Entry Title: "Hong Kong Design Institute"
Designer(s): coldefy & associés architectes urbanistes, France
Company:coldefy & associés architectes urbanistes
Category: Institutional, Professional
About the Artist

Entry Description: [The White Sheet project] is the metaphor for creativity. It expresses a universal symbol as the common media tool of every designer. This educational facility for local and overseas students in the field of design, is conceived to offer maximal permeability on the ground to connect to the urban grid and enrich interaction. Strong architectural volumes are expressed with their utmost simplicity. They are the result of the program decomposition into interacting iconic pieces. The architecture of the Institute is conceived with 3 main elements: The podium, gently sloping down from a 7M high level to King Ling Road, is conceived as a landscape extrusion from the ground connected to the urban environment. It creates a strong visual impact as well as an inviting feeling to the outside visitor. The platform / sky city, housing mainly the common library, is the main expression of the building; this immaculate and minimal volume floating on top of the glass towers, creates a unique impact on the environment, which will intrigue the outside visitor, and bring a landmark building to the community. The towers / legs of education are conceived both as the structural cores of the project and at the same time the structure of the Institute, as they house all the Teaching facilities which are the soul of the Institute. They express the diversity of the fields represented inside the Hong Kong Design Institute, and simultaneously the synergy they find by connecting to the levels of interaction on the ground and the platform. The visual exposure of the white steel lattice on the towers perimeters defines a unique feature to the complex. The composition created with those interconnecting elements defines the Hong Kong Design Institute as a timeless building and expresses immediately its ambition of synergy, design excellence, publicity and interactivity.