We are thrilled to report that the HSBC Heritage Plaza at 1 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong, has won an Urban Intervention Merit Award at the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Urban Design Awards 2020.

Situated beneath the soaring atrium at the iconic HSBC Main Building, the new Plaza was conceptualised and designed by One Space Limited and URBIS Limited, in order to mark the Bank’s 150^th Anniversary in 2015.

Our design aims to celebrate HSBC’s enduring presence on this site since 1865 as a cornerstone of the city’s cultural heritage, by establishing a treasured place of civic pride that stimulates curiosity and public fascination about Central District’s colourful legacy. At the same time, the highly trafficked, sloped site posed numerous technical, statutory and logistical challenges.

An engraved, multi-textured stone map – depicting long-forgotten streets, historical shorelines and previous iterations of HSBC buildings at this location – stretches nearly the entire length of the site. Spatial thresholds are reestablished at either end of the Plaza, marked at the south by two stone lion’s heads recovered from the 1935 HSBC Building that once stood here. Activation of the space for special events has also been made possible in the detailing and service provisions.

GBA Urban Design Awards aims to elevate the overall urban design standard in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) through recognition of excellence in urban design projects, and to foster collaboration and exchange amongst urban planners, architects and other urban design professionals, companies and organisations in the GBA.

This Project was conceptualised and designed by One Space Limited and URBIS Limited.