The Hong Kong development that marries architecture and Japanese tradition

The Pavilia Hill on Tin Hau Temple Road brings the aesthetic of wabi-sabi to Hong Kong with natural elements and a garden designed by a Zen priest/architect

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Published: 12:31pm, 31 May 2016Updated: 2:57pm, 31 May 2016

With Hong Kong residential property prices on the slide, developers are determined to make billion-dollar projects more attractive to increasingly cautious buyers. New World Development’s recently completed property on Tin Hau Temple Road, The Pavilia Hill, has embraced high concept design and in particular the Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi to appeal to an increasingly design-savvy clientele.

Exterior of Opus Hong Kong at 53 Stubbs Road. Photo: Nora Tam

To get noticed, Hong Kong developers have used a variety of methods, from bringing in star architects – the Frank Gehry-designed 53 Stubbs Road perhaps the most notable example – to cheap mortgage packages. With The Pavilia Hill, New World has taken a different tack, pushing a design-heavy development

Featuring five 31-storey towers, the 358-unit The Pavilia Hill complex, outwardly at least, could be dismissed as another characterless elite development. On closer inspection, however, New World has sought to create a living space that incorporates esoteric design concepts that seek to foster a sense of serenity in one of the busiest cities in the world.

From left: landscape designer Shunmyo Masuno; New World Development’s Adrian Cheng; and clubhouse designer Koichiro Ikebuchi.

Under the The Artisanal Movement brand, New World engaged wabi-sabi practitioner and Zen priest Shunmyo Masuno to design the gardens and Singapore-based architect Koichiro Ikebuchi to design the clubhouse at The Pavilia Hill.

What exactly is wabi-sabi? “It is a Japanese aesthetic concept with a long history,” says Masuno, the architect in charge of the landscape design. “It encourages people to live in the moment, to embrace the beauty of imperfection and to appreciate the natural cycle.”

Having studied Japanese art and culture in Kyoto, Adrian Cheng, executive vice-chairman and joint general manager of New World, sought out Ikebuchi and Masuno to work on the development and bring to Hong Kong some of the aesthetics concepts he had experienced in Japan. He describes wabi-sabi “as the beauty of the incomplete” and says it helps us “acknowledge three realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect”.