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In the spring of 2012, the Department of Architecture at The University of Hong Kong conducted a series of Research and Design (R&D) studio within its Master of Architecture Program. One of the R&D topics, led by Mr. Anderson Lee, was to study and examine the potential role and development of a historical building in the heart of Hong Kong: The Old Wan Chai Police Station and Married Quarters. The students were asked to address on issues ranging from public space in contemporary cities to heritage conservation; and from design and building technology to sustainable planning.
This book recorded the research and the subsequent design proposals. They are by no mean the final conclusion on a complex topic as such. In the studio which lasted only for 12 weeks, the students tried to identify: issues of scales that inform and affect architectural decision-making; the role of stakeholders pertaining to development; the urban and economic forces which shape the morphology of the urban fabrics; a new way to integrate new programmatic elements within the existing urban fabrics, and finally, to design a mixed-used project on a constrained site with a given formal and tectonic logic.

The Old Wan Chai Police Station and Married Quarters remains largely uninhabited and its future yet to be determined. Under the current political climate in Hong Kong, it is almost certain that this piece of colonial past would sit idle for a few more years to come…