Place specific

Thomas Heatherwick renovated a luxury shopping and entertainment complex in Hong Kong to give it a more contemporary look and feel.

Built in the late 1980s, Pacific Place is a 650 000 square metre luxury shopping and entertainment complex in the centre of Hong Kong.

Recently Thomas Heatherwick was commissioned to renovate the space to give it a more contemporary look and feel.

The shopping mall at Pacific Place forms a podium for four towers that provide high-specification office space, four five-star hotels, serviced apartments and gourmet dining destinations. As an iconic development that sets the standard for luxury shopping in the city, with the renovations Heatherwick ensured that the centre would maintain a very high standard in a competitive market.

The renovations involved everything from a developing a new brand to the interior design to a complete exterior overhaul. Heatherwick approached the project by rethinking the existing spaces and materiality, prioritising the user experience and confirm Pacific Place as one of the city’s premier destinations.

Sweeping curves and natural materials were employed to soften the interior while the navigation was simplified with improved signage and more open sightlines. Pyramid skylights were replaced with walkable, 3D-patterned skylights that both illuminate the mall and open up the podium roofscape to create a public space surrounded by stone benches a lush vegetation.

Within this transformed landscape a café and restaurant can be found, as well as curved glass elevators that slice through the podium. There’s also the new textured Bedonia stone façade that envelopes the building in a new identity.

Watch the Talk with Thomas Heatherwick