Hong Kong Urban Council
258 Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai
1937
The Wan Chai Market, completed in 1937, was an active market on Hong Kong Island catering to local residents. The market is an interesting example of the stylistic shifts taking place in Hong Kong’s architecture just prior to World War II. The building features key characteristics of what has been identified as Streamline Moderne, an aesthetic variation of the Modern Movement. Key features include a symmetrical elevation, rounded corners, curved wall surfaces, and a strong emphasis on horizontality. These formal elements may be contrasted with those of the Bridges Street Market where asymmetrically-placed door and window features create a distinctive façade within a rectilinear aesthetic. Both buildings reveal the wide variety of modern architectural influences shaping Hong Kong as well as a number of other colonial cities and international treaty ports in Asia at the time, including Shanghai, Singapore, as well as the Dutch colonial city of Bandung, Indonesia.
The market was completely renovated between 2011-2013. The building’s façade and front section were preserved.
-
Wan Chai Market, 2005 (Courtesy Hoyin Lee)
-
Interior, Wan Chai Market, 2005 (Courtesy Hoyin Lee)
-
Plan, Wan Chai Market, Ground Floor (Courtesy students, School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
-
Plan, Wan Chai Market, First Floor (Courtesy students, School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)