A former government headquarters is renovated in luxury hotel for Hong Kong by Foster + Partners
18/05/2018.
Renovation [Hong Kong] China
metalocus, INÉS OÑATE
metalocus, INÉS OÑATE
Description of project by Foster + Partners
The Murray, Hong Kong’s newest luxury hotel has now fully opened to the public. Located on the southern edge of Central with panoramic views of The Peak and the gardens to the south, this major transformation of a listed government office building reinvents this unique urban quarter – stitching together the urban fabric by linking the large green spaces flanking the site to the east and west. Luke Fox, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners said:
“Our design for The Murray creates a dialogue between the old and the new – giving the building a new lease of life and a renewed purpose, with a unique sense of character that is embedded within the fabric of the building.”
The 25-storey Murray Building was originally designed at a time when the city was planned around the car, and consequently stands on an island site surrounded by roads, making it impermeable for pedestrians. One of the central aims of the regeneration project was to reconnect the building with the city at ground level, creating a new street frontage on Garden Road, transparent and welcoming ground floor spaces, and enhancing and extending the landscaped grounds to incorporate a public tai chi area. Revealing a real sense of arrival, the design peels back the original car park deck to create a private forecourt with the old and valuable tree at its centre forming the hotel drop-off and entrance. From here the visitors walk through the majestic arches, that now rise up three stories from the ground level, into the hotel lobby. The upper levels contain the guest rooms where the rooms have been designed to complement the strong geometry of the facade and frame stunning views of the Hong Kong skyline and lush gardens that surround the site. The top of the building has been given over to the public with a restaurant and bar that open onto a roof terrace with unparalleled panoramic views of Hong Kong.
“The Murray recalls the tradition of the grand hotels with its distinctive presence. It seeks to redefine the idea of luxury, which is about a generosity of space, a sense of calm, and an inherent understanding of how the hotel responds to the needs of the guest. The experience is seamless – from how the guests arrive at the destination, and then travel through the building to the interiors that showcase the inherent beauty of the materials, all coming together within a holistic vision for The Murray,” added Fox.
What was an office building from the 1970s, has been completely transformed into a unique luxury hotel – elegant hotel lobbies and restaurants occupy the erstwhile car park, plant room spaces have been replaced with banquet halls, luxurious pools and spas, and the office spaces on the floors above have been reinvented as exclusive hotel rooms. While reimagining all these spaces, the design team took care to retain the distinctive spirit of the building that makes The Murray a unique destination for all. The architecture of the original building was a direct response to the climate of Hong Kong – the windows are recessed and carefully orientated to avoid the harsh tropical sunlight – gaining it an Energy Efficient Building Award in 1994. The design team consulted Ron Phillips, the original architect from the public works department, thus gaining valuable insights into the building’s history. The new design retains the façade while upgrading other aspects of the building and extending the life of the building by introducing a new function appropriate for changing demands of the city – giving it a sustainable legacy for years to come.
Norman Foster is considered by many to be the most prominent architect in Britain. He won the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes Prize.
Lord Foster rebuilt the Reichstag as a new German Parliament in Berlin and designed a contemporary Great Court for the British Museum. He linked St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern with the Millennium Bridge, a steel footbridge across the Thames. He designed the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.
He was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Among his firm’s many other projects are London’s City Hall, the Bilbao Metro in Spain, the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London and the renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
In the 1970s, Lord Foster was one of the most visible practitioners of a high-tech architecture that fetishized machine culture. His triumphant 1986 Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building, conceived as a kit-of-parts plugged into a towering steel frame, was capitalism's answer to the populist Pompidou Center in Paris.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, The Times’s architecture critic, has written that although Lord Foster’s work has become sleeker and more predictable in recent years, his forms are always driven by an internal structural logic, and they treat their surroundings with a refreshing bluntness.
Awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts 2009.
METALOCUS > 05.2017