The University of Hong Kong Visitor Centre opens to the public

A ceremony to mark the opening of the University of Hong Kong Visitor Centre was held today (February 14, Friday). The Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui officiated at the ceremony.

The University of Hong Kong Visitor Centre is housed in the Workmen’s Quarters of the former Elliot Pumping Station and Filters site of the Water Supplies Department. The red brick rectangular building is one of the two historic buildings marking the entrance of the HKU Centennial Campus.

The Workmen's Quarters was constructed in 1918-19 as a single storey brick communal residence with three rooms which housed Chinese workers and watchmen. The building has been classified as a Grade III historic building and revitalized to become the University Visitor Centre.

The Visitor Centre serves as the gateway to the University, and will welcome prospective students, parents, alumni, and visitors from all around the world who want to know more about HKU. It features a souvenir corner offering a comprehensive range of HKU branded gifts and memorabilia, a publication and reading area providing information about HKU, as well as a “Gallery” for hosting exhibitions and displays.

Meanwhile, the collateral event of 2013 Bi-City Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture Hong Kong (UABB) named “On Urban Fringe: In Search of the Ideal City” is held at the Centre from today until February 28 (Friday).

This collateral event continues the exploration under the exhibition’s main theme—Beyond the Urban Edge: “The Ideal City?”. Being an extension of the Fringe Urbanism Exhibition at the Main Kwun Tong Pier Biennale Site, the HKU event focuses on the current border conditions of four cities—Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka, and Kuala Lumpur.

The HKU Visitor Centre – Gallery houses exhibits on Pokfulam Village – the last historic settlement on the highly urbanized Hong Kong Island. In this section, residents from the community will demonstrate their alternative living style rarely found in Hong Kong, or even around the world, for the lives in a village recently named among other historic settlements including Venice and Yangon in the World Monuments Watch List 2014.  Faculty members and students from the Division of Landscape Architecture, HKU, with the support from Gallant Ho Experiential Learning Centre of the University, shared their experience on the experiment on how a sustainable community could be co-built with the community through projects realized hand-in-hand with the villagers in the Fall Semester 2013.

In the Run Run Shaw Heritage House, Artist-sociologist Alice Ko from Taipei revisits her curated works “Reverse Niche – Dialogue and Rebuilding at the City’s Edge” on three Asian regions (Hong Kong, Osaka, Taiwan), in the specific context of urban development, to examine how the urban culture of the excluded, the poor, the minority, and the disfranchised are respond to nowadays.  What types of enticing framework for dialogue can artists construct that would invite the participation of these underprivileged groups and become a bridge to rebuild the public arena?  And how can art highlight social public issues in order to move towards a progressive political discussion and practice?

“On Urban Fringe: In Search of the Ideal City” Exhibition
Date: February 14 to 28, 2014
Time: 10 am to 7pm daily
Venue: Visitor Centre and Run Run Shaw Heritage House, G/F, Centennial Campus, HKU

For media enquiries, please contact: Ms Trinni Choy (Assistant Director (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2606 email: pychoy@hku.hk ; Ms Melanie Wan (Senior Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2600 email: melwkwan@hku.hk ; or Ms Rhea Leung (Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2857 8555 email: rhea.leung@hku.hk .