Community College, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hung Hom, China

Schools

Architects: Wang Weijen Architecture

Location: Hung Hom, China
Year: 2009
Client: 香港理工大学
Architecture Design Partner: AD+RG

As the new campus for the Hong Kong community college, this 20 stories-high urban campus located near the KCRC railway terminal at Hung Hum seeks for alternative ways to approach the podium and tower typology. The podium is articulated into three levels of public terraces cascading along the main pedestrian path. It also branches out through the sky bridge connecting the surrounding campus buildings.

The tower design is an opposition against the typical model of vertical campus buildings dominated by vertical lift cores and the layout of classrooms around it. It looks into possibilities of creating a series of greenery void as sky gardens, and an alternative circulation system connecting these sky plazas all the way up. Four strategic voids are created vertically and each became activity centers for four levels of classrooms. The library is arranged at the center of the tower as the new datum level to redistribute the movement patterns. The façade articulation of the tower also reflects the pattern of the four-level module and solid-void rhythm.