Starchitecture of Central Hong Kong? We’re fully in it. Central Hong Kong is literally that — Foster, Pei, Hadid, and Herzog & de Meuron all dropped their biggest fits within a few blocks of each other. We’re talking the HSBC HQ (Foster + Partners, 1985), the Bank of China Tower (Pei, 1990), Tai Kwun (Herzog & de Meuron, 2018), and the Henderson (Zaha Hadid Architects, 2024). Some of these designs were lowkey unhinged and some of them literally set the template for commercial buildings worldwide. Understood the assignment, fr.
The Henderson? She ate. The whole vibe is inspired by the bauhinia bud — that’s the flower on Hong Kong’s flag — with these overlapping curved volumes wrapped in 4,000+ double-laminated glass panels, each one a different curvature. It’s giving nature-meets-sci-fi and we are not complaining.
Ok but the HSBC vs Bank of China drama? That’s the lore you didn’t know you needed. So apparently feng shui is a whole thing here (rightfully so), and the Bank of China Tower’s triangular shapes were read as literal knife blades pointing directly at the HSBC building and Government House. Not great vibes. In response, the HSBC building allegedly installed two rooftop maintenance cranes styled like cannons to send that energy right back. Iconic behaviour, honestly.
It gets messier. One of the Bank of China’s sharp corners was also pointing at the former British Government House, and after the tower went up, locals started attributing a string of L’s — a governor’s heart attack, economic downturns — to that negative energy living rent free in the skyline.
The controversy hit so different that the Bank of China actually modified the facade to dial back the more aggressiveshapes. The buildings beefed, and the buildings blinked. Certified Hong Kong moment.
The Starchitecture of Central Hong Kong is definitely worth a good look if you’re in these parts.