Hong Kong – #2 Vertical Mixed Use

The holy grail of mixed use development must be hidden somewhere in Hong Kong, the idea that most streets in the city have shops on the ground floor and other uses above to bring vitality is one of the many reason people visit this amazing city.

The reason I took this picture is because it demonstrate vertical mixed use in a more accidental / unplanned way.

We have restaurant on the ground floor, a boutique on the first, book shop on the second and a nail bar on the third floor!

I particularly like the idea that this happened in an old city block and seems to happen in an organic manner.

Hong Kong – #1 Extreme Neon Signs

西洋菜街 Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon

I think this picture pretty much sums up one of the main characteristics of Hong Kong – neon signs. I do not recall any other cities who have neon signs to such extreme, including Tokyo, where I visited a few years ago.

Whereas historic European cities / streets such as Regent Street in London will have strict rules about the size, location and materials on retail shop signs, there appears to be no rules in Hong Kong. However, there is a certain beauty to this chaos with the juxtaposition of high rise buildings in close proximity, a high concentration of pedestrian flow, together with these oversize neon signs.

Blogs about Hong Kong

Bus Stops in Mong Kok

I got back from Hong Kong yesterday, having spent three weeks there to visit friends and relatives, together with a side trip to Thailand.

During my stay, I managed to took some interesting photos and they gave me an idea to talk about my observation / feeling towards this amazing city. I was born in Hong Kong and  spent my childhood there, it certainly is a fascinating city so watch this space for my future posts.

PRINTEDArchitecture + Fashion T-Shirt Competition

 

Back in February, Angela Brady, the president of the RIBA launched a T-shirt competition called #PRINTEDarchitecture in conjunction with London Fashion Week.

The brief calls for a design to ‘Celebrate Great Architecture’, with 5 short-listed designs to be printed and for sale at the RIBA, all profits will go towards the RIBA Student Fund.

My design above, The Lloyd’s of London building, by Richard Rogers has been chosen as one of the 5 short-listed design.

After the announcement, I felt really proud that my small contribution will goes towards an honourable cause.

The Open Office

I was extremely lucky to be accepted as a volunteer to participate in The Open Office, organised by We Made That, at The Architecture Foundation to carry out research on Neighbourhood Plan as a result of The Localism Act 2011 and the newly approved National Planning Policy Framework.

A specific area and a planning theme will be explored every week and I was involved in looking at the creation of a Neighbourhood Plan for the Somers Town, an area behind Euston Station.

National Skills Academy – The Back Stage Centre, Purfleet

Back in 2008 when I was still working for DEGW, we have been asked to look at designing a new Skills Academy building in Purfleet, Thurrock for the Learning and Skills Council.

The purpose of the building is for students to acquire the necessary skills for the theatre / performance industry, as at present, the only way you can get into the industry is to do apprenticeship, but it is notoriously difficult to get a job as theatres / production companies want to employ people with experience, but you can’t get experience unless you have a job – the Catch 22 situation.

The building consist on a big steel box as the main performance space, sitting at the back close to the Channel Tunnel railway, with offices, classrooms and spill out space locating on the first floor, cantilevered out from the ground floor that looks like a slots floating above the south facing walled garden in the foreground.

an early concept 3D perspective

Obviously, with the world financial crisis, the project was put on hold, but we managed to get a broad agreement with the Planners from Thurrock Council before finishing the RIBA Stage C/D report.

Our client subsequently use our plans and worked with Gibberd and Kier, under a D&B contract to procure the building. It finally opened its door in October 2012 and the head of operation of the building, our main point of contact has kindly agreed to show the old DEGW design team the finished building.

Having walked around the building, we all feel a sense of pride as the finish building is pretty close to the design that we spent weeks debating within the office, including the brise soleil shading system to counter a south facing façade, the performance space with multi-levels access, the informal meeting space on the first floor.

While we architects are suffering in the current economic climate, this is a good reminder why I do what I am doing and becoming an architect in the first place.

Why so serious?….

News of a new building designed by architect Zaha Hadid in Beijing, China being copied has made headlines in the social media, with several re-tweets.

* Both images are courtesy of Dezeen.com

The comments sections make interesting reading, from the simple ‘Shame on you!’ to questioning the craftmanship of Chinese builders.

However, the very idea of imitating a building seems to be a sensitive subject and regarded as unacceptable behaviour, but I do wonder if it is because it is happening in China, as one reader comment on the fact that the Zaha proposal looks similar to another proposal in the Netherland.

I am never a fan of imitation, as stated in my previous post on protecting design ideas, however, it seems we all have different standards when it comes to the acceptance of imitation. It seems we are quite comfortable to buy an Ikea stool or chair that is a copy of the expensive original, it is also acceptable to buy an Android mobile phone, that clearly is a copy of the Apple iOS design.

However, when it comes to the design of a building, the architects / designers among us will condemn anything that resemble an original design.

Double standard or what?

A question about protecting design ideas

The big news this weekend is that a US court has asked Samsung to pay Apple Inc $1bn in compensation for infringing their design patent.

You can see at the bottom of the page from the BBC news that reaction have been divided. Some are extremely skeptical about the motive from Apple, some argued that Apple has became a Microsoft of the old, too big and using bully tatics to close off competition.

I have been a Mac user for over 20 years, back in the days when they are on the brink of bankruptcy in the 90s, it is interesting to see the transformation of the company from being a small niche player to become the most valuable company in the world. I was as amazed as everyone with their first iPhone when it was launched in 2007, but regardless of whether Apple is a big or small company, I think it is important to protect the intellectural property that one person / company has invested.

To use an architectural project as an example, if you have spent months to develop the design of a new building, working out all the relationship between the structure and the internal spaces, negotiating with the local authority to gain their apporval, publish it in the architectural press, only to find out 6 months later that someone else has use your design on a site close by with slight changes to the facade detail, you wouldn’t be too pleased about that, would you?

I am all up for competition and would like other companies to push Apple and other players to innovate these technology. I was quite impressed with Microsoft’s take on their tablet idea, the Metro interface, it has a similar feel with the any tablet computer out there in the market, but they have a completely different take on the software within the computer.

Imitation may be the best form of flattery, but it doesn’t drive innovation among the competition.

A question about protecting design idea

The big news this weekend is that a US court has asked Samsung to pay Apple Inc $1bn in compensation for infringing their design patent.

You can see at the bottom of the page from the BBC news that reaction have been divided. Some are extremely skeptical about the motive from Apple, some argued that Apple has became a Microsoft of the old, too big and using bully tatics to close off competition.

I have been a Mac user for over 20 years, back in the days when they are on the brink of bankruptcy in the 90s, it is interesting to see the transformation of the company from being a small niche player to become the most valuable company in the world. I was as amazed as everyone with their first iPhone when it was launched in 1997, but regardless of whether Apple is a big or small company, I think it is important to protect the intellectural property that one person / company has invested.

To use an architectural project as an example, if you have spent months to develop the design of a new building, working out all the relationship between the structure and the internal spaces, negotiating with the local authority to gain their apporval, publish it in the architectural press, only to find out 6 months later that someone else has use your design on a site close by with slight changes to the facade detail, you wouldn’t be too pleased about that, would you?

I am all up for competition and would like other companies to push Apple and other players to innovate these technology. I was quite impressed with Microsoft’s take on their tablet idea, the Metro interface, it has a similar feel with the any tablet computer out there in the market, but they have a completely different take on the software within the computer.

Imitation may be the best form of flattery, but it doesn’t drive innovation among the competition.

Opportunity or Threat to the High Street?

I realised it has been a while since I last write on my blog. There is no excuse other than blaming the summer holiday, Olympics and the performance of Team GB that capture the imagination of the British public.

Now that the big event of the summer has passed, I am planning to make a more regular contribution and here is the first entry.

The Telegraph is reporting Amazon.co.uk plan to deliver customers’ parcels to local cornershops and newsagents around the country. The doomsayers will predict that this is yet another nail in the coffin for our High Street retailers as it will wipe out the competition.

While I am not a retail expert, but you can see this development either as a threat or an opportunity. Instead of competing with Amazon head on, why not try to set up complimentary services / businesses to cash in on this opportunity? Imagined you are a butcher or a florist in the High Street, maybe you can make special arrangement with the cornershop owner so the customers can pick up their flower bouquet or the specially prepared Sunday Roast?

Think outside the box and reinvent the business model.

 

* Image courtesy of jaqian