Hong Kong West Kowloon Station

Sitting on a prominent site immediately adjacent to Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong West Kowloon Station, as one of the largest below-grade rail terminuses in the world, serves as a gateway to Hong Kong as well as a terminus to the high-speed rail network of Mainland China.

The organisation of the design was inspired by the idea of forces converging on Hong Kong – wind, pedestrian flows, traffic and tracks coming into the station. The design maximises civic gestures both externally and internally. At the heart of the station is the enormous 20-meter-below-ground central void. The main interior space is 180 meters long, with an average width of 65 meters and a maximum height of 45 meters. The roof is supported by large, tree-like column-bundles, lifting up 4,000 panels of glass filling the station with light and allowing millions of passengers their first glimpse of the towers of the city even from the lower levels of the station.

The magnificent view of the Victoria Harbour and The Peak is facilitated by the exterior ground surface that slopes down toward the hall – an area called ‘Civic Plaza’ – and an accessible green roof that gestures toward the harbour, the height reaches 25 meters above ground. The station’s sweeping roof design encourages people to walk up the gentle paths to the top, through a densely vegetated sculpture garden and landscaped extension of the green below. The resulting 3.5-hectare of open space offers a spectacular public vista over Victoria Harbour and towards Hong Kong’s skyline and Victoria Peak.