PRIVATE Government HQ for the British Consulate & British Council, Hong Kong
1992-1997

Terry Farrell & Partners' design was the winning entry in a limited competition to design the new British Consulate-General and British Council buildings in Hong Kong.
This important Government commission required a particularly sensitive design approach in view of Hong Kong's prominence on the world stage. More significantly, the building represents Great Britain's continued interests now that Hong Kong is a Special Administration Region of China.

The new Consulate-General scheme provides accommodation for both the British Consulate and the British Council on an impressive site at the junction of Justice Drive and Supreme Court Road adjacent to the new Hong Kong Park. The British Consulate-General benefits from commanding views of Hong Kong harbour and Kowloon beyond.

The design concept arose from the belief that urban design was as important as architectural design for this challenging site and resulted in two separate perimeter buildings linked by a common entrance pavilion. The two major buildings - the Consulate-General and the British Council have their own position and identity while providing a long public frontage to Hong Kong and quiet contemplative views to the private, secluded gardens, carefully designed to retain many of the existing trees on site, including some prized and protected species.

The architectural language - in marked contrast to the known commercial Hong Kong style -establishes a modern, well-tailored and cool building to achieve the brief requirement for a fine, welcoming building; identifiably British. This language unifies both buildings and the consistent 10 storey height and roof line echoes the Hong Kong public buildings of the past.

The buildings provide a total gross floor area of approximately 200,000 sq., ft., the Consulate-General incorporating Passport, Immigration, Trade Commission and Consular departments and the British Council containing a library, exhibition areas, substantial classrooms and teaching facilities.
The buildings are constructed of reinforced concrete frame. The main elevations incorporate long hole-in-wall windows in a masonry clad wall of white granite. Spandrels to the windows and panelled areas around the entrances are in Kirkstone Slate. The elevations to major rooms and principle circulation areas on the street frontages have full height glazing in clear, anodised aluminium.

The Consulate and British Council building resolves itself through a complex interplay of opposites: open and closed spaces, solid and void, flat and sloping, public and private, urban bustle and natural tranquillity. This is not an architecture that attempts to over-simplify life by paring down reality. Like the city itself, it is a building constantly in flux, providing a different face for each situation.