The Executive Director of Rocco Design Architects shares how he is bringing a Chinese sensibility to modern buildings. Jessica Niles DeHoff has the story.
July 3rd, 2013
iSquare
Rocco Yim is a quiet and thoughtful man – not what many would imagine given that he is one of the most powerful architects in Hong Kong, a place of big public personalities and even bigger business and political interests. Yet anyone enjoying the city’s famous skyline will be taking in several of the buildings produced in his quiet and spacious office housing almost 200 staff (the firm also has offices in the Mainland). Yim’s contributions to the skyline may be less well known than Foster’s or I.M. Pei’s, but they are considerably more recent: iSquare, a mixed-use shopping and entertainment tower in Kowloon; the new Hong Kong station and massive infrastructural connection point marked by Pelli’s IFC tower; and most importantly, the new HKSAR government headquarters, a massive gateway fronting the Harbour to frame a new pedestrian link between the water, the city, and the hills beyond.
iSquare
The firm’s work encompasses projects of many different scales and programs, all unified by a clean modern aesthetic and what Yim sees as a particularly Asian attention to detail: “Our sensitivity to traditional Chinese values like social values, morality, the perception of beauty and aesthetics – an ‘Oriental’ outlook on life – gives us greater sensitivity to what we should preserve and promote from the past, to apply to contemporary living.”
Jiu Jian Tang
At Jiu Jian Tang, a luxury housing development outside of Shanghai, the architects reinterpreted the ancient form of the Chinese courtyard house to facilitate individual privacy while also allowing space for family togetherness; delicate screens and lattices evoke the details of antique furniture.
W Hotel & Residences, Guangzhou
Many of Yim’s projects in Hong Kong, like the LHT Tower, Citibank Plaza, and Hotel Icon, are comfortable, everyday buildings for locals who may pass through them every day without knowing the name of the architect responsible for making them so pedestrian-friendly. One of Yim’s constant concerns is how to integrate his buildings with the city around them. “In creating architecture it’s important that we enhance this experience – the pedestrian experience – wherever possible, meaning that we try to ensure seamless flows of movement and therefore possibly social interaction,” he says. Whether corporate offices or government centres, he sees all his buildings as urban insertions that must enhance the public realm.
W Hotel & Residences, Guangzhou
The W Hotel & Residences in Guangzhou, which opened in May, exemplifies this approach. As at iSquare and several other projects, Yim describes the spatial sequence as fully inhabiting all three dimensions – “you view the space by passing from one level to another to another”. Essentially, the building itself is a continuation of the street and welcomes the public with its huge canopy, garden wall and street-level plaza.
W Hotel & Residences, Guangzhou
Guangdong Museum
Asked about the differences between designing a community centre, a school project and a public building like a museum, Yim carefully considers his answer. “There are different design priorities. A school does not need to be and should not be a visual icon, whereas a museum sometimes needs to be a visual icon because it represents a certain identity. But what I really want is for a building that is to be a visual icon to be part of the city. In a way we tried that with the museum of Guangdong. We wanted to bring the public realm, which is that undulating lawn, into the building.” And the hovering box of a building does indeed scoop visitors up along the slope of the lawn into the belly of the museum, which is an atrium filled with light and space. It embodies Yim’s belief that a museum building should be “precise and alluring as a means to entice people to go inside and explore the treasures”.
Guangdong Museum
Rocco Design Architects
rocco.hk
Artifice books on architecture has recently published the firm’s new monograph, Reconnecting Cultures, which Jessica Niles DeHoff co-wrote and edited.
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Channelling the enchanting ambience of the Caffè Greco in Rome, Budapest’s historic Gerbeaud, and Grossi Florentino in Melbourne, Ross Didier’s new collection evokes the designer’s affinity for café experience, while delivering refined seating for contemporary hospitality interiors.
The Sub-Zero Wolf showrooms in Sydney and Melbourne provide a creative experience unlike any other. Now showcasing all-new product ranges, the showrooms present a unique perspective on the future of kitchens, homes and lifestyles.
Savage Design’s approach to understanding the relationship between design concepts and user experience, particularly with metalwork, transcends traditional boundaries, blending timeless craftsmanship with digital innovation to create enduring elegance in objects, furnishings, and door furniture.
Sub-Zero and Wolf’s prestigious Kitchen Design Contest (KDC) has celebrated the very best in kitchen innovation and aesthetics for three decades now. Recognising premier kitchen design professionals from around the globe, the KDC facilitates innovation, style and functionality that pushes boundaries.
Inspired by New York-style gardens, Elevated Garden City is a concept for the post-quake Christchurch. Lee Suckling discusses its potential.
Voom has it all with superb design, comfort and functionality. A new collection from uber Australian designer Adam Goodrum for Tait is launched and outside living will never be the same again.
Dutch designer, Marcel Wanders, has joined forces with Australian company DECA, to create a designer range of home electronic products.
For the ultimate addition to any kitchen design the Liebherr SBSes 7053 side by side refrigerator provides the perfect environment to store not only food but also wine bottles. This three door side by side refrigerator offers a combination of refrigerator, freezer and wine storage all delivered in a beautiful stainless steel finish. The wine […]
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Suitable for applications ranging from schools and retail outlets to computer rooms and X-ray suites, Palettone comes in two varieties and a choice of more than fifty colours.
Art, design, architecture and hospitality all combine perfectly at The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne by BAR Studio and Cottee Parker.