The architectural design concept for QRW attempts to capture the young and energetic spirit of the area. The Hong Kong University MTR Station is literally at the doorstep of the site. For the neighbourhood, QRW is going to be the place to meet and greet. A plaza is therefore created in front of the double-height arcade entrance of QRW. The plaza provides opportunities to incorporate public art and culture, and the space for spontaneous street performances or events to take place.
The podium facade is articulated by subdividing into bays, giving a hint of the local vernacular and traditional shop fronts. The steep tree-covered slopes behind QRW inspire the idea of introducing ‘terraces’ at upper levels of the podium. Some of these terraces are designed as a stepped external landscaped deck, while others are reinterpreted as facades with full storey-height operable windows facing the side street.
At street level, the double-storey shop fronts on Queen’s Road West continue into the building interior, turning the arcade into an internal ‘street’, which links with the other end of the side street to form a loop. This configuration of pedestrian circulation is reinforced by adopting the same floor paving pattern for both the inside and the outside. Shopfronts are designed to maximise transparency. Ground floor shopfronts are designed with glass fin supports and pedestrians may see across the corners, which are curved to further improve sightlines to the shops.
The side street is an enclave away from the traffic and noise of Queen’s Road West, ideal for creating an ambience for al fresco dining that spills out from the cafes and restaurants of the arcade at ground level. The retaining wall on one side of the side street will be covered with generous planting, forming a visual continuation of the sloping greeneries and landscaped deck above.
The façade design is to be read as a landscape painting. Apart from green wall systems and climber plants on the vertical surfaces, the textures of floor paving and the three dimensional articulation of the façade elements give the impression of miniature hills and valleys. Water is represented by the glazed elements on the façade, in the ways they reflect, diffract and scatter light differently at different times.
A feature lift shaft, a projecting shopfront and a canopy over the entrance driveway forms an architectural composition that announces the residential entrance, distinguishing it from the arcade. In this composition, special laminated glass with metal mesh embedded in the interlayer has been chosen. It gives the residential entrance a luxurious and sophisticated character, especially when lit up externally in the evening.
The façade of the residential tower is a curtain wall system, crystalline and subtly reflective. It is overlaid with a series of metal clad vertical architectural features, silver white in colour, which are inspired by the shimmering of lights reflected in water. The glass of the curtain wall has a grey tint, and is specially selected for its shading properties to ensure interior thermal comfort despite its large areas, which at higher floors afford uninterrupted magnificent panoramic views.
