18 King Wah Road joins Hong Kong Island’s vibrant waterfront

With breathtaking views of Victoria Harbor and Kowloon Bay, 18 King Wah Road is a twenty-three-story office tower in North Point, the eastern district of Hong Kong Island. The tower is part of the waterfront promenade in this bustling mixed-use neighborhood. We began work on this project with an existing foundation already in place, a challenge that required thoughtful responses to the needs and aesthetic within Hong Kong’s quintessential urban density.

Instilling a spacious sense of ease in a high-density environment

The base of the tower is composed of triple-height Y-shaped columns that evoke buoyancy and offer an expansive street-level experience that draws the eye toward the building. The columns appear to lift the tower effortlessly, ascending above the adjacent expressway to provide each floor with panoramic views of the bay and harbor.

Innovative responses to environmental concerns

The tower’s architecture increases the flow of fresh air within an extremely dense urban environment. At each floor, high-performance metal sunshades minimize the effect of intense sunlight, keeping the interior cool while drawing natural light in.

“Design is often a process of elimination, of rising to particular challenges at the functional, financial, and societal levels.”
— David P. Chen AIA