Topic > Shun Tak Center Transition to City Construction

Modern skyscrapers are distinguished by unreasonably large scale and height. They creep into the city, surrounded by lawns and squares, seeming to claim that they are powerful enough to create an independent world within the urban context. Mainland China offers numerous typical examples of this type of inhuman skyscraper: from the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Center. In Hong Kong, however, where land resources are very limited, it seems that the independence of skyscrapers does not work, since the skyscraper as a form is no longer a way of showing off but the only choice on this small island. Skyscrapers must be connected to the surrounding urban context to survive. The Shun Tak Center in Central is a good example of skyscraper design in Hong Kong in terms of connection with the place where it stands. As time passed, the transition of this building also demonstrated that skyscrapers could not be separated from the surrounding urban context, either physically or visually. On the north coast of Hong Kong Island stand twin towers with their red lattice belt that differentiate themselves from other skyscrapers. This is the Shun Tak Center located on Connaught Road 200, which includes the East and West Towers, the Hong Kong-Macao Ferry Terminal and the Shun Tak Heliport. [Fig.1] Such programmatic complexity cannot arise from nothing. Since the colony's inception, there have been routine ferries connecting Hong Kong and Macau. While not even a formal building was constructed for this ferry until the 1980s, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the ferry operator. Before that, the best facility for the ferry was a 25-year-old temporary building in Central. Through negotiation with the developer, an agreement was reached that the developer will only be able to construct his buildings on this site if he promises to provide the developer with a brand new high-tech quality pier.