The Hong Kong International Airport evolves through a multifaceted project that sits at the crossroads of travel and business in the Greater Bay Area<\/p>\n
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An architectural conceit of 11 SKIES, the new retailtainment landmark in Hong Kong, is that it identifies with the humble paper plane. But little about this development scans as miniature.<\/p>\n
The HKD20-billion (USD2.5 billion) megaproject, from the conglomerate New World Development Company Ltd, is the largest hub for retail, dining, and entertainment in the special administrative region. Part of the 25-hectare integrated development known as SKYCITY, 11 SKIES elevates the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) from an aviation hub to an all-out aerotropolis.<\/p>\n
Guided by its in-house lifestyle brand operator K11, New World Development in 2018 won a tender from the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) to develop the 79,000-square-metre site close to HKIA and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB).<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, many cities started around a train station,\u201d says Claude Touikan, co-founder and executive director of the integrated design studio Lead8, which helped New World Development craft the winning, two-envelope tender submission. \u201cBut the other concept is a sky city, what we\u2019ll call landside urbanisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The site, a former golf course on Chep Lak Kok Island, comprises two blocks cleaved by a road. The northern plot sits above a depot for the automated people mover linking the airport to the SkyPier, the island\u2019s passenger ferry port.<\/p>\n
The southern plot is atop solid rock. HKIA\u2019s Third Runway, which opened in July 2022, used some of the rocks excavated from the plot for reclamation.<\/p>\n
More concerningly, the site stands on a flight path. This meant building heights had to be capped at eight levels or no more than 53 metres above Principle Datum (mPD), limiting the reach of the temporary tower cranes.<\/p>\nOriginally designed to be built in three phases, 11 SKIES has been fast-tracked for completion, making the most of its sensitive but strategic location beside one of the world\u2019s busiest airports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The development compensates for the vertical challenge with its behemoth of a footprint. With a gross floor area of 3.8 million sq ft, the development is divisible into 11 thematic spaces, each distinct enough to aid in wayfinding. They also lend the development its name.<\/p>\n
Wind tunnel studies were imperative for a project of its expanse. A model of the project, built in the New Territories, was extensively tested for wind shear and typhoons.<\/p>\n
Moreover, 11 SKIES observes extensive setbacks with respect to flight radar lines. The design team avoided flashy fa\u00e7ade lights that could confound pilots while the 24,000 sqm of greenery were curated to avoid attracting birds. Parts of the original road, now seamlessly decked over at multiple levels, had to be kept open to the sky for easy access to fire and emergency responders.<\/p>\n
We were able to translate our design inspiration of a paper airplane into an entirely new and unique fa\u00e7ade articulation. The most important thing is that the development should not look like an airport building because we\u2019re built next to the airport<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The 11 SKIES development was to complete in three phases, making allowances for acquiring occupation permits. \u201cAfter reviewing the programme and sequence of work with our construction team, we decided to change it to two phases to save time and cost for arranging temporary safety measures between each phases,\u201d says Edwin Chan, head of projects for New World Development.<\/p>\n
Since most supply chains originated from the mainland, many building materials, including those for the curtain wall, required water transport during the pandemic. The materials for the fa\u00e7ade, expressed as a folded paper plane, especially challenged the team.<\/p>\n
Driving back and forth from the Hong Kong-Mainland China border, the team cycled through at least 30 mock-ups before they found the ideal gradient for the dichromatic paint, which gives the fa\u00e7ade its chameleonic colours.<\/p>\n
The fa\u00e7ade plays out in modules of glass panels and mullions, manufactured and milled offsite through CNC fabrication technology. \u201cStarting with our folded paper inspiration, we were able to translate that design into an entirely new and unique fa\u00e7ade articulation,\u201d says Touikan.<\/p>\nThe recently opened office buildings of 11 SKIES, which house this co-working space, creatively unite tenants from Hong Kong\u2019s financial and medical industries into one community<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is that the development should not look like an airport building because we\u2019re built next to the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n
CNC technology was also put to use in The Vortex, a whimsical part of the project where sunshine cascades through two atria from a skylight. Fa\u00e7ade contractor Pyrotech fitted the skylight with Minnesota-made, electrochromic SageGlass, which can tint itself and deflect heat. Lead8 and Pyrotech optimised the skylight geometry through complex 3D modelling. The skylight\u2019s original profile had spawned many atypical glass shapes, delaying the fabrication of the panels.<\/p>\n
Height restrictions meanwhile prevented the Centrestage, the central atrium of 11 SKIES, from using a more pronounced arch design. A flatter dome-like structure was used instead, erected with the help of a truss assembled on a track.<\/p>\n
The payoff? The Centrestage is a spectacular exercise in world-building.<\/p>\n11 SKIES is the first project that combines retail, dining and entertainment together with wellness and wealth management in one complete ecosystem for people in the Greater Bay Area and beyond. Here, the concierge at the retail entrance features a bespoke \u2018fish-net design\u2019 for its ceiling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Garlanded with 83 geometric LED pods under an 88-by40-metre, elliptical LED ceiling, the funnel-shaped, six-storey void immerses occupants in simulations of everything from a space flight to an underwater world. Blurring the digital and real\u2014the \u201cphy-gital\u201d world, says Touikan\u2014the multisensory show happens more than once in a day.<\/p>\n
Lead8 collaborated with Montreal-based multimedia studio Moment Factory, credited for visual spectacles from Los Angeles\u2019 LAX to Singapore\u2019s Changi Airport, to bring the theatrics to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a shopping mall,\u201d says Touikan. \u201cWe designed spaces where people would like to come and visit and also enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to over 800 shops and more than 120 dining concepts, 11 SKIES is designed to house experiential entertainment facilities, including Hong Kong\u2019s first 4D-motion \u201cflying theatre\u201d and SkyTrack, one of the world\u2019s longest indoor-outdoor karting tracks. \u201cFrom the very beginning, the brief from the airport authority is to build entertainment elements into this complex,\u201d says Chan. \u201cRetail is not enough. It\u2019s such a huge, huge space.\u201d<\/p>\n
The development was also built to have 570,000 sq ft of Grade-A office spaces, in floor plates as huge as 2,000 sqm, across three towers. Opened in the same month as the Third Runway, the blocks offer wealth management, wellness, and medical services in one place, an attempt to capture a market of 86 million passengers from the Greater Bay Area.<\/p>\nThe project has an overall greenery area equivalent to 80 tennis courts or three soccer pitches, helping it attain some of the world\u2019s highest sustainability and wellness certifications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The first phase of the office cluster has achieved target green certifications for Hong Kong BEAM Plus, LEED, and WELL. Saving 177,000 kWh of energy a year, the roofs of the towers are carpeted with over 400 sqm of hybrid photovoltaic and thermal (PVT) panels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually very effective to install these panels on top of our building because it has no shading,\u201d observes Chan. \u201cThe only thing is, we cannot install too much or concentrate too much on one area because the reflection will affect the flights above.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, the development acts as a testbed for maverick technologies. Steeling itself for the impending phaseout of fossil-fueled cars across China, New World Development has collaborated with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to develop an artificially intelligent system for charging electric vehicles. Airport City Link, set to include an elevated, enclosed thoroughfare plied by driverless cars, will bridge 11 SKIES and the landing port of the HZMB.<\/p>\n
Having run myriad computer models, New World Development anticipates how traffic will move onsite in 15 to 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a name like 11 SKIES, you might automatically think the project\u2019s focus is on its proximity to the airport,\u201d says Touikan. \u201cHowever, the development is a key part of a regional and international multi-modal transportation hub that is accessible via air, land, and sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
AAHK has built some of the six footbridges connecting 11 SKIES to its neighbours, including Terminal 2 and AsiaWorld-Expo. \u201cDespite the pandemic, AAHK spares no effort in improving the airport\u2019s facilities to prepare for the recovery of air traffic,\u201d says AAHK chief executive Fred Lam in a statement.<\/p>\n
With 120 million passengers poised to pass through HKIA every year, the developer is taking its hometown to greater altitudes. \u201cI\u2019m proud that at the end of the day, we have created a new destination for Hong Kong,\u201d says Chan. \u201cThat is the most important task for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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