Redevelopment of Blocks VA and VS
Redevelopment of Blocks VA and VS into a Modern Academic Complex for Professional Health Training
Design Concept Video
This video highlights some of the new features and sustainable designs of the new complex.
Design Vision
The redevelopment project aims to create a modern academic complex as a new PolyU landmark, allowing the University community and its visitors to utilise its diverse academic and sports facilities, as well as the wide expanse of open collaborative space.
The multi-purpose functionality of the complex will lead to a large construction floor area during redevelopment. In view of the large building bulk and the permitted height restriction of the construction project, the project consultant has proposed breaking down the massing to suit the environment of the PolyU campus.
As a result, three unique design options have been proposed and summarised as follows.
Design Option 1: Brick
This design adopts the rectilinear campus design concept as its guiding principle. The building is broken up into stacked blocks, softening its shape against the urban landscape. The arrangement of windows draws inspiration from the horizontal window bands of the existing PolyU buildings. The windows are allocated randomly across the complex elevations to give it a light and playful appearance. To be in harmony with the University campus, the complex takes on a colour similar to the University’s red brick architecture.
Overall, the innovative touches on the shape, window arrangement and colour of the complex will help blend it into the existing campus while maintaining its uniqueness with elements of contemporary design.
Design Option 2: Paper
This design aligns with the groundbreaking design language established by the adjacent Jockey Club Innovation Tower (JCIT). The strongly pronounced white horizontal bands along the façade are intended to resemble stacks of paper to represent learning. The new complex would be an extension of the unique JCIT design, helping to establish an ensemble of visually distinctive buildings on the PolyU campus.
Design Option 3: Books
This design blends the distinctive PolyU red-brick architecture with elements of the iconic Jockey Club Innovation Tower (JCIT). The exterior resembles stacks of bookshelves with vertical coloured fins representing the spines of books. The mass of the building in the form of bookshelves is also reminiscent of the PolyU campus grid and its rectilinear design language, while the projecting fins of the exterior take on a red or brown colour of their adjacent building tiles.
At the same time, design elements of the JCIT are reflected in the white horizontal slab edges of the complex and its curvilinear shape as a whole. The ‘bookshelves’ are stacked to break the mass of the building, creating a layered appearance with outdoor ledges for greenery. Overall, the new complex is a blend of the different iconic architectural elements at PolyU, while also answering to the University’s need for sustainable development.