Hong Kong-based architecture photographer Edmon Leong has sent us a set of exclusive photos of Zaha Hadid's nearly-completed Innovation Tower at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (+ slideshow).
The 76 metre-high building, located on the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus close to Hung Hom station in Kowloon, is being built to house the institution's design school.
Providing 120,00 square metres of space for 1,800 students, faculty and staff, the project is part of a strategy to turn Hong Kong into a leading design hub in Asia.
The building is conceived as a variant of the tower-and-podium typology, with the concrete podium and the louvred tower visually united by flowing forms.
Zaha Hadid Architects were appointed to design the building in 2008. "The Innovation Tower design dissolves the classic typology of the tower and the podium into a seamless piece," Hadid said at the time. "The design unashamedly aims to stimulate a vision of possibilities for the future whilst reflecting the history of the institution."
Hadid first came to international prominence in 1983 for a project designed for Hong Kong - a hilltop spa and leisure club called The Peak that was never built.
"I am delighted to be working in Hong Kong again," Hadid said when the Hong Kong Polytechnic University project was announced. "The city has such diversity in its landscapes and history; this is reflected in an urbanism of layering and porosity. Our own explorations and research into an architecture of seamless fluidity follows this paradigm so evident in Hong Kong."
She added: "One of our seminal projects was designed for the city exactly 25 years ago, and the Innovation Tower design is a realization of this continued research."
All images are copyright Edmon Leong and used with permission.