Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters
Hong Kong, China
1979 - 1986
Conceived during a sensitive period in the former colony's history, the brief for the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank
Headquarters was a statement of confidence: to create 'the best bank building in the world'. Through a process of
questioning and challenging including the involvement of a feng shui geomancer the project addressed the
nature of banking in Hong Kong and how it should be expressed in built form. In doing so it virtually reinvented the
office tower.
The requirement to build in excess of a million square feet in a short timescale suggested a high degree of
prefabrication, including factory-finished modules, while the need to build downwards and upwards simultaneously
led to the adoption of a suspension structure, with pairs of steel masts arranged in three bays. As a result, the
building form is articulated in a stepped profile of three individual towers, respectively twenty-nine, thirty-six and
forty-four storeys high, which create floors of varying width and depth and allow for garden terraces. The mast
structure allowed another radical move, pushing the service cores to the perimeter to create deep-plan floors
around a ten-storey atrium. A mirrored 'sunscoop' reflects sunlight down through the atrium to the floor of a public
plaza below - a sheltered space, which at weekends has become a lively picnic spot. From the plaza, escalators
rise up through the glass underbelly to the banking hall, which was conceived as a 'shop window for banking'.
The 'bridges' that span between the masts define double-height reception areas that break down the scale of the
building both visually and socially. A unique system of movement through the building combines high-speed lifts to
the reception spaces with escalators beyond, reflecting village-like clusters of office floors. From the outset, the
Bank placed a high priority on flexibility. Interestingly, over the years, it has been able to reconfigure office layouts
with ease, even incorporating a large dealers' room into one floor a move that could not have been anticipated
when the building was designed.
AwardsPA Innovations Award
Quaternario Award for Innovative Technology in Architecture
Institution of Structural Engineers Special Award
Structural Steel Award
Marble Architectural Awards East Asia
R.S. Reynolds Memorial Award administered by the AIA
Premier Architectural Award at the Royal Academy, London