Shared spaces and co-living the focus for pioneering student residences at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- The proposed accommodation blocks are designed to encourage students to spend more time in the campus
- Lead architect Bidisha Sinha talks about the process and innovations behind the energy efficient residences
Overcoming the constraints of a hilly coastal site wasn’t the only challenge that faced the designers of new student accommodation at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
As lead architect Bidisha Sinha explains, creating spaces where the students actually wanted to spend time beyond scholastic requirements, was key.
“We’ve found that, quite frequently in Hong Kong, local first-year students tend to return to their family homes at every opportunity. We wanted to build a sense of community to change their perception,” says London-based Sinha, senior associate at Zaha Hadid Architects, which designed the university’s new halls of residence at the Clear Water Bay campus, in collaboration with Leigh & Orange. With room for more than 1,500 students, the buildings are slated for completion in 2023.
In an inversion of design convention, the main circulation is at the top. Sinha explains that, since the existing academic building plaza sits almost level with the roof of the new residences it made the most sense to connect both of them. This reduced the need for staff and students to traverse down the 25-metre-high slope to access the residences. Besides, she adds, “we quite liked the idea of a terraced site. Working with the gradient, rather than flattening it out, allowed for a far more flexible approach”.
Being so accessible also made the communal spaces more likely to attract students to gather during their free time, the architect says, bringing “more chances of spontaneous interaction”.
