Mozhao Studio shared with us their first prize winning proposal for the Hong Kong Alternative Car Park Tower competition which was held by held by AC_CA. Their design integrates the Hong Kong City Hall, the second-floor pedestrian system and streets on the second-floor level, provid¬ing a convenient and enjoyable network of public spaces. Because of this strategy, the park tower presents the citizen¬ship, which relates and echoes to the Hong Kong City Hall nearby. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The car park tower, to some extent, is a public building where people can traverse and stay for a while. The top floor, which has high value due to having a great view of Victoria Harbor and Kowloon, composes Café and multi-functional area where the public can access anytime.
The planning issue rooted in history results in high va¬cancy rate in most of the parking lots on non-work days. Besides, by adding the time dimension, the approach of transforming programs of the same place is a significant factor for solving the problem of scarce land and creating dynamic urban environment in Hong Kong. Therefore, on non-work days, by chang¬ing the car routes the parking space close to the ground floor is transformed into a temporary market which is auxiliary to the Hong Kong City Hall. This transformation brings vitality and energy to the parking space and offers small business opportunities for individuals.
The fully automated parking lot always gives an impression of monoto¬nous forms rather than forms with the underlying mechanical beauty which hasn’t been explored. In our scheme, fully automated parking is above the top multi-functional area, forming an 80-meter high outdoor atrium. Cars are transported from the ground floor to parking spots by the spiral car-lifts and the horizontal rails. The atrium which varies with movement of mechanism of the fully automated parking provides the multi-functional area with a distinctive atmosphere. Meanwhile, the multi-func¬tional area with spectacular sea view and various activities also provides comfortable waiting area for people who pick up cars.
Architects: Mozhao Studio (CCDI) Location: Hong Kong, China Project Team: Guansheng Zeng | Chen Chang, Chao Fu, Guolin Liu, Dandan Zhang, Jin Zhang, Ju Zheng Category: Public Tower (Competition) First Prize Project Year: 2011 Project Area: 30,000 sqm Client: [AC-CA] Architectural Competition Concours d’ Architecture
