How the core financial district of Hong Kong came into existence, its many structural advantages, and how to keep it as a dynamic destination for business and commerce, and, increasingly, art and culture for the future.
Interior of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) Headquarters office tower designed by Foster Associates. Photo by Ian Lambot. Courtesy Foster + Partners.
On 7 June 2024, Serakai gathered together two leading property developers and two architects and urban planners to explore the built environment and urban landscape of Hong Kong’s Central district. The conversation was held in a conference room in the AIA Central tower at 1 Connaught Road, overlooking a grove of skyscrapers by many of the world’s leading architects – including the latest addition, The Henderson, designed by Zaha Hadid Associates, which opened in September 2024. The group comprised Raymond Chow, who was executive director of Hongkong Land Limited from 2000 to 2022 and a board member of Hon Kwok Land, Ocean Park Hong Kong, and Serakai; Kristine Li, the general manager of Portfolio leasing department at Henderson Land; Phil Kim, chair and managing director Asia Pacific at the Jerde Partnership; and Michael Ng, a former partner at Foster + Partners and a member of the Board of Councillors of Public Art. Led by Serakai's CEO and Founder, Benjamin Cha, alongside Curatorial Director of Serakai Studio, Tobias Berger, the conversation covered the best attributes of Hong Kong's Central district, as well as ways that Central could evolve to retain its primacy into the future.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
ESSENTIAL CENTRAL
Benjamin Cha
What are the essential attributes of Central, and how did it become the place it is today?
View of Statue Square area of Central in 1972, with the third HSBC building (centre), the Court of Final Appeals (left), and the Prince's Building (right). Courtesy Lands Department, the Government of Hong Kong SAR.
Raymond Chow
Partly it is the heritage. This is where it all started in Hong Kong. People think the tramline is the original shoreline, but actually it wasn’t – that was reclaimed land. After the tramline was built, the godowns [warehouses] were put in front of it. So, there’s the East-West corridor, from the godowns in Causeway Bay, where a lot of things were undocked – and that’s where the Noonday Gun was for Jardine’s1 – all the way to the wharfs in Sheung Wan.
Along with the heritage, Central is such a unique district for Hong Kong overall. It is the postcard image of Hong Kong as a financial city. It is where, historically, all the institutions that control the finances were located. You have the old Legislative Council sitting right next to us here. That heritage piece in the financial district is so important.
When that happens, the placemaking evolves over time. You’ve got the Hong Kong Club, the oldest social club in the heart of Central, which caters to that kind of evolution. Then the international community clustered around this. Central is the face of the international community.
Michael Ng
I agree. I always go back to the heritage and where Hong Kong started. The British always found the right place. Central is very unique location itself because apart from all the financial institutions headquarters, you also have the government bodies – and the law is there as well. It’s almost like the whole little mini society. Compared to London’s Square Mile, when you talk about a CBD, the trading is all within a walkable distance. That sort of concentration is quite unique, and Central in Hong Kong delivers that model.
The intersection of Pedder Street and Queen's Road Central in 1961. Courtesy Lands Department, the Government of Hong Kong SAR.
Phil Kim
It’s really postage stamp size – that’s really the benefit of Central Hong Kong. It is also the intersection of what is really beautiful about Hong Kong, with the hillside dropping down into the water. Then laterally, it provides connectivity to the rest of the neighbourhoods. So the connectivity part is what makes it such a powerful piece of urbanism. It probably also has one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. Central is almost a perfect microcosm of the way that you would design a city of the future, and it has been like this for 50 years.
Kristine Li
In addition to the government offices, the Post Office meant you had people who were doing their daily business here. There were also the cultural facilities in City Hall.2 It was very glamorous at the time. Philharmonics came from overseas to perform there. People had parties at Maxim’s. And the Hong Kong Club was there, for high-end society events. To Phil’s point about Central’s lateralism, besides the offices, there was a very interesting evolution of the streetscape, from the high streets such as Queen’s Road Central, all the way to Des Voeux Road in Sheung Wan. All those little alleyways are still here today. They really give the colour to pedestrian life. So it’s the variety of experiences in Central, from formal working life to, at night, Lang Kwai Fong3. It’s so diverse.
1 Owned by Jardine Matheson, the gun is fired every day at 12 o'clock, a ritual dating back to the 1860s when it was used for timekeeping.
2 The Hong Kong City Wall Hall was re-opened in 1962 in a modernist complex designed to host cultural events and provide civic functions.
3 Lan Kwai Fung is a nightclub district established in the 1980's.
CENTRAL'S NEWEST ARCHITECTURAL ADDITION
Benjamin Cha
Kristine, can you talk about the design of The Henderson, in terms of it responding to the strengths, weaknesses and overall built environment of Central?
Kristine Li
One of the strengths that we all agree on is the connectivity of Central. We built the Henderson as an expansion of 'core Central'. It's something we thought hard about: given the landscape and the natural environment around this site, the proximity to Hongkong Land’s portfolio, and the MTR station, and how could we connect to those locations? The Zaha Hadid-designed skybridges connect into the Henderson and also into the Admiralty Station on the other side.
Another key point is greenery. Right now, greenery is a weakness for Central. But from the Statue Square to Chater Garden, there is actually a very beautiful garden - the plants are done really well. With all these parks, and with our building, we asked how then can we also create like a green travel path on the way to the office to work? We also elevated the lobby to the third floor, to give an appreciation to that oasis around us, and focused on the experience of the ground level and from the walkway of view of the greenery.
As for choosing Zaha Hadid as the building's architect, We had a vision that we needed someone very daring, and a female architect, whose use of curvy lines could infuse innovation into the Hong Kong cityscape. The curvy design really speaks to the lineage and heritage of all the star architects around us. IM Pei with the Bank of China, Norman Foster with HSBC, Cesar Pelli with CKC (Cheung Kong Center), Paul Rudolph's Lippo Centre, and there's also the street from the old Bank of China that leads to the vista. And of course, there’s always a story behind the feng shui. From the company’s standpoint, we don’t always like talking about feng shui, but I think it’s such a beautiful story that connects into the heritage – that is why you have the Bank of China built like that, why HSBC has those features, and how, as the newest innovation we also respond to this constant dialogue with all these other stars. I think it’s a beautiful part of Hong Kong, and gives a wonderful message. Each corner, each curve - we thought about how they interact with the different spires and angles of the buildings around us. It speaks to how we use innovation with a strong Chinese cultural mindset and how we can fuse together the city's Western and then also the Chinese heritage. I think it’s beautiful.
Aberdeen Street in Central. Photo by Factory XII. Courtesy Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Michael Ng
I think the building is very responsive to the only remaining open space right in the middle of Central. For the Henderson itself, the curvilinear form is very dynamic in response to the other buildings - each of which is standing on its own. I think the great success of this project is also how you integrated it with the ground plane, so it would be a great opportunity, then, if we could do even more in front of it with Chater Garden and all the way to HSBC. When we did the landscape for The Murray Hotel,4 we studied all greenery around it and we insisted that the landscape be very natural in contrast to all the hard edges in the area.
The Henderson with Chater Garden in the foreground. Courtesy Henderson Land.
THE POWER OF A SINGLE BUILDING?
Tobias Berger
The Henderson really shifts the whole idea of the centre of Central more to the east. My basic question is: does one building has the power to shift the neighbourhood or area, and what do we even define this 'shift'?
Michael Ng
There will be extension into the Admiralty and this area is a pivot between the two. The Admiralty as a whole will be coming up for redevelopment soon, and the Admiralty corridor will be extended.
Benjamin Cha
How would you distinguish extending versus shifting? Can you elaborate?
Phil Kim
The Henderson is not re-centering of the ground zero of Central. I don't think that it is going to move from the Hongkong Land portfolio, IFC, and Site 3.5 If we think about this collection of buildings that we see here, they're iconic, and in terms of design and aesthetics, they are pure pieces of sculpture, architecture and design.
But in terms of the life of the city and the life of Central, I don't think this area is very strong. You really lose the energy of what Central is when you get to the major roadway of Queensway and the Pacific Place mall, and even then, that is an island unto itself. It is not until you get to the Wan Chai neighbourhood again that you actually get back into the fabric of the city. So, I really strongly agree with Michael's point about essentially what are ground plane-based moves; to connect between activities, street life, the walkability of the city.
Benjamin Cha
I want to pick up on Tobias's question about the power of a single building, the power of a landmark, or a striking piece of architecture. How would you respond to that? What is the power of the architecture versus what goes on inside the building?
The fourth Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) Headquarters designed by Foster Associates and completed in 1985. Photo by lan Lambot. Courtesy Foster + Partners.
5 IFC is the International Financial Centre tower and mall. Site 3 is a new harbourfront development by Henderson Land next to the IFC location and facing the central Harbourfront.
Kristine Li
For building to be an icon, it’s not about the number of people right, I think it’s about how the building presents itself and what it means for the city. And I think the visual form is extremely important because that’s 'what you see on the postcard' - look people see and like resonate with the architecture. I think that’s the power of having a star architect or someone really brilliant to be a designer. Because once you see it, it’s immediate, it’s immediate inspiration is immediate, that emotional response to something,that’s physical. When we have the link, it’s an art piece itself.
And I think one of our ideas of creating the tenants is to really bring life and breathe life. And I think it goes back to kind of our successes from H Queens and H Code6 and seeing and understanding the power of art, the power of having culture and having that additional layer of dialogue that brings excitement into the traditional business world. And I think you’ll be really happy to be able to, be able to align our vision with Christie’s7 because they were actually struggling between moving on to West Kowloon or staying in Central. So it was a long conversation and negotiation that we had with them. And then they were persuaded that they need to be here where the collective and concentrated energy is, and where the clients are.
Benjamin Cha
Do people underestimate the power of the architecture of a building? For example, one of the earlier icons from our generation, the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, drew people to a place that nobody wanted to go and it put the city on the map.
Tobias Berger
The Guggenheim Bilbao was the worst thing that happened to museums for 30 years. After Bilbao opened, everybody wanted a building that looked like an exploding pancake from the outside but they did not really care about whether it works inside. Taking an example from here in Hong Kong, namely, the competition for M+ which I co-administered; many people wanted a building that looked amazing from the outside but simply did not work for exhibiting art. To 'protect' ourselves, we had this one sentence in the competition paper that I think saved us: 'We want a building that works with straight white walls and space to exhibit paintings, objects and multimedia artworks.
Kristine Li
Success for a building depends on the programming, not just the iconic form. People can admire it from a distance, but if they can never participate in events there, it will not shift the gravity around it. That is why we have a ballroom facility in The Henderson, which will host social events and weddings. And we are also planning exciting exhibitions. For Art Basel Hong Kong8 we're planning a retrospective for one of the world's most famous contemporary artists. Programs like these can really transform and expand a person's relationship to a building.
6 H Queens and H Code are two Henderson Land developments in Central that feature entertainment and cultural destination alongside restaurants and bars.
7 Christie's auction house opened its Asia headquarters in The Henderson in September 2024.
8 Art Basel Hong Kong is the major international contemporary art event in Hong Kong and takes place annually in late March at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Phil Kim
I respect Kristine’s focus on programming right now. The Guggenheim, of course, had that impact for Bilbao. It had that outsized effect on the region because there was very little in terms of culture or tourist attraction in Bilbao. In terms of Hong Kong, I think the collection of these iconic buildings in Central does have an impact - but not because of one tower or piece of architecture on its own.
Tobias Berger
From a built environment point of view, what makes Central is actually the concentration of buildings. It's like Manhattan on speed. The question is, actually, why are there only six or seven iconic buildings in Central - it is very few given that total number of skyscrapers in Hong Kong. Like Phil, I think that intense concentration and urban density is what makes Central an amazing and iconic area, and not the individual buildings.
Phil Kim
I’m not saying that beautiful architecture doesn’t have power. But beautiful architecture on its own, is not of the time, because when you talk about program to me that it really resonates with me, because the two marry together so that the functionality of the building, that’s purpose, the way that the building unfolds to people actually coming in and using it, not just being sheltered, and inviting them, that that’s what I think makes it really powerful.
Tobias Berger
A city has to be programmed. That's why Central on Saturday is not exciting. And Cental on the Sunday becomes a very different place.
Raymond Chow
The Henderson is a very important building for Hong Kong and Central as a whole. It reinforces Central as the core district for Hong Kong. To your earlier question, is it going to shift 'the core'? I don’t think so, because of the heritage. But what it does is gives another kind of opportunity to re-segment Hong Kong in a different way. With all these great buildings, and all these great things happening - Kristine is pulling us to the East and Wing Tai is trying to pull us to the west with their ecosystem - it reinforces Central as really the place to be. You're creating a lot more experiences in the core Central area.
Michael Ng
This project has really raised a certain bar. I think it’s also a bit of a prize for Hong Kong. Really, we have not seen necessarily the kind of star architects who actually deliver buildings in Hong Kong for many, many years. Yeah, so I think it is a kind of confidence. But I think I think Central is evolving, I think it will be an extension of many different interesting areas. I’m talking about what we’re doing now on the Wing Tai side, the Escalator, that’s another cluster.9 It’s gonna be a different kind of Central suddenly. So you have different characters in the makeup, which is interesting.
Raymond Chow
Central Hong Kong is going to be very interesting in five to ten year's time. Because it will be very differently segmented, with new and wonderful cultural things going on, with big event art spaces and the auction houses, luxury retail, culture, etcetera.
9 The real-estate developmentcompany Wing Tai Properties Limited is currently developing a project located on Wellington Street, in a neighborhood directly adjacent to core Central.
Street level view of Statue Square outside of the HSBC headquarters. Photo by Norman Foster. Courtesy Foster + Partners.
THE PROBLEM WITH (URBAN) PLANNING
Benjamin Cha
Do you think there needs to be more planning and regulation, or less, to make central even better? What about a more coordinated effort between landlords, planners and stakeholders?
Kristine Li
The government's vision for new developable land in and around Central is already legally stipulated before they sell the land, before they hold a tender. For Site 3, thirty percent of the site has to be used for green spaces. That connectivity to the harbourfront - how to activate, for example, the area around and in front of the HSBC building, Statue Square, and all the way out to the harbour - that's already in the government's new vision, to incorporate that for the newer sites. But the real issue is to also incentivise the older landlords and owners to contribute to this new 'bank', which would also bring up the value of their buidlings and their rents.
Phil Kim
On this point, it is an issue of cooperation. This has been a repeating conversation for consultants like Michael and I because when you talk to the individual landlords and developers, they want creativity and innovation within their borders. But the second you ask them to step outside their properties, they say 'I don't want to pay for it. I don't want to be the first to do this, like come back to me when ten others have come into it'.
Raymond Chow
Phil is correct - and that is the physical side. But also if you could do a BID (business improvement district) concept, you would want to link it with digital connectivity as well, so that when you go into the 'zone', however it is defined, the BID reaches you. We need to remember the digital side. But wehn each individual developer is trying to do it on their own, it's almost impossible.
Phil Kim
We were just in Tokyo and we were very comfortable. I was with the same group of people five years ago and also ten years ago, but it was totally different then because of the incomprehensibility of Japanese to visitors - and the fact that it's not an English-friendly city. This time, of course, Tokyo has improved, and everybody was using their devices to navigate from point to point, so we could discover the tiniest little moments, the ones that are so rich and interesting.
Raymond Chow
Historically, when the market was very good, basically everyone was on their own. But that mindset shifted, because the world has changed, the markets have changed. Now it's about susbstaining. The time to do a BID or an association among developers is now. People need to realise that those glory days of simply building 'boxes' and instantly filling them up with tenants is over. It is about personal relationships, too, but also having a bigger vision for Hong Kong as well.
Kristine Li
I find there's actually a genuine interest to collaborate, if there's enough incentive. But the issues come about because everyone has different commitments to the goal and how to sustain it. How much does each entity contribute? Is it the private sector's responsibility, the public's, or the government's? That balance and that execution is what people have issues agreeing to.
Phil Kim
There isn't a formal concept, but what Hong Kong really needs is a concept of 'blurring'. Everyone wants to protect their own territory, and their departments and professions. But it's really about integrating everything - because future cities will thrive on activation, and activation is a human issue. In order to create great cities, you have to go back 500 years. So, for example, we all go to tiny little Italian towns, where there's very little regulation, and we love those experiences. But if you really think about it, there are organic breakdowns between the various sectors and shops and tenants and grocer. They create a total environment that's actually human. That's really what we need to do.
Tobias Berger
A lot of times the new ideas are coming from the architects, because they get asked the question, they have visions. Has that relationship changed in the last few years?
Michael Ng
I often find that when architects are asked to design or conceptualise a project, it's usually quite far down the line. Often times the rules have already been set - even if we would want to do something even different. It means you have to create good projects, and that the brief has to be really interesting. Then you start questioning the fundamentals of why we want to do this. But that kind of dialogue doesn't come in until really late in the process. Often you need to step back a little bit more in order for more coherence to develop.