HOK董事總經理鄺寶麟訪談

HOK董事總經理鄺寶麟訪談

Interview with Paul Collins, HOK

HOK董事總經理鄺寶麟先生 Paul Collins, Managing Director of HOK

導報：作為HOK亞太區董事總經理，您希望實現什么目標？

鄺：HOK在香港及中國大陸的國際化團隊在公司 “開放、合作” 的氛圍中，共同完成了很多標志性項目。這樣的文化和團隊對我們的成功起到至關重要的作用。我將繼續致力于確保HOK為客戶提供卓越的設計和服務，展現HOK在不同專業領域的專業設計能力以及作為全球最頂級的設計公司的核心競爭力。

導報：可持續發展設計在未來HOK的設計中會扮演怎樣的角色？

鄺：HOK關注可持續發展設計由來已久。過去，可持續設計可能被視作項目的“附加值”，而現在它是設計流程中不可或缺的一個環節。作為人類居住環境的設計領導者之一，我們有義務為社會整合資源、減少能耗，這是我們應該做的事。與此同時，我們這樣做，也是幫助客戶降低建筑生命周期成本，從而造福客戶和整個社會。

導報：您如何評價中國建筑設計行業過去十年的實踐？HOK又將如何適應未來中國的發展呢？

鄺：經濟是具有周期性的。高估市場需求，自然會出現產能過剩、供大于求的現象，這是全球房地產業共通的情況。中國市場需要時間來吸收這些過剩的住宅、辦公建筑，發展自然而然就會轉移到一些相對短缺的建筑類別，比如酒店、醫院、體育場館等來填補市場空缺。我們的戰略就是通過增強我們在更廣泛的領域的設計能力來應對挑戰和快速變化的市場需求。

接下來的幾年內，新的住宅或者商業類項目肯定會減少，而舊建筑改建類項目一定會有很大的市場需求。老建筑的翻新和改建將成為可持續設計創新的孵化器。接下來的10年，中國的建設總量會減少，因為過去的10年間中國房屋的建設速度和數量都很驚人。用高性能的材料和其他高效節能的機械系統來改造部分老建筑，可以達到節能和環保的目的，也更容易吸引買家和投資者。

中國正面臨嚴峻的環境問題，可以說正處在一個十字路口。過去的中國大力發展基礎設施，住宅和商業地產。此刻，我們可以集中精力改善環境，大力貫徹可持續發展設計規范。

導報：在這個多元化的建筑設計市場里，HOK獨有的優勢是什么？

鄺：多樣性是HOK在20世紀50年代創始之初的基本信條之一，體現在項目地理位置、項目種類和員工專業性等各方面，而我們認為其中最重要的是思想的多樣性。HOK全球23間辦公室的員工來自世界各地，為我們帶來了截然不同的寶貴的專業背景和個人經驗。

HOK香港和中國大陸辦公室的員工也不例外。這種多元化和豐富性成為了我們公司文化最重要的組成。所以當我們和中國的客戶討論一個購物中心、一座體育場、一間酒店的時候，我們帶給他們的是全球的視野和集體的經驗。世界上沒有多少公司能夠在設計問題上提供像HOK這樣百科全書類的解答。如果說多樣性是HOK的投入，那創新就是投入之后的產出。專業知識本身不一定能夠創新，但當我們把不同背景和經驗的人組織在一起共同應對一個挑戰的時候，往往能擦出火花，創造出與眾不同的解決方案。

導報：最近HOK在忙些什么項目呢？

鄺：HOK的項目在地理位置和類型上都具有多樣性。我們的規劃團隊目前正忙于北京和成都的兩個旅游度假項目，以及深圳的兩個城市更新和產業園區項目。

我們建筑團隊正在設計的項目包含成都核心區的一個大型超高層綜合體項目，三亞和深圳的幾個高端度假酒店，印度德里的一個頂級豪宅和孟買的一個科技園區。我們同時在中國、中東和緬甸有幾個五星級酒店及服務式公寓的室內設計工作正在開展。而我們的景觀團隊則忙碌在天津、三亞和廈門的項目中。當然，我們還有更多的項目，在這里不一一例舉。

導報：如果沒有預算和設計要求限制，你覺得“理想中的項目”是怎樣的？

鄺：我認為“理想中的項目”應該是一個能夠將HOK全球的設計資源和能力運用到一處的一個項目。沙特阿拉伯的阿卜杜拉國王科技大學就是個很好的例子。HOK是在2006年底被委托設計總面積達650萬平方英尺的大學新城的，而到2009年在不到3年的時間里該項目就完成了施工并如期開學，這一速度堪稱世界壯舉！

當時我們動員了HOK全球不同時區的多個辦公室同時工作，這樣可以將每天8小時的工作時間延長到16小時。通過整合HOK全球多地的資源和專業力量，我們成功為該項目提供了從總體規劃、建筑設計、工程設計、景觀設計、室內設計到設施規劃、實驗室規劃、平面設計及燈光設計的一系列全專業服務。最終，我們不僅打造了一個世界級的高端大學園區經典，它還獲得LEED白金認證。

在如此短的時間內建成如此體量浩大的工程，只有具有HOK這般人員規模、專業實力和全球網絡的公司才能勝任。我理想中的項目應該是類似的——體量大、復雜程度高、具有各種挑戰性—— 這正是HOK所擅長的！

WARA: As managing director for HOK in Asia Pacific, what do you hope to achieve?

Collins: We have a large practice of international designers based in Hong Kong and China that work well together on signifcant projects. The collaborative nature of our team members and open environment in our ofces are essential to our success. I will ensure that we maintain these critical aspects of our culture. And I’ll be ensuring that we provide exceptional design and delivery services that demonstrate HOK’s multidisciplinary expertise as one of the world’s best design frms.

WARA: What role will sustainable design play in HOK’s future?

Collins: Sustainable design has been at the center of much of HOK’s work for many years. In the past, it may have been perceived by clients as an add-on. Today, sustainable design is simply part of our design process. As one of the leading designers of the built environment, we have a responsibility to help our society manage resources efciently, reduce waste and decrease energy consumption. Of course this is the right thing to do. It also brings great value to our clients in terms of reducing life-cycle costs and providing healthy environments that promote the well-being of their people and communities.

WARA: How would you review the design industry in China over the last 10 years? How does HOK ft into the future of development in China?

Collins: The economy is cyclical. The tendency to overestimate a demand in the market and then to design and build more buildings than needed is a recurring phenomenon across the world. As the Chinese market absorbs over-supplied residential and ofce buildings, development will shift to other building types like hotels, hospitals or sports venues where there is still a shortfall. Our strategy has been to maintain high-quality design and key expertise in a wide variety of building types. This enables us to quickly respond to these shifts in demand.

While there will be a reduced demand for new residential and commercial construction over the next few years, there is an opportunity to renovate existing buildings. Renovating and repurposing buildings helps drive sustainable design innovation. In the next decade, China’s existing building stock will face decay in part because so much was built so quickly over the previous 30 years. Retroftting old buildings with high-performance materials and energy-efcient mechanical systems will reduce energy consumption and pollution while making buildings more comfortable for users and more attractive for investors.

China is at an environmental crossroads. The country previously was mobilized to develop infrastructure, housing and commercial real estate at a very rapid pace. Now we can focus on improving the environment through an equally aggressive enforcement of sustainable design principles.

WARA: In this diverse architectural design market, what makes HOK unique?

Collins: Diversity was one of HOK’s founding principles in the 1950s. This includes diversity of geography, projects, services staff and, most importantly, diversity of thinking. The people who make up HOK’s 23 global ofces come from all over the world and bring incredibly varied professional and personal experiences.

Our people in China and Hong Kong are no exception. This variety and richness are the main ingredients of our culture. When we talk to clients here about a mall, stadium or hotel, we speak from our global experience. Not many frms in the world can bring this encyclopedic knowledge to a client’s design problem. If diversity is the input, innovation is the output. Our deep expertise alone will not create innovation. But when we bring together people with diferent backgrounds and experiences to work toward a common goal, we can create innovative design solutions.

WARA: What are you working on now?

Collins: Our projects are diverse in nature and location. Our planning team is working on tourism development projects in Beijing and Chengdu. They are also developing two urban regeneration and industrial park projects in Shenzhen.

The architectural team is engaged on a major high-rise mixed-use project in central Chengdu, resorts in Sanya and Shenzhen, a luxury residential apartment in Delhi and an IT park in Mumbai. We’re providing interior design services on several fvestar hotel and serviced apartment projects in China, the Middle East and Myanmar. Our landscape architects are busy in Tianjin, Xiamen and Sanya. That’s far from the whole list but is a sampling of what we do.

WARA: What would your dream project be – if you had no budget restrictions and full creative license?

Collins: My dream project would be one where we could use the full global capabilities of HOK for a single project. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia is a perfect example. We were commissioned to design this 6.5-million-sq.-ft. university and new town project toward the end of 2006 and it was completed and opened by 2009.

The pace of design was so fast that we collaborated with several HOK offices spread out in diferent time zones (from London to San Francisco) so that our working day was closer to 16 hours than eight hours. We used nearly every resource in the frm and provided planning, architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, facility planning, interior design, lab planning, graphic design and lighting design services. This collaborative process resulted in a wonderful new science and education campus that achieved LEED Platinum status.

Only a frm with the scale, experience and connectivity of HOK can deliver a project like KAUST. My dream project would be something similar to that: very large and complicated with lots of pressure. That’s when we excel!

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