Befitting its prominent site on Victoria Harbour, the new Hong Kong West Kowloon Station makes a strong formal gesture to express the speed and scale of the high-speed rail system of which it is a part.

Serving as the terminus of the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, it is the line’s only Hong Kong station. The Express Rail Link connects with China’s National High-Speed Rail network all the way to Beijing. The station handles passengers through border controls and has 400,000 square metres of usable floor area.

The fluid form of the Hong Kong West Kowloon Station, designed by Andrew Bromberg at Aedas, was a means of expressing the idea of various forces converging on a global city. Notably, the arcing, ground-hugging form – sweeping over a 45-metre-high internal volume – can be traversed by pedestrians. The landscaped roof offers new vantage points over the city.

“I have been working on this station for nearly ten years,” says Andrew Bromberg at Aedas, “and I cannot wait to see it teeming with people.”

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“The new station is an opportunity
for all people to discover new
connections to the city of Hong Kong
and feel part of it.”
– Andrew Bromberg at Aedas
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The internal volume is directed toward the south facade, with views focusing on the Hong Kong Central skyline and Victoria Peak beyond. With the station serving as the gateway to Hong Kong, Bromberg considered it vital that it would connect with the surrounding urban context and make arriving or departing passengers aware that ‘I am in Hong Kong’.

The interior of the main hall is washed by natural light that streams in through 4,000 glass panels and a floating roof supported by leaning, tree-like columns. Long curving apertures admit light with consistency across the main departure hall.

The station is the first major construction project to be completed in the upcoming West Kowloon Cultural District. Seven footbridges and two pedestrian subways connect the station with the local transport network and nearby developments. The development itself offers over three hectares of ‘green plaza’ to its site and people are encouraged to walk into the station’s roof, which reached a height of 25 metres above ground level.

At its lowest point, the station reached 25 metres underground. Hong Kong West Kowloon Station incorporates 15 tracks below ground, nine long-haul tracks and six shuttle tracks. Travel time to the major business areas of the city, such as Central, is around 15 minutes.

Photography by Paul Warchol.