Both a nod to the past and a look towards the future, the Hong Kong Electric Company Headquarters’ modern design seamlessly blends into its unique mountain site.
The mid-level site overlooking Hong Kong Harbour inspires the building’s double-faced composition, indicative of an earth-sky relationship. Behind the building, the solid limestone façade folds symmetrically at each end in response to the mountainside. In the front, the glass face curves to provide additional viewpoints of the city below. Within the glass façade, an asymmetrical series of elements portrays activities inside the building. Two and three-story conference rooms are stacked over one another, defining the body of the figure. These rooms occupy an interstitial space created by a small interior concave glass wall and the larger convex glass facade. Peeling away the reflective coating of the outer glass reveals the presence of these rooms and marks the lobby below.
Engaged in an arching stainless steel roof, an observatory lantern crowns the vertical composition. A depression in the facade for an eighth-floor balcony generates the horizontal counterpoint. Drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese garden architecture, a civic plaza and garden wall bring the surrounding landscape into the site. The garden wall, with its integrated fountain design, provides a synthetic backdrop for a picturesque allée of trees.
