CHU HAI COLLEGE

By Luca Maria Francesco Fabris - 1 March 2017

Looking at contemporary architecture in Asia and particularly in China, we are justified in wondering whether what we are seeing is “global” architecture, in the sense that it could be sited anywhere in the world, or whether they aren’t solutions for local issues and therefore, not replicable elsewhere. What is certain though is the fact that the simple vastness of China, the enormous social changes taking place there, and the country’s economic might have made it the perfect place for experimentation. Initially, it was Western architects for whom the country of the Great Wall became the ideal opportunity to realize their wildest dreams. Some blended their theories and language with references to context and the local culture; others imposed their spatial research with volumes that were deliberately extraneous to the milieu. Today, however, it’s the turn of the many brilliant Chinese architects. Not only are they reinventing Chinese architecture in an innovative contemporary key, they are also taking their aesthetic sense out into the rest of the world. It’s a phenomenon that shows the resilience of Chinese culture: after being shocked to the roots, it has come out the other end having grown and developed its own way of being contemporary and with a design for the future. This new approach applies particularly to China’s gateway to the West: Hong Kong. This special administrative region’s unique history made it a crossroads of cultures from the outset while its particular geographical position has meant it one of the world’s most densely built areas. Today, the urban fabric is in need of revitalization, density remaining, however, the major imperative. It is in this context that Rocco Yim has created his own exceptional architectural language made of volumes and open spaces that blend together in a continuum, often seamlessly bringing together apparently diverse, even discordant functions. A unique example of...