Zaha Hadid Architects has announced the design of 2 Murray Road, a 36-story, 623-foot-tall project that will rise at the core of Hong Kong’s financial district. The project replaces a multi-story car park to create an urban oasis adjacent to the Chater Garden and is within walking distance to Central and Admiralty MTR metro stations.
The double-height foyer at ground level is arranged for access on multiple levels and welcomes staff and visitors with an interplay of natural light, planting, and organic forms leading up to the second floor public lobby on the city’s elevated walkway network. Suspended above the canopy of its surrounding trees, the lobby’s sculptural glass facade defines a variety of nested spaces. The color palette of these spaces differentiate key destinations within the tower.
Rendering: Cosmocube.
A Sky Garden located on the refuge floor is an outdoor recreational space with a running track and an aquaponics planting network that acts as an effective biological air-purifying filter by consuming contaminants. The banqueting hall at the top of the tower offers panoramic views of the city’s surrounding skyline and can host a variety of public and corporate events. The space includes a glazed roof and facade. A high-tensile street structure provides wide span (up to 26 meters) naturally lit, column-free, Grade A office space with five meter floor-to-floor height.
Rendering: MIR.
The tower’s base is elevated above the ground to shelter courtyards and gardens cultivated with trees and plants, creating new civic plazas enveloped by nature. The outdoor areas flow into generous interior communal spaces. The curved glass facade enhances the connectivity between the building’s interior and the surrounding gardens and city.
The facade itself is designed to withstand the region’s summer typhoons. It is composed of 4-ply, double-laminated, double-curved insulated glass units to effectively insulate the building and reduce its cooling load and build resilience. These glass units are the first of their kind in Hong Kong.
Rendering: Cosmocube.
Hybrid ventilation is controlled by the building’s automated management system and enables all office levels to be naturally ventilated. This natural ventilation can be supplemented when required with mechanical dehumidification and filtration to further enhance the indoor environment and air quality.
The building’s air quality monitoring system will detect the degree of occupancy in any interior and automatically adjust indoor air temperature, humidity, and fresh air volume to meet demand. The smart systems learn to predict daily occupancy trends to optimize energy demand, ensuring increased efficiencies with lower energy consumption.
Two weather stations will be installed at street level and roof level to monitor real-time outdoor conditions including PM10, PM2.5, ozone, daylight (solar irradiation), wind speed (m/s) rainfall (mm), temperature, humidity (%), and noise (dB). The weather stations will inform occupants of outdoor air quality and are connected to the building’s automated management system to adjust the tower’s hybrid ventilation as required.
A solar responsive ventilator (SRV) along the western perimeter of each floor enhances the comfort of the occupants. The SRV is powered by photovoltaics to create a channel of air that has the ability to adjust solar radiative heat to the perimeter zone.
Rendering: Arqui9.
A 25% reduction in electricity demand will be achieved through the use of smart chiller plant optimization, high-efficiency HVAC equipment, and daylight sensors that reduce the artificial lighting during periods of sufficient natural light.
The project will rebuilt via a top-down construction method to accelerate the redevelopment program on-site by implementing deep basement and above-ground construction at the same time. The plot of land was purchased by developer Henderson Land for $3 billion in 2017, making it the most expensive plot of land ever purchased.
The design has achieved LEED Platinum and WELL Platinum pre-certification together with the highest three-star rating in CHina’s Green Building Rating Program.
Rendering: PixelFlakes.
Related Stories
| Jan 19, 2011
San Diego casino renovations upgrade gaming and entertainment
The Sycuan Casino in San Diego will get an update with a $27 million, 245,000-sf renovation. Hnedak Bobo Group, Memphis, Tenn., and Cleo Design, Las Vegas, drew design inspiration from the historic culture of the Sycuan tribe and the desert landscape, creating a more open space with better circulation. Renovation highlights include a new “waterless” water entry feature and new sports bar and grill, plus updates to gaming, poker, off-track-betting, retail, and bingo areas. The local office of San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders will provide construction services.
| Dec 17, 2010
Vietnam business center will combine office and residential space
The 300,000-sm VietinBank Business Center in Hanoi, Vietnam, designed by Foster + Partners, will have two commercial towers: the first, a 68-story, 362-meter office tower for the international headquarters of VietinBank; the second, a five-star hotel, spa, and serviced apartments. A seven-story podium with conference facilities, retail space, restaurants, and rooftop garden will connect the two towers. Eco-friendly features include using recycled heat from the center’s power plant to provide hot water, and installing water features and plants to improve indoor air quality. Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor.
| Dec 17, 2010
Toronto church converted for condos and shopping
Reserve Properties is transforming a 20th-century church into Bellefair Kew Beach Residences, a residential/retail complex in The Beach neighborhood of Toronto. Local architecture firm RAWdesign adapted the late Gothic-style church into a five-story condominium with 23 one- and two-bedroom units, including two-story penthouse suites. Six three-story townhouses also will be incorporated. The project will afford residents views of nearby Kew Gardens and Lake Ontario. One façade of the church was updated for retail shops.
| Dec 2, 2010
GKV Architects wins best guest room design award for Park Hyatt Istanbul
Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel, Architects, PC won the prestigious Gold Key Award for Excellence in Hospitality Design for best guest room, Park Hyatt Macka Palas, Istanbul, Turkey. Park Hyatt Maçka Palace marries historic and exotic elements with modern and luxurious, creating a unique space perpetuating Istanbul’s current culture. In addition to the façade restoration, GKV Architects designed 85 guestrooms, five penthouse suites, an ultra-hip rooftop bar, and a first-of-its-kind for Istanbul – a steakhouse, for the luxury hotel.
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Nov 3, 2010
Rotating atriums give Riyadh’s first Hilton an unusual twist
Goettsch Partners, in collaboration with Omrania & Associates (architect of record) and David Wrenn Interiors (interior designer), is serving as design architect for the five-star, 900-key Hilton Riyadh.
| Oct 6, 2010
From grocery store to culinary school
A former West Philadelphia supermarket is moving up the food chain, transitioning from grocery store to the Center for Culinary Enterprise, a business culinary training school.
| Sep 30, 2010
Luxury hotels lead industry in green accommodations
Results from the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2010 Lodging Survey showed that luxury and upper-upscale hotels are most likely to feature green amenities and earn green certifications. Results were tallied from 8,800 respondents, for a very respectable 18% response rate. Questions focused on 14 green-related categories, including allergy-free rooms, water-saving programs, energy management systems, recycling programs, green certification, and green renovation.
| Sep 13, 2010
Conquering a Mountain of Construction Challenges
Brutal winter weather, shortages of materials, escalating costs, occasional visits from the local bear population-all these were joys this Building Team experienced working a new resort high up in the Sierra Nevada.
