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Architecture of Hong Kong
The architecture of Hong Kong features great emphasis on contemporary architecture, especially Modernism, Postmodernism, and Functionalism. Due to the lack of available land, few historical buildings remain in the urban areas of Hong Kong. Therefore, Hong Kong has become a centre for modern architecture as older buildings are cleared away to make space for newer, larger buildings. It has more buildings above 35m (or 100m) and more skyscrapers above 150m than any other city. Hong Kong's skyline is often considered to be the best in the world, with the mountains and Victoria Harbour complementing the skyscrapers.
Back in the day of the Nanyue kingdom, Hong Kong was already inhabited. Baiyue peoples in the area demonstrated some level of sophistication in architecture. An example is the Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb.
Prior to the British settlement of Hong Kong in 1841, architecture in Hong Kong was predominantly Cantonese. With the majority of the population being fishers at the mercy of typhoons and pirates, numerous Tin Hau temples were dedicated to their patron Goddess (女神) Mazu. Likewise farmers built fortified villages to defend themselves from bandits.
After the British established the entrepôt of Victoria City (now Central and Western District on Hong Kong Island), the local population increased substantially, and as a result Tong Lau (tenement common in Southern China, especially Lingnan) began to appear. These were three-to-four-storey buildings, tightly packed in city blocks, and combining Southern Chinese and European architectural elements. The ground floor were typically shops, with apartments and small balconies upstairs. These buildings had stairs but no elevators, and sometimes had no toilet facility. These Tong Lau remained the mainstay of Hong Kong architecture until at least World War II; a number of these building survive to this day, albeit often in a derelict state.
Meanwhile, the British introduced Victorian and Edwardian architectural styles from the mid-19th century onwards. Notable surviving examples include the Legislative Council Building, the Central Police Station and Murray House. One building that has since been demolished was the Hong Kong Club Building; it was built atop a smaller structure designed in Italian Renaissance Revival style in 1897. The building was the subject of a bitter heritage conservation struggle in the late 1970s, which ultimately failed to save the building.
The first building in Hong Kong to be classified as the first high rise was constructed between June 1904 and December 1905. It consisted of 5 major buildings, each stacking 5 to 6 stories high. The structures were raised by the Hongkong Land under Catchick Paul Chater and James Johnstone Keswick.
Most high-rise buildings to be built afterwards were for business purposes; the first true skyscraper in Hong Kong was built for HongkongBank in 1935, which was also the first building in Hong Kong to have air conditioning; however this has since been replaced with the HSBC Main Building, Hong Kong of 1985. Likewise the few examples of 1930s Streamline Moderne and Bauhaus architecture in Hong Kong, such as the Central Market and the Wan Chai Market, are facing imminent demolitions despite protests from heritage conservation groups.
In the residential sector, multi-story buildings did not appear until the Buildings Ordinance 1955 lifted the height limit of residential buildings. This change was necessitated by the massive influx of refugees into Hong Kong after the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, and the subsequent Shek Kip Mei slum fire in 1953. Public housing estates, originally seven-storeys high with notoriously cramped conditions, public bathrooms and no kitchens, were hastily built to accommodate the homeless; meanwhile private apartments, still tightly packed into city blocks like the Tong Lau of old, had grown to over 20 stories high by the mid-1960s.
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Architecture of Hong Kong
The architecture of Hong Kong features great emphasis on contemporary architecture, especially Modernism, Postmodernism, and Functionalism. Due to the lack of available land, few historical buildings remain in the urban areas of Hong Kong. Therefore, Hong Kong has become a centre for modern architecture as older buildings are cleared away to make space for newer, larger buildings. It has more buildings above 35m (or 100m) and more skyscrapers above 150m than any other city. Hong Kong's skyline is often considered to be the best in the world, with the mountains and Victoria Harbour complementing the skyscrapers.
Back in the day of the Nanyue kingdom, Hong Kong was already inhabited. Baiyue peoples in the area demonstrated some level of sophistication in architecture. An example is the Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb.
Prior to the British settlement of Hong Kong in 1841, architecture in Hong Kong was predominantly Cantonese. With the majority of the population being fishers at the mercy of typhoons and pirates, numerous Tin Hau temples were dedicated to their patron Goddess (女神) Mazu. Likewise farmers built fortified villages to defend themselves from bandits.
After the British established the entrepôt of Victoria City (now Central and Western District on Hong Kong Island), the local population increased substantially, and as a result Tong Lau (tenement common in Southern China, especially Lingnan) began to appear. These were three-to-four-storey buildings, tightly packed in city blocks, and combining Southern Chinese and European architectural elements. The ground floor were typically shops, with apartments and small balconies upstairs. These buildings had stairs but no elevators, and sometimes had no toilet facility. These Tong Lau remained the mainstay of Hong Kong architecture until at least World War II; a number of these building survive to this day, albeit often in a derelict state.
Meanwhile, the British introduced Victorian and Edwardian architectural styles from the mid-19th century onwards. Notable surviving examples include the Legislative Council Building, the Central Police Station and Murray House. One building that has since been demolished was the Hong Kong Club Building; it was built atop a smaller structure designed in Italian Renaissance Revival style in 1897. The building was the subject of a bitter heritage conservation struggle in the late 1970s, which ultimately failed to save the building.
The first building in Hong Kong to be classified as the first high rise was constructed between June 1904 and December 1905. It consisted of 5 major buildings, each stacking 5 to 6 stories high. The structures were raised by the Hongkong Land under Catchick Paul Chater and James Johnstone Keswick.
Most high-rise buildings to be built afterwards were for business purposes; the first true skyscraper in Hong Kong was built for HongkongBank in 1935, which was also the first building in Hong Kong to have air conditioning; however this has since been replaced with the HSBC Main Building, Hong Kong of 1985. Likewise the few examples of 1930s Streamline Moderne and Bauhaus architecture in Hong Kong, such as the Central Market and the Wan Chai Market, are facing imminent demolitions despite protests from heritage conservation groups.
In the residential sector, multi-story buildings did not appear until the Buildings Ordinance 1955 lifted the height limit of residential buildings. This change was necessitated by the massive influx of refugees into Hong Kong after the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, and the subsequent Shek Kip Mei slum fire in 1953. Public housing estates, originally seven-storeys high with notoriously cramped conditions, public bathrooms and no kitchens, were hastily built to accommodate the homeless; meanwhile private apartments, still tightly packed into city blocks like the Tong Lau of old, had grown to over 20 stories high by the mid-1960s.