URBAN REGENERATION
The hotel clearly contrasts the old and new
The Comix Homebase project saw 10 pre-war tenement houses in Wan Chai converted into an arts and cultural centre dedicated to the promotion of Hong Kong’s comics and animation culture
“I t ’s a statement that historical ly sensi t ive buildings like this one can be done and can be successful”
The Waterhouse, Shanghai Location: Shanghai Date: 2010 Architects: Neri & Hu (Shanghai)
Comix Homebase, Hong Kong Location: Hong Kong Date: 2013 Architects: Aedas (Hong Kong)
To say that Hong Kong is intensively built would be an understatement. Over the past century, most sites in central neighbourhoods like Wan Chai have been redeveloped four or even five times. Barely 1,000 structures remain from before World War II. In 2009, the city’s Urban Renewal Authority was tasked with renovating a cluster of 10 shophouses built in 1910 and converting them into the Comix Homebase, a cultural hub for Hong Kong’s venerable comics industry that opened in 2013. The shophouses were in a rough condition — the timber structure had begun to rot — and Hong Kong’s strict building codes required the provision of new lifts and fire escapes. Architects from the Hong Kong office of Aedas responded by
100
CLADGLOBAL.COM
demolishing half of the most dilapidated structures to create a public plaza sheltered by the shophouse façades, while retaining the more intact structures. Existing timber purlins were reused and incorporated into modern structural frames, which gives the shophouses the appearance of retaining their original timber-framed tiled roofs. Original timber staircases were also conserved, with hidden structural support and fire protection to bring them up to present-day building standards. In the new plaza, a green wall made up of interchangeable planter boxes recall the potted plants that commonly filled the balconies of shophouses, while also creating space to hang art installations and display screens.
When Shanghai-based architects Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu completed this 19-room boutique hotel project in 2010, they actually lost some major hotel clients who felt the work was too avant-garde. No matter: the project has since won international acclaim, including the 2011 World Interior of the Year Award. Its success comes from an imaginative relationship between a 1930s-era warehouse and a new structure designed by Neri and Hu. The architects stripped the old interiors to reveal stained, weathered concrete, which they paired with rusted Corten steel doors and support beams.
A similar industrial palette was employed in the new structure, but with sleeker, more polished materials. Intriguingly, the building’s layout was structured in a way that allows for the hotel’s private areas to be glimpsed from public areas; a blurring of lines that Neri says was inspired by the “voyeuristic” experience of walking among Shanghai’s fast-disappearing laneway houses. “To me, it’s not a stylistic concept,” said Neri. “It’s a statement that historically sensitive buildings like this can be done and be successful.”
CLAD mag 2015 ISSUE 2
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132