Kwun Tong's Industrial Reinvention

When renowned Swiss architect Jacques Herzog was in Hong Kong on one of his regular visits, he noted that some of the buildings he found most inspiring were the city’s giant industrial blocks: huge concrete edifices studded with mismatched windows, old signs and air conditioning units. “They’re ugly,” he said. “But full of individual life.”

For decades, Kwun Tong was one of Hong Kong’s biggest industrial hubs. Then the factories relocated to Mainland China, leaving an abundance of relatively affordable space in a city where space is a luxury. Designers, musicians and small businesses began to move in, giving new life to the foreboding industrial structures.

Today, the transformation is obvious. Just head to the Kwun Tong Promenade, a former recycling depot that is now one of the city’s most attractive harbourside parks. Bands often play shows underneath the nearby highway flyover, with an old flour mill as a backdrop, while an illuminated steel sculpture pays homage to the giant bales of paper that once occupied the waterfront.

Wander a few minutes away and you’ll come across sleek new office towers and shopping malls. The government hopes to transform Kwun Tong into a new central business district called CBD2 and this plan is already bearing fruit. In Kowloon Bay, on the district’s western edge, the 19-storey shopping mecca MegaBox towers over a rapidly changing skyline of new office towers.

Just across the street, you’ll find ZCB, an experimental project and parkland designed to showcase the potential of carbon-neutral architecture. The park pavilion often hosts exhibitions, but even if there’s nothing going on, it’s a pleasant place to chill out.

Wine-loving tycoon Pan Sutong is one of the people involved in transforming the area. He recently completed a new office tower on Kai Cheung Road housing four upscale restaurants. The flagship eatery is Le Pan, whose vast wine cellar is matched by the experimental French food of Singaporean chef Edward Voon.

“Basically, I’m self-taught and I was attracted to French cuisine by the discipline and precision that are required to do it well,” Voon says. “It’s a cuisine with a strong personality, which I love. I’ve always been artistic and I find contemporary French food very beautiful. Creating and presenting it is like theatre to me.”

For all the slick newcomers to Kwun Tong, however, the area’s spirit still dwells in its old industrial buildings. You’ll find treasures in places like the Camel Paint Building, a huge multi-block outlet shopping complex where people flock to find the latest cosmetics and fashion — along with wine, craft beer, camping gear and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Kwun Tong’s spacious industrial units have long given people the opportunity to explore their interests in a way that wouldn’t be possible in a high-priced commercial space. Former cinematographer Fung Wing-kuen takes advantage of this to store his vast collection of vintage and antique objects. You’ll find everything from mid-century lamps to old apothecary cabinets to classic bicycles in his space, which is called Simple Living. Fung says he started by collecting cameras. “Later on, I couldn’t stop.”