The University of Hong Kong Visitor Center Opens to the Public
20-Feb-2014
HONG KONG - A ceremony to mark the opening of the University of Hong Kong Visitor Center was held. The Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui officiated at the ceremony, according to University of Hong Kong press release.
The University of Hong Kong Visitor Center is housed in the Workmen’s Quarters of the former Elliot Pumping Station and Filters site of the Water Supplies Department. The red brick rectangular building is one of the two historic buildings marking the entrance of the HKU Centennial Campus.
The Workmen's Quarters was constructed in 1918-19 as a single storey brick communal residence with three rooms which housed Chinese workers and watchmen. The building has been classified as a Grade III historic building and revitalized to become the University Visitor Center.
The Visitor Center serves as the gateway to the University, and will welcome prospective students, parents, alumni, and visitors from all around the world who want to know more about HKU. It features a souvenir corner offering a comprehensive range of HKU branded gifts and memorabilia, a publication and reading area providing information about HKU, as well as a “Gallery” for hosting exhibitions and displays.
Meanwhile, the collateral event of 2013 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture Hong Kong (UABB) named “On Urban Fringe: In Search of the Ideal City” is held at the Center from today until February 28 (Friday).
This collateral event continues the exploration under the exhibition’s main theme—Beyond the Urban Edge: “The Ideal City?”. Being an extension of the Fringe Urbanism Exhibition at the Main Kwun Tong Pier Biennale Site, the HKU event focuses on the current border conditions of four cities—Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka, and Kuala Lumpur.
The HKU Visitor Center – Gallery houses exhibits on Pokfulam Village – the last historic settlement on the highly urbanized Hong Kong Island. In this section, residents from the community will demonstrate their alternative living style rarely found in Hong Kong, or even around the world, for the lives in a village recently named among other historic settlements including Venice and Yangon in the World Monuments Watch List 2014. Faculty members and students from the Division of Landscape Architecture, HKU, with the support from Gallant Ho Experiential Learning Center of the University, shared their experience on the experiment on how a sustainable community could be co-built with the community through projects realized hand-in-hand with the villagers in the Fall Semester 2013.