Architecture Design Year 3 Studio 2021-22 Semester 2, HKU
Studio Title MSB 2.0
Image Credits Cheung Tsz Kiu Jackie (01-04), Hong Sum Ho (Angus) (05-08), Lai See Long (Christopher) (09-12)

Course Description

This studio challenges students to observe, analyze and speculate the past, present and future of municipal service building (MSB), a unique building type in Hong Kong which vertically accommodates a diverse mix of public programs often including wet market, performance venue, library, recreational facilities and hot food center. For the recent years the role of these MSB in Hong Kong has been diminishing as various new forms and operations of public and commercial programs emerge to cater for the changing need of the community.  Apparently the government has stopped developing this building type for more than a decade.

Stage 1 of the project consists of the study on existing MSB buildings which are categorized with three specific site conditions: i) Edge/Island; ii) Sectional/Mountain; iii) Inner/Dense. Students in group of three or four are required to conduct their investigations on the issues of urban context, structure, circulation and programs of the existing MSB.  The research outcome of stage 1 forms the basis for the individual design task at stage 2 – a ground-up building of maximum 5000 square meters to replace the existing MSB. Students are expected to reinterpret and transform this building type and speculate the future role of civic building at large.