Remoteness:
The site is set in a valley surrounded by beautiful natural vegetation in a remote island in Hong Kong. The only mean of access is from the nearest island then to take a sampan, or a single-engined walawala, as the locals call it. We were asked by the client to create a new facility to house a total of 120 juveniles aged between 15to 22. Most of them were sent by the court to this facility because of substances abuse and misdemeanor cases. They are currently “squattering” along the valley as their temporary shelter and are eager to be relocated to a more formal facility.

Solitude:
It is precisely this sense of remoteness which forces the teenagers to confront with their past wrong doings. The untouched yet serene nature provides a sounding board to reflect and ponder on their future. A tremendous sense of spiritual solitude is coupled with a strong sense of brotherhood bonded amongst these teenagers.

The ACT of building:
The entire structure is built on stilts to minimized disturbance to the landscape. The three building blocks, oriented slightly different than each other to maximize light and ventilation exposure, cascade down the valley following the natural terrain of the site. The upper and lower block house workshops, classrooms and dormitory. The layout is according to the level of privacy as the users move from downhill to uphill. The middle block houses the dining hall and teaching kitchen. It is also the heart of the facility to provide gathering and assembly space.

The remoteness of the site prohibited any kind of large-scale machinery nor large prefabrication pieces to access the site economically. The “All-in-one” nature of the facility demands a maximum spatial and programmatic flexibility to accommodate the clients’ forever changing mode of operation. We decided to employ an up-turn beam, two-way slab cast-in-place concrete structural system to eliminate any needs for columns and exposed ceiling beams with the building volume. The result is maximum layout flexibility & floor to ceiling height which allows for best natural ventilation since the building is not air-conditioned.（Summer of Hong Kong can reach up to 38 Celsius with relative humidity of 98%.）

Cast-in-place concrete was chosen not only for economic reason, but also we envision employing the physical labor of these young teenagers to transport literally bucket by bucket of aggregates on a ten minutes trail between ferry drop-off and the building site. All plywood formworks remain on site will be treated and recycled as future furniture pieces fabricated by the teenagers themselves in the woodwork training workshop. The teenagers are participants building their own home.