New Office Works’ “Growing Up” Pavilion Opened on West Kowloon Waterfront
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The Hong Kong-based architectural studio New Office Works recently unveiled a pavilion structure with a sloped roof and slender columns, within Hong Kong’s West Kowloon cultural district. Named “Growing Up,” the pavilion offers a covered seating arNew Office Works’ “Growing Up” Pavilion Opened on West Kowloon Waterfront
The Hong Kong-based architectural studio New Office Works recently unveiled a pavilion structure with a sloped roof and slender columns, within Hong Kong’s West Kowloon cultural district. Named “Growing Up,” the pavilion offers a covered seating area in the rapidly developing locality and is set alongside Hong Kong’s much-famed M+ Pavilion. The project’s name derives from the idea that the city is cultivating its culture, and is also a reference to the future of the newly-planted greenery of neighboring Nursery Park. “Just as the process of growing trees requires good soil, so does 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 soon-to-be major arts and cultural center,” explains the architecture studio. Describing the elements of the pavilion’s design and explaining the philosophy that guided their designing, the studio states, “A large sloped roof is supported by a series of timber columns that, like the seedlings in the adjacent nursery park, grow from an intimate human scale to the harbor scale. A stepped landscape below, reminiscent of the city’s hilly topography, provides both seating and stage for different activities.” The pavilion has been built to host markets, small concerts, and dance performances. According to New Office Works, despite its simple volume, each angle of the pavilion reveals a different sense of porosity, materiality, and scale. Its angular but modest form aims to present different narratives through each elevation. As explained by the studio, “The north and south elevations are characterized by transparency, the surrounding trees a seamless backdrop between the pavilion’s slender columns. However, as one move around and the columns overlap in perspective, the pavilion edge becomes more solid and frames the waterfront view. The pavilion appears the densest from the east, the structure of the steps forming an intricate screen to accentuate the transition from park to the waterfront. In contrast, an open gathering space and distinct profile emerge from the harbor.” Inside, the stepped seating area contrasts against the verticality of the structure. Like the exterior topography, it offers a viewing platform to the harbor and the surrounding neighborhood. The pavilion also highlights rain as a constant of the city through both the construction and aesthetic of its roof structure. The roof structure, which is similar to the system of traditional Chinese roof tiles, enables a natural draining system designed to adapt to Hong Kong’s wetter seasons. As rightly pointed out by the studio, with the aesthetic diversity in its design, “the pavilion’s multifaceted character truly reflects the rich diversity of Hong Kong.” Evelyn Ting, who co-founded New Office Works in 2014 with Paul Tse, designed the pavilion to reference familiar local features like the narrow alleys, scaffolding, and steps. Located in the arts and culture district of West Kowloon, the project was the winner of the inaugural Hong Kong Young Architects & Designers competition to design a temporary pavilion on the prominent waterfront and forms part of the West Kowloon district masterplan by Foster + Partners, which will contain 17 new cultural venues. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more