Canopy
Cooperative Housing
The University of Hong Kong, Bsc Graduation 2020
Mei Foo Estate is a dense housing estate located at the periphery of the Kowloon business district. It holds thousands of residents with supermarkets and car parks situated at the base of the buildings. At the northeast corner of the estate, there sits a heritage complex which once served psychiatric patients. This historical context scared off people in the estate and left a rift between the two worlds. In the present, the hill’s foot was occupied by a municipal building, a transformer station, a water tank, a school, the entrance leading to the hilltop lodges and a pedestrian bridge where people use to cross the highway. By integrating these elements, a new metropolis could be formed to experiment with the contemporary paradigm as co-operative housing an 3-dimensional streets.
The master plan is shaped by the existing infrastructures such as the highway bridge, the municipal building at the centre of the project and the roads underneath. Therefore the differential spans between the columns reflect the site constraints, but at the same time define the rooms and shared space in the new estate. The estate is formed in three clusters: Canopy I located beside the highway; the transitional hub formed by the municipal building and swimming pool; the Canopy II located near the school. To clarify, the first phase holds 6 towers with 104 flats while the second phase holds 3 towers with 36 flats.
