Former police married quarters in Central reborn as design hub PMQ
A former police married quarters has been reborn as PMQ, a studio complex for designers intended to foster cross-fertilisation of ideas
Hong Kong's design scene is thriving, but like many of this city's creative endeavours, it exists beyond the spotlight, in old factory buildings and back alley studios. That could soon change.
After two years of renovations, the former police married quarters in Aberdeen Street, Central, has been reborn as PMQ, a design hub that aims to raise the public profile of local design by giving designers more opportunities to build their own brands.
"It's a project that nobody has done before," says William To, PMQ's creative director, who is also project director at the Hong Kong Design Centre. "It will attract all sorts of designers from different disciplines to come and interact with each other and the public."
Built in 1951 to house police officers and their families - including former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who grew up in the complex - the PMQ now contains 130 design studios, along with shops, restaurants, a library, exhibition space, a rooftop garden and outdoor gathering areas. When it opens in stages starting next month, it will contain a mixture of well-known brands like Vivienne Tam alongside up-and-comers such as Fungus Workshop, a leatherworking studio.
Studio spaces are small (about 450 sq ft) but To says the goal is to foster a community, not to create an office complex. Spacious open-air corridors in front of each unit will be used for exhibitions and pop-up events; there will be a co-working space and units for overseas designers-in-residence; and tenants must keep their doors open to the public from 1pm to 8pm every day.
"In the past, everyone lived together and the most important space in the building was not the dormitory units, it was the common areas, the verandahs and shared kitchens," says architect Billy Tam Hon-wah, a director at Thomas Chow Architects. "It was a residential community and now it's a community of designers - so it's kind of the same thing."
Tam designed the PMQ's original concept and now works as a consultant to the government's Architectural Services Department, which renovated the complex. He will occupy one of the PMQ's units, where he plans to host regular exhibitions.