Ronald Lu & Partners (RLP), a full-service design architecture firm headquartered in Hong Kong that delivers buildings, urbanism and research is delighted to announce three ongoing projects that speak to the firm’s international reach and cross-sector expertise. With a practice of over 230 architects, split between eight specialist studios, RLP continues its leadership in sustainable development, mixed-use high-density cities, and transportation.
Following their completion of the Xiqu Centre, a major performing arts venue and the first cultural institution to be erected in West Kowloon Cultural District, in 2018, RLP will be finalising:
- Integral, an industrial eco-tourism garden in Guilin for Esquel, a Hong Kong-based textile and apparel company, which will reimagine modern Chinese manufacturing
- Victoria Dockside, an art and design district on Hong Kong’s iconic Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront
- A collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that addresses challenges and issues related to urbanisation in China.
Bryant Lu, Vice Chairman of Ronald Lu & Partners (RLP) commented: “Over the last 40 years we have built a portfolio that comprises cross-sector projects defined by a commitment to innovating on how we work and live. With Xiqu, we created a new way for audiences to experience the performing arts. With Integral, we plan to set a new global standard for manufacturing and, with Victoria Dockside, we present a fresh standard of leisure within a cultural context. We look forward to bringing these experiences to MIT-China Future City Lab Consortium, where we will continue to think about what it means to live in a mega-city, no longer just a question for Asian nations but for the world at large.”
In Summer 2020, RLP will unveil Integral, a commission by the Esquel Group intended to reimagine Chinese manufacturing. Located in Guilin, a city in southern China known for its dramatic landscape of limestone karst hills, this factory campus will tell a new chapter in the story of China’s industrialization and commercial production. The project addresses the proliferation of robotics and automation in factory production, where hand-stitching of garments is increasingly migrating to programming and operations of robots and machines. Inspired by traditional Chinese garden design, the design complements the natural landscape and local sustainable materials were carefully selected from reconstituted bamboo to blue brick facades.
Commenting on Integral, MK Leung, Director of Sustainable Design at Ronald Lu & Partners added: “Since the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing has taxed both the earth’s resources and workers’ well-being. Typically, in the pursuit of profits, nature has been undermined and workers are often subjected to poor and sometimes inhuman conditions. Integral is set to reimagine manufacturing. For the first time, people, technology and the natural environment will co-exist in synergy: a place of human flourishing, integrated with nature.”
To mark the completion, the Integral Conversation conference, a major forum for discussions on sustainable manufacturing and construction now in its sixth year, will be hosted on site and address a range of pertinent issues for the sustainable, ethical and manufacturing communities.
RLP is the lead architect and overseeing the design coordination amongst one hundred other design and architecture firms for Victoria Dockside. Located on the promenade of Hong Kong’s iconic Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, Victoria Dockside is a US$ 2.6 billion art and design district with 3 million square feet intended for public leisure. Built by New World Development and spearheaded by Adrian Cheng, Executive Vice-Chairman of New World Development and Founder of the K11 brand, it houses the prime office spaces K11 Atelier; an ultra-luxury hotel, Rosewood Hotel; luxury residence K11 Artus; and K11 Musea, a retail experience hosting premier art, design and leisure retail experiences.
Earlier in the year, RLP joined the MIT-China Future City Lab Consortium (MIT-CFC) as an Associate Member. This initiative addresses challenges and issues related to urbanization in China for which RLP is the only architectural practice invited to participate. The collaboration will bring RLP in dialogue with a global community of researchers, planners, and developers create tools and technologies relevant to China’s unique urbanization challenges.