Celebrating 25 Years of Hong Kong Architecture

17. 10月 2022

All photographs by John Hill/World-Architects

World-Architects stopped by Beyond Territories – Made . Make . Making, the traveling exhibition that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

A commissioned piece in the gallery entrance is Thomas CHUNG's "City Beyond Territories: Multiple Hong Kong," which is based on a book by Chung of the same name and consists of a large image collaging Hong Kong's natural features, vertical buildings, and movement systems.

Across from the collage is a video that features interviews with architects, conversations with the exhibition curators, and four episodes of "Faceted City," which combines facades of Hong Kong buildings into mesmerizing kaleidoscopes, as seen here.

The third element of "City Beyond Territories" is a work of calligraphy by Raymond CHAN based on a poem by Thomas CHUNG; the negative space of the calligraphy intentionally resembles Victoria Harbour.

The most eye-catching installation in the gallery space is a small room, or cavaedium, made by Henderson Land Group called "Future-proof."

Defined by four columnar vitrines, mirrored floor and ceiling, and a large illuminated wall, the installation describes the design for The Henderson, a 36-story tower in Hong Kong's CBD designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

With models, text, renderings, and additional materials stored in drawers, the Henderson display embodies the theme of the exhibition.

Next to "Future-proof" is a circular table covering a half-century of public housing in Hong Kong, from the establishment of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) in 1953 to the present.

"Housing for Millions" by HA features a timeline along the perimeter of the table, accompanied by dozens — if not hundreds — of tabbed displays that can be pulled down for visitors to learn about individual housing projects.

A few of the displays in "Housing for Millions" are lifted to reveal floor plans or, in this case, images that express the desire for sustainable building in Hong Kong's efforts to build 300,000 housing units over the next 30 years.

Green space is the focus of "Power of 4 x 4" by Cocoon Architecture and Afloat Studio, which features a grid of 16 models — sections of cities with buildings in gray...

...and the "void space" in literal green, showing the "growth of plants through spaces in between."

Last is "Street Scene Dream" by Picture Rhythm Studios, a portion of a considerably larger model that is a backdrop for ever-changing projections that are meant to serve "as a time lapse of the evolution of the city streets of Hong Kong."