West Kowloon Competition Pavilion opens today

Located in West Kowloon Cultural District waterfront promenade, the West Kowloon Competition Pavilion opens today and will be open to the public for six months.
 

The Pavilion design captures everyday elements fundamental to Hong Kong, embedding and cultivating them within the fabric of an emerging arts and cultural hub. Located at the waterfront promenade, the Pavilion enjoys stunning harbour and sunset views, echoing the environment as part of the fabric in West Kowloon Cultural District.
 

New Office Works won the first WKCDA Young Architects & Designers Competition. Architects Paul Tse Yi-pong and Evelyn Ting Huei-chung, worked closely with WKCDA as Design Advisors to bring their pavilion design to life. 
 

“We were absolutely delighted by the overwhelming response of local young architects and designers to this competition. ‘Growing Up’ by New Office Works stood out from 320 submissions. The aim of this competition was to provide a unique opportunity for emerging architects and designers to showcase their potential. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Sun Fook Kong Construction Limited team for their general support, a jury of leading architects and professionals from Hong Kong and abroad, and all co-organisers for their support. Today we are pleased to open this beautiful pavilion and we encourage members of public to relax and spend some time in the Pavilion.” said Mr Victor Lo, Chair of the competition judging panel.
 

“The design process was really an exercise in close observation of things around us, and how to lend significance to various elements that comprise the city - steps, walkways, the way different roofs shed rainwater, palm trees. We’d like to thank the builders at Sun Fook Kong Construction Limited and the West Kowloon project team for all their hard work in realising this pavilion.” said Ms Evelyn Ting, Co-founder, New Office Works.
 

For more details, please visit https://www.westkowloon.hk/hkyoungarchitects
 

Remarks
 

Hong Kong Young Architects and Designers Competition
The competition asked local architects and designers in the early stages of their careers to think about designing a Temporary Pavilion that promotes sustainability and address economic and natural resources. The selected design is required to offer an inviting and dynamic public space that complements the surrounding landscape and waterfront and enhances visitor experience. In October 2017, a shortlist of three design – Growing Up by New Office Works, Infinity Platform by Zhang Ruizhao, and SkyCamp by EXP+ – were selected from 320 entries and took forward for further development with the support of the Authority before selection of an overall winning design.The winning design was selected by a jury of 10 leading architects and professionals from Hong Kong and abroad: Mr Aric Chen, Curator at Large, Design and Architecture, M+; Mr Marvin Chen, Former President of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects; Prof Nelson Chen, Director of School of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Mr James Corner, Founder and Director of James Corner Field Operations (New York); Mr Sou Fujimoto of Sou Fujimoto Architects (Tokyo); Mr Thomas Heatherwick, Founder of Heatherwick Studio (London); Mr Victor Lo, M+ Board Chairman; Prof Nasrine Seraji, Head of Department of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong; Mr Chris van Duijn, Partner-in-charge of OMA Asia (Hong Kong) Ltd; and Ms Marisa Yiu, Co-founder and Executive Director of Design Trust in Hong Kong.
 

About West Kowloon Cultural District
Located on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong. With a complex of theatres, performance spaces and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances and cultural events, as well as provide 23 hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.
 

Annex
 

Winning design: ‘Growing Up’ by New Office Works (Paul Tse Yi-pong and Evelyn Ting Huei-chung)
Design Statement: Just as the process of growing trees requires good soil, so the process of growing culture requires a strong foundation of collective memories of the city. ‘Growing Up’ captures everyday elements fundamental to Hong Kong, embedding and cultivating them within the fabric of a soon-to-be major arts and cultural centre. While nurseries cultivate plants to be transplanted elsewhere, ‘Growing Up’ transplants fragments of the city to cultivate them within the cultural district.

Paul Tse Yi-pong
Paul Tse is Co-founder of New Office Works (NOW) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prior to NOW, he worked at Adjaye Associates in London as a project lead for various cultural and commercial projects and played a key role in establishing Adjaye’s office in Shanghai. He has also worked at Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) in New York, MAD in Beijing. Paul obtained a Master of Architecture degree from RMIT University in Melbourne and a Master degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he was awarded the Honour Award for Excellence in Design.
 

Evelyn Ting Huei-chung
Evelyn Ting is Co-founder of NOW and a Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. She received her Master of Architecture from MIT and her B.A in Architecture at Columbia University. She was the recipient of two full-tuition merit scholarships during her studies at MIT, and a Council of the Arts grant to build a lightweight pavilion in 2014. She was a teaching assistant for MIT’s Core III design studio, and was part of the curatorial team for the U.S pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale. She has previously worked at Ensamble Studio in Madrid and Approach Architecture Studio in Beijing. An avid writer, she has also worked in an editorial capacity on numerous publications, and has been published in Log, Fulcrum, Hinge, and San Rocco.