hedge fund office hong kong

dkstudio architects inc. was commissioned by the owners of an exclusive, privately held hedge fund in Hong Kong to design its new 3,200 square feet offices as part of the company’s relocation to Central, the prestigious business district of Hong Kong. Located a few streets north of Victoria Harbor in a dense stretch of 1960’s buildings, the site offered the potential to capitalize on stunning harbor views.

 

The brief called for an environment that was more akin to a luxury hotel, a club, or a gallery, rather than a typical office. Spaces like the office entrance, main conference and meeting rooms, and chairman’s office were to be engaging, inviting, relaxing and living room-like, with as little corporate feel as possible. The warm, hotel-like environment were to be achieved without compromising he functional and technical requirements of the office.

 

The design of the office is based on a stylized “torus” or wheel parti. The perimeter of the torus is made up of all the rooms and functions of the office located on the ring or edge of the office. A central glass corridor with curved glass corners wraps the inside of the torus and connects all the rooms, enveloping the curved formal conference room which becomes the jewel in the crown of the office. The perimeter rooms of the office, which include the Chairman’s office, meeting room, partner’s and staff  offices, etc., are clad entirely with Italian walnut floors and ceilings while the void in the torus - the curved corner corridor - is clad with flamed Basaltina flooring. Metal ceiling access panels run the full width of the corridor to allow seamless access to the mechanical systems running in the void above the corridor without compromising the design.

 

The design aimed to introduce a clear sense of lightness and transparency without compromising the privacy appropriate to a hedge fund environment. Freestanding walnut consoles replaced all internal walls and were topped with clear double-glazed glass panels that also framed both sides of the units. This design extended one’s views beyond each office or meeting room towards the harbor and city. Even landlocked offices offer a connection to harbor and city views through vantage points on the sides of the walnut consoles.

 

Innovative use of the double glazed walls with air cavities and isolation detailing was used in all partitions in order to achieve a high level of acoustic privacy between each of the rooms. All technology including card and fingerprint readers were seamlessly integrated into the door partitions or millwork to create an undisturbed realization of the original hotel lounge vision of the office. The formal meeting room, in addition to being double glazed, was made of switchable glass which opens the room entirely to light and views to the harbour when clear, but at the touch of a switch becomes entirely opaque white when a meeting or function demands privacy. 

 

Prominent contemporary artists including Berlin-based artist Marc Bowditch contributed several large scale art pieces to the project including a 36 piece matrix watercolour, “The Rodeo Bull”, which dominates the entrance of the project and sets the tone for the vision of the office being a cultural, social and professional environment. 

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The project was the recipient of the Best Of Canada Award for Office interiors in 2015, as well as an American Architecture Prize Honourable Mention in the Office Design Category in 2016.