Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kok (opened in 1998) - both by English architect Norman Foster, in Late-Modern high-tech
style - as well as IM Pei's soaring symphony of triangular geometry that is the Bank of Ch-
ina Tower.
For more on Hong Kong's contemporary architecture, pick up a copy of the illustrated
pocket guide
Skylines Hong Kong
, by Peter Moss (2006), or the more specialist
Hong Kong:
A Guide to Recent Architecture
(1998), by Andrew Yeoh and Juanita Cheung.
Modernism
Bank of China Buildings (Central)
International Finance Centre (Central)
Hongkong & Shanghai Bank Building (Central)
Hong Kong International Airport (Lantau)
Distinctively Urban Vistas
For thrill-seekers, a seemingly ordinary tram ride across the northern shore of Hong Kong
Island often feels more like an impossible hurtle through an endless canyon of high-rises.
Indeed, similar psycho-geography can be experienced in much of urban Hong Kong. While
the bulk of the buildings here may be uninspired office and apartment blocks sprouting
cheek-by-jowl throughout the territory, there are perverse spectacles to be found as various
forms of the built environment routinely challenge conventional notions of scale and pro-
portion to achieve their purpose.
A classic example is the tumbledown Oceanic Mansion (1010-1030 King's Rd), a forbid-
ding cliff of pulverised dwellings that soars above a tight, sloping bend in the shadows of a
country park in Quarry Bay. Near the western end of the tramline in Kennedy Town, Hill Rd
Flyover is a towering urban racetrack that lures traffic from the rarefied heights of Pok Fu
Lam to the siren call of Central,
Blade Runner-
like.
The same sense of space or freedom can rarely be manufactured by the many luxury real-
estate projects you will see in Hong Kong, however, even if they've been romantically
christened with names like Sorrento, Leguna Verde or Cullinan. Tiny living spaces remain
the norm in this city.
Those interested in the future of the city's urban landscape can visit the
Hong Kong Plan-
ning & Infrastructure Exhibition Gallery
( 3102 1242;
www.infrastructuregallery.gov.hk
;
2 Murray Rd, ground fl, Murray Rd Multistorey Car Park Bldg; 10am-6pm Wed-Mon).
