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  COME VEDERE L'ARCHITETTURA CONTEMPORANEA HOW TO SEE CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE
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BUILDING
 
 
Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Headquarters
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DESIGNER
 
 
Norman Foster

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DESCRIPTION
 
Norman Foster HSBC Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation HeadquartersConceived during a sensitive period in the former colonys history, the brief for the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters was a statement of confidence: to create the best bank building in the world. Through a process of questioning and challenging - including the involvement of a feng shui geomancer - the project addressed the nature of banking in Hong Kong and how it should be expressed in built form. In doing so it virtually reinvented the office tower.

Norman Foster HSBC Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation HeadquartersThe requirement to build in excess of one million square feet in a short timescale suggested a high degree of prefabrication, including factory-finished modules, while the need to build downwards and upwards simultaneously led to the adoption of a suspension structure, with pairs of steel masts arranged in three bays. As a result, the building form is articulated in a stepped profile of three individual towers, respectively twenty-nine, thirty-six and forty-four storeys high, which create floors of varying width and depth and allow for garden terraces. The mast structure allowed another radical move, pushing the service cores to the perimeter so as to create deep-plan floors around a ten-storey atrium. A mirrored sunscoop reflects sunlight down through the atrium to the floor of a public plaza below a sheltered space that at weekends has become a lively picnic spot. From the plaza, escalators rise up to the main banking hall, which with its glass underbelly was conceived as a shop window for banking.

The bridges that span between the masts define double-height reception areas that break down the scale of the building both visually and socially. A unique system of movement through the building combines high-speed lifts to the reception spaces with escalators beyond, reflecting village-like clusters of office floors. From the outset, the Bank placed a high priority on flexibility. Interestingly, over the years, it has been able to reconfigure office layouts with ease, even incorporating a large dealers room into one floor - a move that could not have been anticipated when the building was designed.
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LOCATION
 
Continent
Asia
Nation
China [Zhōngguó/Zhōnghuá]
Region
Hong Kong [Xianggang]
Town
Hong Kong [Xianggang]
Address
1 Queen's Road Central
 
 
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MAP
 
 
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TYPOLOGY
 
ARCHITECTURE
Commercial buildings
Banks, securities exchanges and buildings for financial activity
Vertical architectures
Skyscrapers
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CHRONOLOGY
 
Project
1979    
Realisation
1983 - 1986
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THE BUILDING IN CINEMA
 
Title
  How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster?
Directed by
Norberto Lopez Amado, Carlos Carcas
Nationality
United Kingdom, Spain
Year of production
2010
Cast
Norman Foster, Tony Hunt, George Weidenfeld, Richard Rogers, Bono, Deyan Sudjic, Paul Goldberger, Carl Abbott, Alain de Botton, Anish Kapoor, Richard Serra, Anthony Caro, Richard Long, Buckminster Fuller, Ben Cowd, Cai Guo-Qiang, Ricky Burdett, Spencer de Grey, David Nelson, Narinder Sagoo, Nigel Dancey, Loretta Law, Mouzhan Madidi, Stefan Behling, Jurgen Happ, Gerard Evenden
Building's role
Appreciable
Annotations
Producer: Elena Ochoa

Executive Producer: Antonio Sanz

Writer & Narrator: Deyan Sudjic

Music: Joan Valent

Director of Photography: Valentin Alvarez
Title
  Lara Croft. Tomb Raider. The Cradle of Life
Directed by
Jan de Bont
Nationality
USA-Germany-Japan-UK-Netherlands
Year of production
2003
Cast
Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler
Building's role
Incidental
  
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BIBILIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
 
 
Judith Dupré, Adrian Smith, Skyscrapers (2nd edition), Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York 2008
"Le dieci torri che hanno cambiato il mondo / Ten towers that changed the world", Domus Grattacieli / Skyscrapers, supplemento a/supplement of Domus 865, dicembre/december 2003, pp. 28-29 (22-29)
"La torre e la città / The tower and the city", Domus 840, settembre/september 2001, "Servizi / Features" pp. 36-101
Mario Panizza, "La torre rompe la scatola / The tower breaks out of the box", Domus 840, settembre/september 2001, "Servizi / Features" pp. 45 (44-51 (36-101))
Norman Foster, Catalogue 2001, Prestel, München 2001, p. 240
Catherine Sabbah, Horizons architecture / Architectural Horizons, Editions Le Moniteur, Paris 2001, p. 256
Catherine Sabbah, "Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank : la tour révolutionnaire", Le Moniteur des travaux publics et du bâtiment 5036, 2 juin 2000, p. 409
Lotus international 101, giugno/june 1999 [Grattacieli / Skyscrapers], pp. 15 (6-15), 21
Helmut C. Schulitz, Werner Sobek, Karl J. Hebermann, Atlante dell'Acciaio, UTET, Torino 1999, pp. 384-387
Daniel Treiber, Norman Foster, Éditions Hazan, Paris 1994, p. 144
Lotus international 78, ottobre/october 1993, [Applicazioni tecniche / Technical Applications], pp. 66, 78 (66-79)
Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani "Foster Associates. Hongkong & Shanghai Bank", Domus 674, luglio-agosto/july-august 1986, pp. 34-47
"Siède social de la "Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation", Hong Kong / Headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Foster Associates", L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui 223, octobre/october 1982, pp. 30-39
Jonathan Glancey, "Hong Kong bank. Foster Associates", Architectural Review 1011, may 1981, pp. 268-272
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EXHIBITIONS
 
 
Norman Foster (ed.), Hongkong and Shanghai Bank HQ, Venezia, Giardini della Biennale, Padiglione Centrale, 29 august / 25 november 2012 [ » read more ]
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CLIENT
 
 
Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank
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AMOUNT
 
 
HKD 5,200,000,000
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DIMENSIONAL
DATA
 
Height
m. 179
Floors
28, 35, 48
Surface
sqm. 98.000
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STRUCTURES
 
 
Ove Arup & Partners
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STAFF
 
Project
Foster and Partners, Hong-Kong/London
Construction management
John Lok/Wimpey Joint Venture
Consultant
Northcroft Neighbour & Nicolson with Levett & Bailey
Roger Preston & Partners
Technical Landscapes Ltd
Claude and Danielle Engle Lighting/Bartenback Wagner Lichttechnische Planung GmbH
Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory
University of Western Ontario
Cini-Little Associates
Dieter Jaeger / Quickborner Team
Fitch & Chung
Humberside Maintenance Systems
Jolyon Drury Consultancy
Mass Transit Railway
Professor Eric Lye
Project Planning Group
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CREDITS
 
 
Photos © Ian Lambert
Drawing © Foster + Partners
Text edited by Foster + Partners
Courtesy by Foster + Partners

Norman Foster HSBC Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Headquarters



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