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Blending history into design – The Beacon is recognised at HKIA Annual Awards
In recent years, many new buildings have emerged in the vicinity of Sneakers Street (Fa Yuen Street) in Mong Kok as a result of the redevelopment. The Beacon which features a ‘pixelated’ façade is one of the new buildings in the area.
Executive Director Cary Lau drew inspirations from the city’s post-war structures to design The Beacon, setting an excellent example of contemporary interpretation of traditional architecture. In the early post-war years, it was common to create illegal iron balconies for residential units in the hyper-dense neighbourhood in Mongkok, to maximise view and area. The building design reinterprets these structures in a modern way – the irregular protrusions create unobstructed views for each unit. Also inspired by the home gardens which people created on those iron balconies, a green wall on the podium façade is designed to further connect the building with the historical cityscape and offer more greenery at the pedestrian level.
The unique design earned a Merit Award of Hong Kong – Commercial Building at the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) Annual Awards 2017/18. The judges praised the design team for breaking stereotypes, and cleverly introducing new ways to design the building which is unique and well integrated into its surrounding environment.
