Drawings and photographs, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (1981–1985), Hong Kong 香港演藝學院（1981至1985年）繪圖及照片

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts is a significant example among the numerous civic buildings constructed in Hong Kong during the 1980s. Simon Kwan & Associates, the winner of an international competition in 1981, designed a dramatic scheme made of triangular volumes. The design was informed by the layout of the site’s constraints, such as underground rail tracks and water-supply pipes. Organised around a central, light-filled atrium, the building is divided into two sections at ground level: a five-storey academic block and a six-storey theatre block. One side includes classrooms, administrative facilities, and workshop areas for students, while the other side has multiple theatres and recording studios. The two functions are connected above an internal roadway for vehicles. Originally, a sloping space frame like the one supporting the atrium roof covered an outdoor amphitheatre. The facades, clad in ceramic tiles, also feature the triangle motif for openings and windows. The stark angles of the monumental building are balanced by curved shapes and the foliage of the campus’s exterior landscape design. The clarity of the spatial massing produces a dynamic visual effect, changing in appearance depending on one’s position.

This series consists of a rendering for the competition submission, a detailed sectional perspective rendering, and a set of photographs showing the exterior and interior facilities of the completed building.