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Hong Kong Revels in High-end DesignHong Kong, says the Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid, is where "it all started." In 1983, the London architect's revolutionary design won the international competition for The Peak Club, a residential and sports facility in the former British territory's tony mountainside district.
The project was never built, but the award was one of the first public acknowledgements of her work and a key early boost to her career.
These days, mainland China, host to the 2008 Olympics, has no shortage of impressive new structures by the biggest names in architecture, so it is no surprise that Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, feels the need to embrace innovative real estate ideas.
But the reasons for enlisting design stars highlight the cultural and economic differences that remain between the two places.
On the mainland, the government- bankrolled sports centers and cultural venues that excite architecture enthusiasts are intended to underscore the country's rise as an economic and political force to be reckoned with internationally.
Hong Kong has a far more pragmatic attitude: Design, it seems, is an investment that serves economics and, increasingly, commerce.
more: www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/07/p... (594)
7/2/2008 | Viewed 53,400 time(s)
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