Hongkong Bank building

• The spaces were intended to function in a nonhierarchical manner, but the bank uses them for more traditional purposes.

• The building has diagonal wind bracing, main support trusses, and other structural elements that contribute to its design.

• The aluminum cladding is made with precision and the custommade stamping machines have a tolerance of 1/64 inch.

• The double-height glazing has robot-welded trusses that provide wind resistance and shutters that roll down in the event of a typhoon.

• The office interiors are well-lit with perforated blinds to control daylight and glare.

• The color scheme of the offices is subdued with black desks, gray carpets, and red desktop accessories.

• The partition system is custom-designed and consists of modular steel panels secured by vertical framing members.

• The fire stairs occupy some of the service modules hanging off the east and west sides of the building.

• A document transport system consisting of red "cars" is located within the fire stairs modules.

• Toilet and mechanical rooms occupy other service modules which were prefabricated in Japan and arrived fully fitted out at the site.

• The compactness of the toilet and mechanical modules has led to some drawbacks, such as no room for privacy vestibules or standard size equipment in the mechanical rooms

• The Hongkong Bank is a building remembered for its many innovative features.

• The process of designing and constructing the building is considered more informative to architects than the final product.

• The articles discuss the design process of the building, starting with its organization and interior spaces and moving on to its structure.

• The mechanical system and cladding, glazing, and daylighting systems have undergone significant innovations.

• The process of designing the Hongkong Bank may have even greater significance than the final product.

Vertical Organization

• The 47-story building is divided into 5 above-ground zones, each served by a double-height floor.

• 23 express elevators deliver staff and clients to the double-height floors, which correspond to the major structural transfer levels.

• Circulation continues via escalators, which provide a more social and efficient means of movement within departments.

• Zoning permits individual identities for different functions and is adaptable to the needs of various departments.

• Double-height levels contain reception areas, fire refuge terraces, dining, recreation, and conference rooms.

• Express elevator system allows for computer-controlled schedule changes and efficient security screening.

• Elevators and escalators were designed with an aesthetic ideal to reveal the mechanical workings.

• The elevator shafts and cabs are glazed for an effect of lighted cubes passing through the space.

• V.L.P. visitors are driven to a separate elevator on the west side of the building.

• Delivery of freight is facilitated by two heavy-duty hoists on the east side of the building.

• A vertical transportation system for document handling was also designed into the building using electric tracks and pneumatic tube cars.

Horizontal Organization

• The building is designed to allow for maximum planning flexibility and to retain natural light, orientation, and views of the harbor and the Peak.

• Mechanical and transportation shafts are placed on the east and west sides of the building, while the structure is kept minimal with at most four structural columnar "masts" passing through each floor.

• The floors are divided into east-west bays of around 10,000 net square feet each, with three bays up to level 29 and two bays in the seven stories above, and one bay at the top levels.

• Cellular office space, filing, record rooms, and conference rooms are located in the central bay on three-bay floors to retain views for most workers, and additional office space can be added in a linear strip along the inner section of the outer bays.

• The building has a high net-to-gross ratio of 1:1.2 on the largest floors, and core areas are designed to be as minimal as possible for efficiency.

• Circulation on two-bay floors occurs via escalator at the middle, with linear strips of office space on either side. On the top floors, circulation is by elevator only.

• Glazed north and south walls are provided for cellular offices to provide views, and to save energy, escalators are activated by pressure pads.

Office Layouts, Furniture, Signage, Lighting

• Foster Associates and a bank used an agency to layout office floors using CAD.

• Quickborner Bürolandschaft techniques were used to allocate department areas.

• Forms were filled for each department, providing data on visits, paper movement, and telephone contacts, and summary diagrams were prepared.

• Appropriate furniture systems were scrutinized for durability, price, and fit with the bank's needs, and a mix-and-match system was decided upon.

• Foster Associates recommended using only one height of screens, 60 inches high.

• Zones were established on each floor using bubble diagrams to plan the layouts.

• A partition system was custom-designed by Foster Associates and built in Japan, which can accept double or single glazing or solid panels, or a combination of glass and solid.

• The building's User's Manual includes sections on office planning, lighting arrangements, electrical changes, visual rules to prevent clutter, and more.

• The banking hall counters of laminated black Belgian marble were designed by Foster's office and fabricated in Italy, with a full set of mock-ups prepared before the real thing was built.

• The signage system, developed in West Germany, includes "hidden messages" contained within glass or acrylic panels and is individually revealed by illumination from behind, controlled by an automatic system.

• The lighting system for typical floors is highly flexible and consists of a grid of triphosphor ceiling fixtures, which can take one or two lamps and can be adapted for fluorescent or halogen lights, with light levels varying from 300 up to 800 lux for different uses.

Structure

• The suspended high-rise construction is not a new idea, but it has not been used to the extent and configuration of this building.

• Stacking several smaller suspension structures reduced the travel distance of most loads while retaining the benefits of suspended construction.

• The motive for using suspended construction was to keep the 1935 banking hall operational during construction of the new building.

• The design went through several revisions before taking its present form, including eliminating the concrete cores and redesigning the awkward spaces among the double-story trusses.

• The structure has eight supporting masts arranged in two rows of four, with each mast consisting of four tubular steel columns linked by haunched beams.

• The suspension trusses have rectangular members made of two thick plates connected by thinner web plates, from which hang steel tubes supporting the primary beams under each floor.

• The building has pin connections instead of bolted connections, as the size of the loads made bolted connections impractical.

• The masts serve a role other than that of supporting the superstructure trusses, and they are used to support the oversized cladding at the main facades.

• The building has several cranes, one of which is intended for use as a heliport, and four more cranes are used to support cleaning platforms and to move heavy equipment in and out of the building.