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Christopher DeWolf

It’s impossible to ignore The Henderson.
As curvaceous as its neighbours are angular, the nearly complete 36-storey tower in Hong Kong’s Central business district, on the site of the former Murray Road Multi-storey Car Park, occupies a commanding position on the eastern edge of Chater Garden.
The building’s developer, Henderson Land, compares the appearance of the 190m/623ft-tall tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects to the layers of a bauhinia bud. And it’s that form factor that has so far garnered the most attention.
Online observers have been predictably snarky. One comment posted to an article in design magazine Dezeen compared it to a stack of drinks cans; another likened it to the tailpipe of a car.
“I can’t help thinking this would never have met the intellectual and design rigour Zaha Hadid bestowed on the practice’s work,” read a harsh pronouncement. (Since Hadid’s death in 2016, her firm has carried the torch.)

When Henderson Land paid HK$23.3 billion (US$3 billion) for the old car park in 2017 – making it the world’s most expensive piece of land at the time, according to some reports – it wanted a new icon that could stand up to the many famous towers nearby, from Cesar Pelli’s Two IFC to Norman Foster’s HSBC Building.
It also wanted something that could counteract the supposedly negative feng shui of I.M. Pei’s shard-like Bank of China Tower, which stands across Queensway from The Henderson.
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It chose ZHA after a competition.
“The brief said this has to be a very soft building,” says Sara Klomps, a director at ZHA. “It has to offset the ‘angleness’ of the I.M. Pei tower. Luckily we do a lot of soft buildings.”

That is something Hadid became famous for as she built up her practice with partner Patrik Schumacher. As early adopters of digital parametric design – which uses computer algorithms to create forms – they created buildings with sweeping curves that threw off the hard edges of modern architecture. Several ZHA buildings have been described in gendered terms.
“The appeal of her work lies partly at least in the sense that they embody a unique female personality,” noted The Guardian in an editorial published after Hadid’s death.
“She resisted gender stereotyping but it is not demeaning to insist that her work will always be seen as voluptuously feminine.”

There is certainly something organic in the undulating form of The Henderson’s glass facade. But this wasn’t simply done to be “soft” in the face of its more angular neighbours.
“We wanted the public realm to remain open and basically float the building above it,” Klomps says. “Instead of having just offices or a mall where it’s this anonymous, could-be-anywhere space, we have several levels where you can go, have a coffee or something, and it’s part of the public realm.”
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There will be a landscaped drop-off point on the ground floor, but most people will access the building from the footbridge level one floor up.
“The land lease came with the condition of three footbridges crossing the site. They had to be maintained. We could have done a typical Hong Kong-style mall, but we found that very difficult to navigate,” Klomps says.
“When you walk along the footbridges you find it easy to see where you are but when you enter a mall you get lost – at least I do.”

Instead, they had the idea of extending the lush ambience of Chater Garden into the building.
“Given the very green surroundings, we didn’t want to cut the city off from the park. We want this to be a building that feels like it’s a part of the park,” Klomps says.
The tower’s mirrored facade curves into a third-floor, double-height public space to reflect the greenery.
“There’s an extensive amount of planting,” Klomps says. “There are trees where, if you’re walking on the footbridges and they’re fully matured, you’ll be walking in the treetops.”

Adding to the sense of openness is an offset core, which is to say the main column that contains all the building’s services, including lifts and stairwells, is in a corner rather than the centre of the tower.
This gives office tenants sweeping views of the city, but Klomps says it also has the advantage of keeping the third-floor public space from feeling like an office lobby.
It also provides the opportunity for a large, unobstructed space on the rooftop for events.
“Like the ground floor it’s very transparent to offer a view across the city,” Klomps says.
We wouldn’t have done [the surrounding towers] justice if we had done just a normal building
Sara Klomps, director, ZHA
Achieving transparency with a curved glass facade wasn’t easy.
“There’s a lot of curved and double curved glass,” Klomps says, with the building’s undulating form making for unusual shapes.
“If it’s not curved properly you can’t see through it properly. Henderson Land basically invited every large glass manufacturer out there, anyone with the capacity to produce this extent of glass.”

Two suppliers were chosen: German glass specialist Seele, which manufactured the roof structure and lower levels, whose curves were the most technically complex; and Hong Kong-based Far East, which dealt with all the floors in between.
The result is a building unlikely to leave anyone unmoved, whether they like it or not.
“You can do an ordinary building that doesn’t stand out and nobody will notice. But if it looks strange, it sparks discussion. I guess it’s the human condition,” Klomps says.
“Some of us don’t deal well with doing something which is not typical. Why is that? I guess it’s possible there’s a thought that if you’re going to do something like that, the next building will be even more crazy. It’s a fear.”

She notes the very distinctive context in which The Henderson now stands. There are historic landmarks such as the Court of Final Appeal Building and original Bank of China Building; modernist icons including James Kinoshita’s Jardine House; and quirky postmodern towers like Paul Rudolph’s Lippo Centre, with its angular protrusions that have drawn comparisons with koalas climbing a tree.
“These are all icons for historic or architectural reasons,” Klomps says. “So you make something very special that stands out in a way but also blends into this group of special buildings. We wouldn’t have done them justice if we had done just a normal building.”


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Architecture and design

‘If it looks strange, it sparks discussion’: why new Hong Kong skyscraper The Henderson, in Central, was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects to appear ‘soft’

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the new 36-storey tower The Henderson (centre) in Hong Kong’s Central business district is a building that is hard to ignore. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Developer Henderson Land compares The Henderson’s appearance to the layers of a bauhinia bud. Photo: Paul Buck

Henderson Land wanted The Henderson (left) to counteract the supposedly negative feng shui of the neighbouring Bank of China Tower (centre). Photo: Virgile Simon Bertrand

The Henderson was designed to look “soft”. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Achieving transparency with The Henderson’s curved glass facade was challenging. Photo: Virgile Simon Bertrand

The Henderson occupies the former site of the Murray Road Multi-storey Car Park. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Two suppliers manufactured the glass for the building. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

The Henderson (centre) is surrounded by the Cheung Kong Center II (to its left), the Cheung Kong Center (far left), and the Bank of China Tower (right). Photo: Yik Yeung-man

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Thomas Chung (left), associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong School of Architecture, and Tsang Yuk-on, village representative of Mui Tsz Lam, at the revitalised Hakka village near the mainland China border. Photo: 
Wong Kam-sing, former Hong Kong secretary for the environment and ecology

A volunteer gets hands-on experience in rammed-earth construction at Mui Tsz Lam. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

Mui Tsz Lam has no road access. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

Tsang’s family home, dubbed “Old House” for the project, was one of two houses chosen to be Project Plum Grove’s proof of concept. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

Human Ip’s bird mural can be seen on a wall outside Mural House. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

The vitalised Mural House’s rammed-earth walls. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

The scaffolding system remains in the interior of Old House. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

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Sam Shan Kwok Wong Temple with Kai Tak Mansion construction beyond at Ngau Chi Wan Village, Kowloon. Photo: Martin Williams

View over Ngau Chi Wan Village squatter area, Hong Kong, 2023. Photo: Martin Williams

Ngau Chi Wan, in Wong Tai Sin District, is one of three historic Hong Kong “squatter” villages at threat of redevelopment. Photo: Martin Williams

A small shrine outside the house where Chun Man lives in Ngau Chi Wan. Photo: Martin Williams

Ngau Chi Wan’s Sam Shan Kwok Wong Temple, with Kai Tak Mansion being built in the background. Photo: Martin Williams

A tour group inspects a shrine in Ngau Chi Wan. Photo: Martin Williams

Oscar Ng and his mother at home in Ngau Chi Wan. Photo: Martin Williams

Ngau Chi Wan with Lion Rock in the background. Photo: Sun Yeung

Po Fook Cafe in Ngau Chi Wan. Photo: Martin Williams

Ngau Chi Wan village in the 1970s. About a third of the houses in the village were demolished to make way for the MTR. Photo: SCMP

Shanty housing at Chuk Yuen. Photo: Martin Williams

A man photographs a wall at Chuk Yuen. Photo: Martin Williams

Cha Kwo Ling in 1962. Photo: Wikipedia

Lo Kwok-keung in his store in Cha Kwo Ling. Photo: Martin Williams

Lifelong Cha Kwo Ling resident Law Chun-sheung’s family built the historic Law Mansion in the village. Photo: Martin Williams

A Tin Hau temple in Cha Kwo Ling. Photo: Martin Williams

Ceramic statues at a shrine in Ngau Chi Wan. Photo: Martin Williams

A street store in Ngau Chi Wan. Photo: Martin Williams

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At Huizhen High School, in Ningbo, China - the World Building of the Year 2023 - pathways between classrooms are meandering routes that take in greenery, one of many architectural elements designed to relieve academic pressure. Photo: Courtesy of Approach Design Studio

Students jog on a playing field at Huizhen High School. Photo: Courtesy of Approach Design Studio

Classrooms are grouped under an undulating roof accommodating a rooftop park. Photo: Courtesy of Approach Design Studio

Students are enveloped in verdant greenery no matter where they walk. Photo: Courtesy of Approach Design Studio

The school’s design encourages fresh air. Photo: Courtesy of Approach Design Studio

Meandering paths link the school’s various areas. Photo: Courtesy of Approach Design Studio

The school’s rooftop park. Photo: Courtesy of Approach Design Studio

How a Hong Kong park’s revitalisation encourages the people of one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods ‘to come together’

Hamilton Street Rest Garden, in Hong Kong’s Yau Tsim Mong district, rounds off a project in which budding designers have collaborated with old hands to renovate four city parks in a way that promotes community. Photo: Design Trust

Hamilton Street Rest Garden’s 30-square-metre aDapTable is an abstraction of the urban topography that surrounds the park, and contains space for takeaway boxes, books, newspapers and laptops. Photo: Design Trust

The park features bucket-style seating made from fibreglass-reinforced concrete that recalls architect Mies van der Rohe’s Illinois Institute of Technology. Photo: Design Trust

The park features plaques bearing its name made from pinewood chopping boards from a nearby craftsman. Photo: Design Trust

Close-up of the surface of the aDapTable. Photo: Design Trust

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Visitors to the Home of Forever Love in Hong Kong circumnavigate the leafy plot partly on paving stones that curve around a crepe myrtle feature tree. The crematorium’s design reflects how architecture can be used to affect emotions. Photo: Eugene Chan

A minimalist HoFL logo features on an outside wall. Photo: Eugene Chan

To the right of the main building, the roof rises to its highest point (9.3 metres) to accommodate a chimney.  Photo: Eugene Chan

The curves of the farewell hall are designed to enhance visual comfort for the bereaved. Photo: Eugene Chan

Perceptive observers will notice an off-centre cross in the otherwise non-denominational farewell hall. Photo: Eugene Chan

Celestial beams descend from a narrow skylight in the farewell room. Photo: Eugene Chan

BREADstudio co-founders and designers of HoFL Paul Mui (left) and Benny Lee. Photo: Eugene Chan

Ashes of the unborn can be scattered over a white bed of loose stones. Photo: Eugene Chan

HoFL is designed so visitors take a circular route through it. Photo: Eugene Chan

An aerial shot of the facility. Photo: Eugene Chan

The entrance portal, squeezed low, reflects the bowed heads of the bereaved. Photo: Eugene Chan

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Hong Kong & China

The 36-storey tower is meant to be a new icon that stands up to the famous towers nearby and counteracts the Bank of China Tower’s supposedly negative feng shui
ZHA director Sara Klomps talks about the building’s design, including how it extends the lushness of nearby Chater Garden and does the surrounding area justice


Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, new 36-storey skyscraper The Henderson in Hong Kong’s Central business district is hard to ignore – we find out why the building looks like it does.


Hong Kong property

Henderson Land

Hong Kong

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