With Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou and Shenzhen at its core, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) has been a focus of Mainland China’s development in recent years. Touted as the dragon head of the country’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Shenzhen and its neighbouring Hong Kong can complement each other’s advantages and form a GBA focal point. This has also been given primary importance among the Greater Bay Area priorities. Located in the western part of the Shenzhen city covering 18 square kilometres, Qianhai, in turn, is hailed as the SEZ within the greater SEZ of Shenzhen. It was estimated that this future “Manhattan” of Shenzhen will offer construction spaces of 26 to 30 million square metres in 2020 and will subsequently claim its place as Asia Pacific’s important production services centre and a major hub of international services trade.

In view of this, governments and organisations across regions are eyeing related opportunities to hop on this accelerating express rail in a move to expedite collaboration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong for the architectural development of Qianhai free-trade zone new city. The Qianhai Architectural Design Competition (前海城市新中心小型環境藝術設施設計競賽) was born. Under the auspices of the Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone and jointly organised by The Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) and Shenzhen Qianhai Development Investment Holdings Co., Ltd, the competition aimed to attract Hong Kong’s architecture students and young architects under the age of 40.

The project of the competition was a ground-level facility building comprising a fire service pump room and water tanks as part of the municipal engineering construction project for Qianhai Guiwan Yilu and its underpass network. The plot may only cover 500 square metre but the building stands at the gateway of the Qianhai north platte with the Shuangjie River Water Corridor Park on its northen fringe. Serious consideration to the natural landscape was required. As such, the Authority expected the design to enhance the building, bringing it in harmony with its surroundings so as to meet the new Qianhia city centre’s need for a position.

The HKIA played a pivotal role as Hong Kong’s sole organiser of the competition. President of the Institute Li Kwok-hing Felix said that the Qianhai Architectural Design Competition marked the HKIA’s first collaborative effort in organising a competition with a mainland government body. The project set itself apart from typical mainland projects where designers would only be responsible for the design while the construction works would be left entirely in the hands of the contractors. Li intended for the competition participants to get “hands-on”. Not only did they need to visit the site beforehand but they were also required to follow the Hong Kong practice which engages the architects in every aspect of a project from design concepts to construction towards project completion. Concerted efforts and continuous communication turned this ideal into reality. “It signified a breakthrough for the mainland’s design sector,” he says contentedly.

The HKIA’s immediate past president Marvin Chen, who was a panel judge of the competition, pointed out that the Institute had started to conceive similar initiatives two years ago. The opportunity arose eventually when the Institute received Qianhai Authority’s invitation to organise the competition. It was a rare and enthralling undertaking. Preparation time was tight, though. Upon the invitation at the end of last January, the HKIA had to wrap up the competition before 1 July to get ready for the exhibition. Practicab lity concerns were raised during initial HKIA meetings but Qianhai Authority’s response was encouragingly swift. This has inspired great enthusiasm in Chen for future collaboration with mainland government bodies. “The authority runs like clockwork and it took the authority just three months to collect all the competition entries.”

Chen emphasised that the competition provided an excellent exchange opportunity for both regions. The mainland looked to acquire Hong Kong’s international ways and gear up to the standards of international competitions while Hong Kong in turn wished for the city’s young architects to tap into the mainland market and get acquainted with the development of various other countries through the competition.

The competition received more than 40 entries from participants in the young professional and student categories. The young professional category prize went to architech Hung Kam-fai’s team whose water-themed entry impressed the panel judges for it brought into play Qianhai’s bayside geographical characteristic with culverts running through different zones to highlight the nexus between water and land. The application of “water” created different spatial settings and atmosphere of varying ocassions and seasons in an uncomplicated, subtle approach which underscored Qianhai’s confidence in pursuing the “experimental”.

Hung Kam-fai opened his own design firm in 2013. Prior to that, he was mainly engaged in interior design and buidling façade projects. Over the years, he has won awards from various other competitions in the past. He revealed that he had reaped great satisfaction from the competition which allowed him to involve in the entire construction process. Over the course of the competition he has felt the mainland’s admiration for Hong Kong architects who are able to inject international perspectives into the mainland. This underpinned Hong Kong’s important value proposition, he stressed. “Afterall, Hong Kong has limited land supplies whereas mainland China presents itself as an ideal ‘battleground’ with infinite opportunities on offer. Hong Kong can leverage off this experience to take part in future mainland projects with an ultimate goal of exporting the service of Hong Kong’s young architects.”

Winner of the student category The University of Hong Kong’s architecture student Mak Chi-hong Alfred said that his entry Running Reflections (流映) also used “flowing water” as his design concept, riding on the characteristics of rivers and streams to highlight the relationship between urban development and nature. The transformation of the fire station into a work of art at the city’s heart allows citizens to reflect on the living values of the river and the city during their leisure pursuit.

Mak noted that he was keen to take part in the competition despite juggling final-year works because the competition presented an unprecedented opportunity for him to show his flair for architecture. Such competitions are rare in Hong Kong, he said, adding that Qianhai’s close proximity to Hong Kong allows him to visit his own creation with ease. “The going was tough but the competition provided me an avenue to demonstrate my passion for design and added meat to my resume, giving me a head start within the graduate job market.”

All the winning entries were showcased in an exhibition in Hong Kong and Qianhai in July last year. Li expected the competition to set a good precedence of the "early and pilot implementation" approach, laying the platform and conduit for Hong Kong budding designers to tap into the mainland’s architectural design market. The HKIA is looking to organise the competition again in future and repeat the “hands-on” approach in addition to a “seriality” design requirement, expanding the scale of the competition to cover other mainland cities in a further effort to open up space for Hong Kong’s young architects seeking professional development in the long run.