A CO-WORKING COURTYARD

To Kwa Wan was once a district that has a close bonding between the community which made To Kwa Wan a successful arrival city, allowing small businesses to blossom and form networks. However, when Kai Tak airport was relocated, and the manufacturing industry started to decay and move northward, it lost the advantages in logistics and as an arrival city. In response to the Kai Tak CBD 2.0 urban development, an opportunity is provided to re-vision and reconstruct the future and identity of TKW.

This project started from the focus of the street study in the site area, for which 13 streets has a unique street block pattern that remains as a significant impression of To Kwa Wan. Design potentials are discovered with the strategy of uncovering the regularities in 13 streets while introducing the gradual hierarchies in spatial sequences within the community spaces. An intriguing dialogue between the old and new, the narrow and wide are carefully speculated from both the urban and architectural scale.

In the design, parts of the building blocks are preserved and revitalized while some are discarded in replacement of a co-working center. A large courtyard space is introduced with open and welcoming pavilions designed which hoped to unite different parties. While believing public space and public street life could revitalize the city, in this studio, a small mixed-use community is purposed to demonstrate how the public space could generate mutual support with its surroundings.