The Hitching Loop

Conversion of the old wanchai police station to a leisure and entertainment complex

My project seeks to question how a historical building in Hong Kong could be adaptively reused in such a way that new and old can coexist and mutually enhance each other, bringing in a new perspective. Traces of the past, in the model, become aesthetic backdrops for newly established uses. Ideas for the adaptive reuse can uncover the potential of buildings and give them second lives. Throughout the history of the city, law enforcement workers and sex industry workers have had a mysterious symbolic relationship. The proximity and coexistence of the place and the prostitutes that they regulate suggested the idea of introducing the sex industry as a potential reuse for the old police station. The project is aimed at exploring this hidden potential in play with massing, programming, and circulation to achieve a complex, insightful new form for the old police station.