Arup - Greg Pearce

Recently returned to Chinese sovereignty after 150 years under the British Empire, Hong Kong is a city of constant reinvention. Decades of free-wheeling capitalism and rapid growth have created a unique urban organism, boasting a spectacular harbour-front skyline supported by one of the world's most sophisticated infrastructure systems. Yet, when plans to build a new, world-class airport and associated infrastructure were revealed in 1989, the territory's future was hanging in the balance. The Airport Core Programme would ensure that Hong Kong remains a global centre for business and tourism, and a major Asian transportation hub. It would be one of the world's largest single infrastructure projects and would become a symbol of Hong Kong's determination and self-confidence. Following an ambitious programme of design and construction, Hong Kong Station, the state-of-the-art terminus to the Airport and Lantau Railway, opened to coincide with the airport's debut on 7th July 1998.;Situated on a newly created waterfront site at the heart of the central business district, the building has been designed as a comprehensive inter-modal transport facility, forging vital links to the surrounding urban fabric. This book, written by the designers who masterminded, planned and detailed the flagship station, chronicles the building's creation from a bold vision to working reality. Arup is recognised throughout the world for producing buildings of exceptional quality which advance the frontiers of architecture and engineering. Its multi-disciplinary collaboration on this project brings together an extraordinary synthesis of conventional design wisdom and technical innovation, to produce a holistic urban intervention driven by the symbiosis between mass transit and commerce. Designed in the tradition of the world's great railway terminal, "Hong Kong Station" is effectively an extension to the city, creating a major public amenity within a spacious and naturally illuminated series of interconnected volumes.