Chancery Court Podium and Promenade
Chancery Court is a residential development that was bought en-bloc by a developer to then individually lease units. Our scope of works primarily involved upgrading of the 1st and 2nd storey commercial podium façade and its immediate external grounds, and a concept apartment interior architecture.
As a mature residential estate, the heritage trees in the development and those along the roadside were retained to anchor the precinct. As the commercial businesses at the 1st and 2nd storey podium served not only the inhabitants but also the neighbourhood, removing the bounding estate fences and walls reflected this open embracing of the neighbours with Chancery Court as a familiar marker of the neighbourhood as it has been for decades.
Surrounded by schools and amenities, we have upgraded the commercial façade and entrance foyer with an architectural language of brickwork, augmented and re-introduced as a contemporary upgrade but also, to re-integrate the podium into a neighbourhood that already had earlier history of fair-face brick used, at the tower and maisonette blocks, as well as the adjacent Anglo-Chinese School (Junior). On the adoption of a contemporary brickwork, the brick is elevated to become an authentic, visually binding design vocabulary of the project to site and history.
The stepped façade adds depth and a textured backdrop to the existing columns, allowing them to be backlit as the glass and surrounding sky fades in the evening. The interplay of brick walls to brick paver steps continuing to become concrete landscape pavers, help to blur the edge between building, threshold and landscape as expressed at the outdoor promenade area. Built-in outdoor seats at various locations are designed to be supported by zig-zag bricks stacked and finished with smooth seats. This landscaped threshold area has since seen many students and residents in the neighbourhood come and informally occupy the tree-shaded areas, steps and seats. The development’s signage wall explores yet a different way of playing with brick laying for signage. The consistency of design language extends to the detailing of concealed lighting in the handrails and navigational signages throughout the compound.
Photos by Finbarr Fallon
