Taikoo Place Walkways I

Taikoo Place in Quarry bay, Hong Kong is developed by Swire Properties as an alternative office community to the high value Central district, offering grade A property at more competitive rents. This development has grown to include about a dozen towers linked by a system of walkways one level above the street.

The current expansion of the project includes a central landscaped courtyard and an extension of the walkway system in a ring linking two new towers with the existing ones.

Thomas Heatherwick is lead designer of the new footbridge system in collaboration with HDA for providing assistance in their conceptual and technical development. The bridges are a series shell mesh roofs draped between inclining columns and existing buildings. This network of steel roofs perform as primary structure, from which the walkway deck is suspended. The shells are in plate steel, similar to ship hull construction techniques with copper cladding.

Facades in mullion free glass panels span between the roof and the deck to provide protection for the users and a controlled environment for hot summer seasons. The glazing system performs much like a glass accordion, to deal with the small, but unavoidable deflections of the deck.

HDA carried out form-finding structural modeling to define the roof shell shapes for both structural efficiency and visual logic. Roof drainage simulations were checked contemporarily with structural shaping, and solar simulations carried out to optimize shading and air conditioning plant. The glazing system was designed and substantiated with coheck for compatibility witht hte deck movement..