Concept design for the West Kowloon Cultural District Park by West 8

Dennis Lau and Ng Chun Man Architects and Engineers (HK) Limited (DLN). Founded in 1972, today the practice is an international architectural practice with over 350 personnel headquartered in Hong Kong with branch offices in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Macau. The firm's ethnically diverse teams have worked on some of the most interesting and dynamic architectural projects spanning Europe, the Middle-East, Africa and many Asian regions. Internally, we are promoting constant growth towards green designs with a dedicated in-house specialist department as well as a growing team of green qualified professionals.

DLN's portfolio of building projects is rich and varied. From skyline-changing skyscrapers, luxury hotels and residences to award-winning convention centres, university buildings, hospitals, industrial and logistic structures, we strive to add value via intelligent integration that suits to different social, cultural and historical contexts.

The constant in DLN's approach to any project is to exhaustively interrogate the potential of a new development to add value; value to the client through higher revenue or lower cost, value to the environment through energy-saving and remediation, value to the end-users and society as a whole through amenity and urban renewal. Such interrogation demands energy, skill and open-minded creativity and includes every aspect of a project from its basic engineering design to its marketability and life-cycle environmental impact.

ACLA (Hong Kong). Project landscape architect ACLA’s in-depth knowledge of local flora and landscape practice will complement West 8’s design. ACLA was established in Hong Kong in 1978 and has been responsible for the design of many of the landscape environments in the city. Besides parks, ACLA is currently working with the Government as the landscape consultant behind greening masterplans covering the whole of the territory of Hong Kong.

Design Philosophy and Approach
ACLA believes that the core beginning of Design, Planning and Urban Design thinking is the Environment and the Land. These offer clues about history, culture and environmental systems that drive the planning. The goal is to create memorable places loved and enjoyed by the people, plus guide planning decisions that are responsible to environmental systems.

By being sensitive to environment and culture, ACLA has set benchmarks for a redefined approach to thinking about the concepts of people, places and nature. The end result is a far friendlier and more humane built environment that is also embraces social and economic responsibility. This naturally results in economic gain as environmental systems are incorporated in planning to be self-maintaining, plus attractive and user-friendly places added value, places that are in high demand for Quality Environment.

Our International Background
ACLA Key Directors and Staff have an International outlook, many of whom are from the top design schools in the world. Experience from American, European and Asian environments are brought to our projects. This international out look brings unique solutions to the projects we carry out.