• Author / Uploaded
• Nadbir Ahmed

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Hong Kong Bank (HSBC)

Drawings

300m

Program

Scale@1:1000

Hong Kong, 1985

200m

Architect: Lord Norman Foster and Partners Client: Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Plot Area: Building Footprint: Gross Floor Area: 99000m2 Height: 179 m Cost US$: 5.2 billion Lifts: 10 Status: Constructed

100m

Offices

Sections

Ground Floor Plan

Vaults

Concept Concept of the Architect Fosters first sketches of the design for a new bank building, which needed to be constructed on a site of limited size, and phased in order for banking to continue in the old building during construction, resemble in a large part the final design.

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The main themes in the design were: reflecting the essence of Hong Kong, high rise but also to maintain the human scale. Therefore, the building reached the, at that time, existing maximum building height in Hong Kong, at 180m. However, soon after the opening of the Hong Kong Bank building, the maximum building height was raised, and the Bank of China Tower, built soon after, reached much higher.

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(R)evolutionary about the Concept Very revolutionary is the fact that bridge building techniques have been used in the construction of this skyscraper. Eight large tubular steel columns on two sides of the building, braced by rectangualr beams, act as bridge supports, with the floors suspended from them. This allows for very free floor plans with ample floor area lost to columns. Services are also located in and around the concrete columns. The floors are built up of sheet metal topped with reinforced concrete.

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Images From the top down. 1. Preliminary design sketch, of bridge-like construction above the old building. 2. axonometric drawing of the floors, trusses and supporting structure. 3. More detailed drawing of the hanging floors system. 4. Seawater pipes in tunnel under the building; the seawater, pumped from and back to the bay, is used for cooling and toilets. 5. Section of the building showing the voids in the construction (white) and the “sunscoop”, letting light into the atrium.

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Images 6. A service module, prefab, being lifted into place to be fixed to one of the main columns. 7. Picture of the large wind supports between the main columns. 8. Sketch of the lobby with atrium above.

Sources Bennet, D., Skyscrapers, form and function, 1995, Simon and Schuster Publishers, New York