Hong Kong’s newest recycling centre is as beautiful as it is useful, with a courtyard for everyone - even pets
- The recycling centre in Wan Chai boasts five-star aesthetics and incorporates an extensive trellis, salvaged windows, a rain garden and a welcoming courtyard
- The project was a winner of Japan’s prestigious Good Design Award in 2021
When BREADstudio co-founder Benny Lee Chiu-ming adopted a cat in 2016 from the
Wan Chai branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), little did he realise that the process would inspire an award-winning project.
Inadvertently lodged among happy memories of the occasion was the niggling question: shouldn’t humans and their new charges have more time and space to bond before going home together?
In 2018, together with the studio’s other co-founder, Paul Mui Kui-chuen, and colleagues, Lee came up with the winning entry in a design competition for the site, opposite the SPCA’s headquarters. One of the venue’s highlights is a generous courtyard for all to use – four-legged friends included.
“We unconsciously injected the idea into the design,” says Lee, pointing to the horseshoe-shaped centre that opens its arms to the community. Within the building’s embrace, an expansive outdoor area is furnished with a curved bench, amid greenery, bearing the unspoken message: “Come in.”
