition from park to waterfront. In contrast, an open gathering space and distinct profile emerges from the harbour.
NEW OFFICE WORKS
NEW OFFICE WORKS is an architectural design and research office founded in 2014 and based in Hong Kong. Their approach to design seeks to build upon the vocabulary accumulated “then” while satisfying the needs and desires of “now.” The office was awarded 1st prize in the inaugural Hong Kong Young Architects & Designers Competition for a pavilion in the West Kowloon Cultural District, and 2nd prize in the Busan Opera House Competition. The officeworks across all scales, from architecture and art installations to writing and exhibitions.
PAUL TSE is cofounder of New Office Works and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prior to NOW, he worked at Adjaye Associates in London as a project lead for various cultural and commercial projects and played a key role in establishing Adjaye Shanghai. He has also worked at Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) in New York, MAD in Beijing, and taught Advanced Design Studio at Columbia University. He received his Master of Architecture from RMIT University in Melbourne, and his Master in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University GSAPP, where he was awarded the Honor Award for Excellence in Design.
EVELYN TING is cofounder of New Office Works and a Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. She has previously worked at Knox Bhavan Architects in London, Ensamble Studio in Madrid, and Approach Architecture Studio in Beijing. An avid writer, she has also worked in an editorial capacity on numerous architecture publications, and has been published in Log, Fulcrum, Hinge, and San Rocco. She received her Master of Architecture from MIT, where she was the recipient of two full-tuition merit scholarships, and her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University. She was a teaching assistant for MIT’s Graduate Core Design Studio and was part of the curatorial team for the U.S pavilion at the 14th Venice Biennale.
