BEING an architect, as well as a travel writer, I have always been on the lookout for notable architectural pieces in my travels. The same was true during my visits to Hong Kong, a paradise for lovers of modern, extremely varied and diverse architectural masterpieces. The first I encountered, upon arrival in Hong Kong, was the airport itself.  Designed by Terry Farrell Architects, Chep Lap Kok International Airport was built on a largely artificial island reclaimed from the two former islands of Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau, adding nearly 1 percent to Hong Kong’s surface area. The most expensive airport project (according to Guinness World Records) in the world, it cost US$20 billion and six years to build and was opened on July 6, 1998. Its construction, the most extensive single civil-engineering project ever undertaken, was voted as one of the Top 10 Construction Achievements of the 20th Century at the ConExpo conference in 1999. Winning the notable Best Airport Award from 2001 to 2005, the airport is highly regarded for its clean layout and natural lighting.

The 369-meter-high (1,209-foot) Bank of China Building remains, perhaps, as Hong Kong’s most readily identifiable structure. Completed in 1990, this 72-story, white steel frame and blue glass curtain-wall building, designed by the late famous Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming (I.M.) Pei, is a striking hard-edged asymmetrical structure featuring triangular prisms that create a changing vista as one views it from different sides. Its twin spires give it the appearance, to some anyway, of a preying mantis. I.M. Pei opted to use diamond forms, but its sharp angles created a major controversy when it was built, as it violated traditional good feng shui principles. However, the sectioned trunk is inspired by the growth patterns of bamboo that represents revitalization and hope. Triangular bracing and step-backs are structural adaptations to the high wind loads caused by Hong Kong typhoons, and four triangular shafts, which form the building, grow narrower as the building rises. These shafts support the weight of the building and eliminate the need for many internal vertical supports.

The abovementioned building used to be Hong Kong’s highest but that honor now falls to One International Finance Center (IFC), at 1 Harbor View Street.  It has two tower blocks: the 415-meter-high (1,362-foot), 88-story Two IFC (one of the few buildings in the world equipped with double-deck elevators) and the shorter 210-meter-high (689-foot), 39-story One IFC, both on top of the underground Airport Express Station in Central. The former, a silvery structure that tapers off toward the top to end in dagger-like prongs pointing skyward, was designed by world-renowned Argentinean-American architect Cesar Pelli and was completed in 2003. Simple, strong and memorable, this great obelisk, in the scale of the city and the harbor, culminates in a sculptural crown that celebrates the height of the tower reaching to the sky. When lit at night by a set of ultra-powerful floodlights, it is a shimmering beacon by Victoria Harbour.

The 374-meter-high (1,227-foot), 78-story Central Plaza, Hong Kong’s second tallest, along Harbor Road was completed in 1992. Its tower mast is 102 meters high, although some of the mast is not exposed. It took the “tallest building in Hong Kong” title away from the Bank of China when it was completed in 1992 and was the tallest building in Asia from 1992 until Shun Hing Square was built in 1996. The highest floor, with its pyramidal atrium, is the world’s highest church.

The 180-meter-high, 47-story Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Building, at 1 Queen’s Road Central, along the southern side of Statue Square at the location of the old City Hall, was designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster and was held as one of the most expensive and technologically advanced buildings in the world in 1986, costing HK$5.3 billion to build. The internal structure of this monolith is made up of a giant atrium surrounded by floors suspended from steel masts. It is an urban legend in itself as the building’s modular design of five steel modules enables it to be dismantled and moved. The building, notable for its absence of internal supporting structure, is also one of the few that do not have elevators as the primary carrier of building traffic. Instead, elevators only stop every few floors, and floors are interconnected by escalators. Natural sunlight, reflected via a bank of giant mirrors from the top of the atrium down into the plaza, is the major source of lighting inside the building which also helps to conserve energy. Additional sun shades, on the external façade, block direct sunlight going into the building, thus reducing heat gain. For the air-conditioning system, seawater, instead of freshwater, is used as coolant. The construction of the building relied heavily on off-site prefabrication, its components being manufactured from all over the world. The inverted “va” segments of the suspension trusses, spanning the building at double-height levels, is the building’s most obvious characteristic. It consists of eight groups of four aluminum-clad steel columns, which ascend from the foundations up through the core structure, and five levels of triangular suspension trusses, which are locked into these masts.

Hong Kong’s skyline, with over 7,000 skyscrapers built in the past two decades, is the world biggest, larger than New York City and, many say, the most beautiful in the world. All these skyscrapers, their height restrictions lifted when Kai Tak Airport was closed in 1998, are best appreciated from the harbor and, 428 meters above sea level, from the viewing platform of the Peak Tower, whose stunning cityscape view, day or night (when the neon lights of Hong Kong’s giant skyscrapers are most majestic), remains one of the greatest man-made views on Earth. Accessible by using the Peak Tram, a funicular ride through upper Hong Kong taking you to around 396 meters up the 522-meter-high Victoria Peak, this distinctive, ultra-modern, seven-story tower, whose wok-shaped upper story looks not unlike a Japanese Shinto Gate, was designed by architect Zaha Hadid and was completed on August 29, 1972. The current tower, designed by renowned British architect Terry Farrell, was officially reopened to the public in May 1997. This retail and entertainment complex now features a number of top attractions, including Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium, the Peak Explorer Motion Simulator and Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks Museum. It also boasts of shopping arcades, six snack bars and cafés, and four fine-dining restaurants, including Hong Kong’s highest restaurant, Mövenpick Marche.

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