One-Eight-One Hotel and Serviced Residences

Previously commercial offices (known as Western Harbour Center) at 181–183 Connaught Road West, this 29-storey building was completed in 1997. It was subsequently converted by Liu Chong Hing Investments into a 183-room hotel and serviced residences with panoramic views of Victoria Harbour.

Inhabit was engaged to rejuvenate the building. This scope of works included the external envelope of the building and the services included façade design, façade engineering, access and maintenance and external lighting. Inhabit retrofitted a unitised façade system on the existing building that alludes to a series of punch windows that look and feel closer to human scale – more like a hotel rather than a monolithic glass wall that speaks the visual language of a commercial towers.

Taking advantage of the curvature of the footprint of the existing building, the aggregation of these ‘punch windows’ form an elevation that is rich in ornaments and textures such that, when viewed from different angles, the building would glitter in varying patterns.

From a lighting design perspective, Inhabit made sure that the façade lighting is unique and gravitates around the same architectural cue, so that every component in the system is a part of a coherent whole.

The building’s façade lighting concept focused on 3 primary features: to generate a sense of allure, give a subtle, dynamic movement and have an integrated aesthetic. Shimmering sunlight reflected off the ocean’s surface provided inspiration for a lighting effect that gives a sense of warmth and allure from many vantage points around and on the harbour.

Inhabit’s Lighting and Façade teams developed a highly integrated design using custom luminaire with a specially tinted lens with the result affording a clean and uninterrupted appearance during daytime.

  • Scope
    FAÇADE CONSULTING + LIGHTING DESIGN + ESD + ACCESS + MAINTENANCE
  • Location
    HONG KONG, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
  • Client
    LIU CHONG HING INVESTMENT
  • Architect
    K.A.KHO & ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS & CONSULTANTS
  • Photos
    BRIAN ZHANG