· HONG KONG SCIENCE PARK’S ‘GIFT’ DESIGN IDEAS COMPETITION ·

Award: Professional Group Winner

This competition calls for an iconic architecture within Hong Kong Science Park which promotes green building design and encourage a sustainable lifestyle. The competition site falls within Phase 3 development, where tech start-ups and SMEs can cultivate sustainable businesses. Each building inside Phase 3 were designed to showcase latest green technologies and sustainable building designs, targeting on zero carbon emission standard.

Instead of emphasizing on latest green technologies and advanced green building designs, like its surrounding buildings, our proposal goes back to the fundamental meaning of ‘green design’. We believe the basic principle of green design should be an awareness to nature, an appreciation to the beauty of natural forces, and a connection between man-made and nature by allowing the building to merge and grow with nature.

We decided to build by enhancing rather than replacing nature. Our proposal starts with an imagination of the best scenario for this piece of land by simply having the site fully covered with natural vegetation, in other words, without building forms. Therefore, instead of putting in two building blocks, one being the first gateway building and the other being future annex building, we decided to maintain as close to such best scenario by lifting the land up to form a ‘landscape’ which rises from ground and fill the whole sloping roof surface with almost 100% vegetation.

The design also enhances cross ventilation and permeability. The main corridors and lift lobbies are designed to be open-sided. The sloping roof allows wind travels smoothly across the site. Because of the spaciousness of the surroundings, these main areas are still receiving sufficient daylight without being overheated. Each main floor is equipped with open terrace deck for enjoying the sun and the nice view.