Tai Kwun, Centre for Heritage & Art
Project 2006-2012Realization 2011-2018
The former Central Police Station, the Central Magistracy and the Victoria Prison is a walled compound of heritage buildings at the commercial centre of Hong Kong Island. Established by the British after 1841 as the colony’s main police station, magistracy, and prison, the site is one of Hong Kong’s most important remaining historic monuments. Following its decommission in 2006, the entire compound was vacated, leaving a set of open grounds and a collection of unique buildings. From an urban perspective, the compound is a rare “courtyard” in the middle of one of the densest cities in the world. What once stood on the hillside as a prominent symbol of law and order with commanding views to the harbour has now inversely become an urban oasis of openness and calm within a forest of commercial and residential high-rises. The compound is defined and structured by two large courtyards: the Parade Ground and the Prison Yard. Our goal is to preserve the openness and distinct character of both and to re-activate them for public use as a new type of urban found space. These spaces will define the site physically and programmatically as places of gathering, cultural exchange, leisure, and respite.
The Parade Ground is surrounded on each side by several of the site’s most historic buildings, resulting in a formal open space with generous room for public recreation, events, direct access to restaurant and retail attractions, as well as smaller-scale cultural and educational spaces. The Prison Yard will be subtly transformed from a rough and forbidding area to a new open public space dedicated to cultural programming. Adding a new arts and cultural program is one of the key strategies to opening up and activating the former Prison Yard. Two new volumes that float tightly above the surrounding granite walls are conceived as distinctive but carefully inserted elements within the fabric of existing buildings. By cantilevering above the walls and keeping a minimum distance to the adjacent structures, the buildable floor area is maximized while staying within the zoning envelope and at the same time creating protective offsets from the surrounding historical buildings. As an architectural expression, it also clearly distinguishes the new buildings from the site’s historic buildings. Gathered mainly at the Lower Courtyard, the former police buildings sit proudly on either street level or on top of the granite walls, making their authority and presence in the city known. The prison buildings, on the other hand, are located behind the walls, and have historically been separated from public access and view for obvious reasons of safety and security. The new building volumes copy neither of the historical conditions but instead create a new relationship to the site context by hovering just above the wall. By raising the volumes, new public and circulation spaces are created below, resulting in generous protected places for gathering and activity, and establishing a new East- West pedestrian connection from Arbuthnot Road to Old Bailey Street. At the same time, the buildings become new markers at the two ends of the compound, bringing attention to a formerly closed-off part of the city.
The design of JC Contemporary, located at the southwest portion of the site, is developed in close relation to the adaptive reuse of the F Hall. New connections will be created between the two buildings. Together, they will house contemporary art functions. The courtyard entrance of the JC Contemporary is defined by the building’s volume hovering above the historic revetment wall. This entrance area is protected from rain and sun, and acts as the circulation hub and foyer to both the F Hall and JC Contemporary. The F Hall will be a versatile gallery space for art exhibition or other special events. Much of the original architecture with its traces from the buildings’ past use are kept and preserved. In contrast, the adjacent JC Contemporary will feature large column free exhibition spaces with maximum flexibility. Skylights in the roof will provide natural daylight into the top gallery space. The second floor is dedicated to a restaurant with an outdoor terrace overlooking the rich and textured roofscape of the entire compound embedded in the cityscape.
Sitting as a new marker on the southeast corner of the CPS site is the new JC Cube. The volume similarly hovers above the revetment wall along Arbuthnot Road, creating a covered public outdoor gathering, cinema and performance space with a large stair whose steps may be used for informal seating. On either side of the JC Cube are old prison buildings, D Hall and E Hall, forming interior elevations for this unique outdoor venue. The height restriction is also fully taken advantage of, resulting in two more generous program spaces above: an 8m height multipurpose space with an accessible technical grid ceiling, and a mechanical plant room that houses cooling towers and equipment serving the entire site.
Both new buildings are clad with a cast aluminium façade unit system that is referencing, in terms of scale and proportion, the existing granite block elements of the characteristic bordering revetment wall surrounding the entire site, thus establishing a certain contextual relationship. The use of 100% recycled aluminium as a material provides a distinctive architectural expression and materiality, setting the new buildings apart as new insertions amongst the collection of historical masonry blocks, and at the same time addresses issues such as structural support, sun shading, and rain protection in Hong Kong’s subtropical climate. The specific porosity, patterning, and expression of the façade unit is informed by the functional and environmental requirements of the uses within. The materiality of the cast aluminium units will have a distinctive roughness and texture breaking down the façade surface, which helps to reduce the reflectivity and glare during the daytime. At night, light emitted from the building will be partially screened by the façade units, expressing the life of activities within but without creating light pollution. Herzog & de Meuron, 2016
“What we have done in Hong Kong is to transform a former Police Station into a Centre for Heritage and Arts. In Hong Kong and also in Mainland China this is still a totally new approach to architecture – an unusual thing to do because normally old buildings and entire neighbourhoods are being removed and being replaced by new ones. The principle is TABULA RASA. For us architects, also in the West, it was quite similar until not so long ago. Modernism was making pre-existing things look old, shabby and uncool. In daily life we all still carelessly throw away things we use every day instead of recycling and reintegrating them in a somewhat appropriate or even creative way. In the 1970s, when we started our practice, we first had to find and define our own architectural language. Re-Inventing and Re-Using pre-existing ideas and objects – not necessarily of a heroic period of the past, but simply of what we found in front of us – has become an essential element within our vocabulary since those early days and projects…think of early projects such as the ‘Marktplatz Basel’, ‘Stone House Tavole’, later of course ‘Tate Modern’ or now ‘Tai Kwun’. We adopted this strategy of working WITH instead of AGAINST the existing material world of objects because we found it natural and inspiring, often resulting in unexpected and innovative results. There is no fundamental difference for such an approach, whether you do it in Basel or in London, in Liguria or in Hong Kong.”
- Jacques Herzog, July 2018
Herzog & de Meuron, 2018
The former Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison, known to the locals as ‘Tai Kwun’ (or big station), is a walled compound of heritage buildings at the commercial center of Hong Kong Island. Established by the British after 1841 as the colony’s main police station, magistracy and prison, the site is one of Hong Kong’s most important remaining historic monuments. From an urban perspective, the compound is a rare “courtyard” in the middle of one of the densest cities in the world, and has become an urban oasis of openness and calm within a forest of commercial and residential high-rises. The compound is structured around two large courtyards: the Parade Ground and the Prison Yard. The project aims to preserve the openness and distinct character of both and to revitalize them for public use as a new type of urban found space.
The Parade Ground is surrounded on each side by several of the site’s most historic buildings, resulting in a formal open space with generous room for public recreation, events, direct access to restaurant and retail attractions, as well as smaller-scale cultural and educational spaces. The Prison Yard is subtly transformed from a rough and forbidding area to a new open space dedicated to cultural programming. Here, two distinctive volumes that float tightly above the surrounding granite walls are carefully inserted with a cantilevering shape. While the former buildings maintain their historical presence, the new ones establish a new relationship with the site by cantilevering just above the wall and allowing for new public and circulation spaces to be created below. At the same time, the buildings become new markers at the two ends of the compound, bringing attention to a formerly closed-off part of the city.
The new volumes will complement the arts and culture programming of the former surrounding halls. While much of the original architecture and traces of the past are kept in the existing buildings, the new ones feature larger and more flexible spaces with technical facilities. Also, they provide covered outdoor gathering spaces, like a large stair for informal seating. The new constructions are both clad with a cast aluminum facade unit system that echoes the existing granite block elements of the surrounding wall. The use of 100% recycled aluminum as a material provides a distinctive architectural expression and materiality. The units are arranged in a system that obscures from view mechanical areas while porous enough to allow air circulation and views to the outside when desired.
The former Central Police Station and Victoria Prison, located in Hong Kong Island, is a walled compound of heritage buildings established by the British after 1841 as the colony’s main police station, magistracy, and prison. Today the site is one of Hong Kong’s most important remaining historic monuments, comprising a collection of unique buildings organized around two interior courtyards. Following its decommission in 2005, the entire compound was vacated, and the project to transform the strategically located site into a culture and leisure complex was launched.
Located in the middle of the central district of Hong Kong – one of the densest cities in the world –, this small-scale complex currently goes up as an urban oasis of openness and calm within a forest of skyscrapers. The refurbishment of the buildings in the compound wishes to preserve this quality, using the courtyards as vertebrating axes of the new public program. The Parade Ground, located to the north, is an open space with generous room for organized events and direct access to retail and restaurants. The Prison Yard will be subtly transformed from a rough and forbidding area to a new open public space dedicated to cultural programming. Both spaces, which used to be closed to the city, are now connected to it through small interventions that generate pedestrian circulation in the site, thus opening it to its surroundings.
The refurbishment project of the existing buildings maintains their unique characteristics, adapting the interior spaces to the future public uses. Only two new structures go up across from one another in the Prison Yard to wrap up the perimeter and configure the open space as a setting for outdoor activities. The new buildings are elevated and free up the ground floor for large stairs of access to the courtyard, which will also serve as outdoor stands. One of them houses galleries for a museum, whereas the other contains a multipurpose hall that opens up to the courtyard and on top of it a large technical room for equipment serving the entire site. Both of these new buildings are clad with a cast aluminum facade unit system. The pieces reference in terms of scale and proportion the existing granite block elements of the characteristic bordering revetment wall surrounding the entire site, and with four types they adapt to the different structural and climatic requirements of the place.
