A buyer’s market
It is a one-of-a-kind in Asia but even the locals wanted it modernised. Could the Wanchai Market building have been better preserved? Rosanne Barrett reports
The jutting fins and rounded corners of Queens Road East’s Wanchai Market are now under wraps. Large black sheets have been pulled over the 1937-built Streamlined Moderne-style building, ahead of its redevelopment into a luxury apartment and commercial precinct. And although the façade will remain, concerns have been raised about whether this form of redevelopment is an effective way to protect Hong Kong’s architectural heritage.
The Wanchai Market building has escaped demolition, but only just. In 1996 a government-private partnership announced plans to provide ‘renewal’ for the area by knocking down the market and redeveloping the block. After many years and significant public input, the final plans were released in late 2007. The developer Chinese Estates devised a way to keep the façade and 40 percent of the building.
A spokeswoman says Chinese Estates has made significant concessions to protect the market’s original style. “Instead of starting at ground level, as originally planned, the residential tower will now be supported by piles going through the rear part of the market floors and will rise above the rooftop,” she says. “As far as we know, this is a rare engineering attempt in Hong Kong for the purpose of conservation.” She says special features on the 43-storey tower, such as the ‘fin-like’ cantilevers, will boost the conservation aspect.
But simply maintaining the façade and placing a huge tower over the top of it is not an effective way of conserving a heritage building, says the director of the Architectural Conservation Programme at the University of Hong Kong, Dr Ho-Yin Lee. “From a conservation point of view it’s definitely not good, it’s against international good practice,” he says. “It’s a half-hearted conservation that’s really destroying the character of the building.” Dr Lee says in other countries, this form of conservation was commonplace about 20 years ago, but has been mainly phased out. However, he admits that many locals weren’t too enamoured by the original Grade 111 Historic Building; not many people found it particularly attractive.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Live Architecture programme conducted a survey of market-goers in 2004. Although 68 percent of the 300 respondents said the market should be saved, they wanted some modernisation of the building and considered the lack of air-conditioning uncomfortable. But professionals in design, architecture and heritage maintain the market should have been preserved in its original state.
In a 2004 Hong Kong Institute of Architects survey, the majority of respondents agreed that the market should be adapted and preserved to balance both the heritage aspects and the renovation. “It is an excellent example of the manifestation of ‘form follows function’ of the Modern Movement,” a report by the Institute said. “It is one of the few earliest buildings in Hong Kong constructed by steel framing concrete, which was considered as being advanced at that period.”
If public interest in the luxury units is anything to go by, the redeveloped Wanchai Market building will be a success. The first phase of the redevelopment project, The Zenith, sold 99.85 percent of all units last year.
The Hong Kong government has plans for the urban renewal of other Wanchai heritage buildings including the former Wah Tor Hospital, the Blue House at Stone Nullah Lane, which dates back to 1872. Although the government has promised to maintain the building’s ‘character-defining elements’ and vintage architectural features, opinion is split about whether the plans within the Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme will adequately conserve Hong Kong’s urban heritage.
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