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Garden.JPG

Garden Centre

Location: Sham Shui Po
Category: Industrial

Architect: Chu Pin 朱彬 (Kwan, Chu & Yang Architects 基泰工程司)
Project year: 1962

Founded in 1926, The Garden Company, the city’s first bakery and confectionery maker, has played an important role in leading Hong Kong’s food manufacturing industry. It later moved its headquarter to the current location in the 1930s.  In the 1950s, the factory was expanded and redesigned by Chu Pin, the first-generation Chinese architects who studied in the United States. Zhu was the mastermind behind many of the most forward-thinking modernist architecture in mainland China. Garden Factory is one of the few remaining works by Zhu left in the city. Similar to other modernist design, Garden Factory showcases strong functionality.  The five-story factory structure in the front is well-shielded by stripes of red brise-soleil. The windows on the higher floors, on the other hand, remain unshielded to maximize daylight penetration. The clock tower – the tallest structure of the complex – was visible from Shum Shui Po pier when it was built. In 2018, the Town Planning Board greenlights the company’s HK$2.3 billion (US$295 million) proposal to demolish and redevelop Garden Factory.  The plan will turn the complex into a 25-story glass-clad skyscraper, featuring shops, offices, restaurants and a cooking school. According to a local report, it’s said that the company will be required to preserve “the clock with the piece of red façade and the two ‘bakery chef’ logos into the new building”.  

1926年,嘉頓的麵包生意起步,成為本地最成功的食品製造商之一,是香港的食品生產歷史其中最重要的推動者及見證人。 嘉頓到1930年初於現址興建廠房,並於1958年時進行擴建,由建築師朱彬執刀。 朱彬先後在北京清華學校及美國留學,是中國第一代留洋建築師之一,中國不少大城市,都能找他代表性的設計,在香港能找到的朱彬設計已經少之又少,嘉頓中心就是其中一個。 嘉頓中心展現出摩登建築的精髓:超凡的實用性,配合簡單的線條和紅白色調。前方五層的工廠被紅色格仔的遮陽板包裹著,調節射到室內的陽光,而高層則以無遮陽板的排窗設計,增強採光,嘉頓中心標誌性的鐘樓是建築群的最高點,面向南方,當年能於深水埗碼頭遠眺得到。 2018年,城市規劃委員會批准嘉頓公司23億港元(2.95億美元)的重建計劃申請,容許拆卸嘉頓中心來興建一幢25層高的玻璃摩天大樓,新摩天大樓計劃設有商店、辦公室、食肆以及一所烹飪學校。 城規會要求嘉頓保留兩個嘉頓廚師的徽標、印有「Garden」英文字樣的品牌標誌以及鐘樓上的時鐘。 

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