Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1038

One question that was nagging me after seeing Hong Kong’s “typical” tower typology was: what’s with the cruciform tower plan and all these notches and cutouts? Wouldn’t it be far more efficient to square off the floor plates? I figured that it had to be in response to building regulations. I was going to mention that in this post on the typical “8-units-per-floor” tower plan , but I wanted to first understand what was going on. Thankfully a reader of this blog who is from Hong Kong was kind enough to send me a wonderfully detailed email outlining some of Hong Kong’s building regulations and how they impact the design of tall buildings.

It turns out that there are requirements for both “natural lighting and ventilation” and for “external air.” All rooms for habitation, as well as offices, bathrooms, and kitchens, are subject to these requirements. There are prescribed window areas for the “glass areas” and for the “openable areas”, both of which are a function of the room size. The glass area must equal the room area divided by 10. And the openable area must equal the room area divided by 16. I presume that these are minimum sizes because they don’t feel all that big.

For the “external air requirement”, the room must face a street no less than 4.5m in width or it must face an unobstructed space as delineated by “rectangular horizontal planes” and by “inclined planes.” The incline planes are drawn in section from the sill of the window and the angle depends on the type of room. The rectangular horizontal planes are drawn in plan and have a minimum area of 21 square meters (or ~225 square feet). If you would like to deep dive into more of the technical details you can do that here . But suffice to say that it is these requirements which are driving all of the tower notches and cutouts.

The result is tower floor plates that can look something like this:

And if we zoom into a unit (this one being a 3 bedroom apartment), you can see that both bathrooms have a window, as does the kitchen. From what I saw, there appears to be less interest in open concept floor plans. You may also finding it interesting to note some of the room dimensions (in mm) and the A/C platform sitting outside of the master bedroom. 

Finally, I should follow-up on my previous comment about tower separation distances and the ability for the above tower floor plates to be built directly adjacent to each other. Not surprisingly, this resulted in walls of towers being constructed. Ultimately this became known as the “wall effect.” So in 2011, the Sustainable Building Design (SBD) guidelines were put in place which stipulated that groups of buildings having a continuous facade length greater than 60m should comply with various separation and permeability guidelines.

So there you have it. Every market has its local nuances. The above post is a good example of that. I also love when this blog becomes a platform for two-way discussion. I learned something new today and hopefully you did too. Thank you Hiu Yeung for your emails and for providing me with all of this information.

Top image: Photo by me taken at Hong Kong’s Peak

The new Bentway skate trail officially opened this weekend in Toronto. Click here for the hours and for info on skate rentals.

Here are a some photos from blogTO. And here and here  are two posts that I previously wrote about the Bentway project. (I still really like the original “Under Gardiner” moniker, but maybe the Bentway will grow on me.)

The skate trail (220m track) is only the first section of the larger 1.76 km Bentway project, but I am excited to check it out. I plan to do that next weekend.

As I mentioned before , the Bentway project is a great example of rethinking neglected urban spaces. This area under the Gardiner Expressway was/is a wasted opportunity. I’m glad we’re doing something about that.

Image: The Bentway

I came across this Hong Kong apartment listing earlier in the week. Sai Ying Pun is the neighborhood.

HK$9.8 million = C$1,554,833 based on today’s exchange rate (1 CAD = 6.30293 HKD).

At 432 square feet (net), that’s C$3,599 psf. But I have also been told that new buildings here could easily fetch C$5,000 psf and probably much more.

There’s certainly a tremendous amount of wealth in Hong Kong. However, the topic of discussion right now is the new money being generated in mainland China.

I am curious what all of this could mean for Hong Kong, it’s place within the PRC , and for real estate long-term.

Hong Kong’s Basic Law stipulates that the region shall maintain a capitalist system and that its current way of life shall be preserved outside of the PRC. 

But that constitutional document is set to expire in 2047 – fifty years after the handover from the British . And one would assume that China would favor more, rather than less, integration. 

Already the Cantonese language – the official language of HK along with English – seems to be getting diluted in favor of the “ speech of the officials .”

So what will Hong Kong look like by the middle of the 21st century? Will it simply become a “second city” to Beijing and Shanghai?

Place your bets in the comments below. Or call Miss Winnie.