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The Ho & Partners Story
Dwelling is the base for the human being; Human being thrive because of dwelling, and dwelling exists because of human being. They support each other and together they reach0 heaven and earth. ¨C Extract from ¡°Huangdi Emperor¡¯s Chapter of Dwelling¡±.
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Establishment
The story of the firm began in 1980, when Mr. Bosco Ho founded the architectural practice of ¡°Ho & Ip Architects Engineers and Development Consultancy Co., Limited¡±, which became the present firm of ¡°Ho & Partners Architects Engineers and Development Consultants Limited¡± in the mid 1980¡¯s. The practice together with the other founding Director Mr. Johnny Lee started small with 10 employees, and was housed in a cramped office inside Room 206 on the second floor of the delightful pre-war Pedder Building in Central, Hong Kong.
Development
For the first few years, most of the work by the practice was in private sector development in Hong Kong. When China began to increasingly open its market to foreign investment, the firm rode on the rapid real estate investment boom in Hong Kong as well as opportunities in China and grew substantially. In less than 2 years, the firm expanded to 70 people and worked on a wide range of building projects. The earlier architectural commissions came from the Ho¡¯s family, the Hong Kong Housing Society, Henderson, Sino and Sun Hung Kai Properties.
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The firm weathered the temporary market collapse in Hong Kong in 1982 due to the uncertainty over the Territory¡¯s sovereignty issue and was forced to downsize to 40 staff. It was a difficult period for the firm but with the support of its staff, and having taken more drastic measures such as salary cut, the firm weathered the storm and bounced back. After the signing of the Sino British Joint Declaration in 1984, a restored market confidence was translated into another real estate development boom and the practice gradually flourished into an office with over 100 architects and supporting staff. In the early days, projects in the private sector such as Ap Lei Chau
Centre, Way Man Court, The Royal Court and commercial buildings like the Success Commercial Building, public housing development like Ka Wai Chuen in
Hunghom, (the largest urban renewal project in Hong Kong at the time), were secured. It marked the beginning of a period of growth and expansion in HK for the firm which lasted almost 13 years. As the firm grew in size in late 1982, it was forced to relocate to the more spacious and modern Citicorp Centre at 7/F in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, where the rent was
HK$6.5/sq.ft. compared with HK$12/sq.ft. in Pedder Building, Central at that time. With more commissions coming in and to cope with the blossoming Asian market, regional offices were also established and the number of staff gradually increased to 270 by the early 90s. With new large scale design work both local and overseas coming in, the firm¡¯s premise in the Citicorp Centre was no longer sufficient for its daily operations. When the rent of the Citicorp Centre further increased to
HK$30/sq.ft., the firm moved to the large basement of the Provident Centre in North Point in 1992 which has a floor area of 26,000
sq.ft., partly to capitalise on the lower rent there, which was
HK$12/sq.ft. per month.
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During the late 80¡¯s and the early 90¡¯s, a number of significant events took place. Firstly in 1986, the respected architectural firm,
I.A. Curreem and Associates merged with Ho & Partners, which enhanced the firm¡¯s capabilities to do institutional projects. Secondly, Ho & Partners¡¯ branch offices were opened in Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, Singapore and Bangkok. Thirdly, significant high profile commissions were secured; these included the Kowloon MTRC Station, The Hong Kong Baptist University, The Westpoint Tower in Sheung Wan, which became the Liaison Office of the Central People¡¯s Government in the Hong Kong
S.A.R., and 18 nos. ancillary buildings at Hong Kong¡¯s new airport at Chek Lap
Kok. Also completed were a number of research and production factories for international corporations. Over 70% of the firm¡¯s work was in Hong Kong, with the rest divided between China and the South East Asia. In 1994, the firm was enlisted into the Band 1 list of Architectural Consultants by the Government of Hong Kong and obtained ISO9001 Quality Assurance certification in 1995. The success of the firm became evident when the UK published World Architecture magazine in 1995 ranked the firm at 40 out of the top 200 architectural practices in the world. In 1997 the firm moved to The Westpoint Tower at Sheung Wan and stayed there for 2 years. However, affected by the Asian financial crisis and the burst of the real estate bubble in Hong Kong in 1997, the regional offices in Singapore and Bangkok were closed, and the firm¡¯s establishment in Hong Kong had to be down sized considerably. This forced the firm to take on a new direction. Luckily, the firm could make use of its continuous involvement in China projects throughout the late 90¡¯s and early 2000¡¯s and began to redirect more of its resources into the China Market and new offices were established in Shanghai and Beijing and later in Nanjing &
Wuhan. This marked the beginning of a new era for the firm.
During the late 80¡¯s and the early 90¡¯s, a number of significant events took place. Firstly in 1986, the respected architectural firm,
I.A. Curreem and Associates merged with Ho & Partners, which enhanced the firm¡¯s capabilities to do institutional projects. Secondly, Ho & Partners¡¯ branch offices were opened in Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, Singapore and Bangkok. Thirdly, significant high profile commissions were secured; these included the Kowloon MTRC Station, The Hong Kong Baptist University, The Westpoint Tower in Sheung Wan, which became the Liaison Office of the Central People¡¯s Government in the Hong Kong
S.A.R., and 18 nos. ancillary buildings at Hong Kong¡¯s new airport at Chek Lap
Kok. Also completed were a number of research and production factories for international corporations. Over 70% of the firm¡¯s work was in Hong Kong, with the rest divided between China and the South East Asia. In 1994, the firm was enlisted into the Band 1 list of Architectural Consultants by the Government of Hong Kong and obtained ISO9001 Quality Assurance certification in 1995. The success of the firm became evident when the UK published World Architecture magazine in 1995 ranked the firm at 40 out of the top 200 architectural practices in the world. In 1997 the firm moved to The Westpoint Tower at Sheung Wan and stayed there for 2 years. However, affected by the Asian financial crisis and the burst of the real estate bubble in Hong Kong in 1997, the regional offices in Singapore and Bangkok were closed, and the firm¡¯s establishment in Hong Kong had to be down sized considerably. This forced the firm to take on a new direction. Luckily, the firm could make use of its continuous involvement in China projects throughout the late 90¡¯s and early 2000¡¯s and began to redirect more of its resources into the China Market and new offices were established in Shanghai and Beijing and later in Nanjing &
Wuhan. This marked the beginning of a new era for the firm.
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The China Adventure
Ho & Partners was one of the very first architectural practices to recognize the potentials of the China market and the opportunities of architectural work in the Mainland. As early as 1980, the firm moved into the China market and used its head start to fully immerse into and familiarize itself with local working practices, customs and regulations. This paid off with first commissions in hotel and industrial developments such as the Zhong Shan Fu Wah Hotel, and which led to the forming of a separate China Projects Department in 1984. Further design commissions for industrial and commercial projects by top international corporative clients such as China Overseas, Bank of China, Proctor & Gamble Co. Ltd., China Merchants Tower Co. Ltd, ICI
Swire, China Resources Enterprise Ltd. etc. helped to consolidate Ho & Partners¡¯s presence in China.
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The firm had its breakthrough in China in 1987 when it was appointed to provide the concept design for a substantial commercial / residential development in Area 26, Hong
Qiao, Shanghai, the first land auction site in China. The success in Shanghai attracted more direct commissions and invitations to enter architectural and city planning competitions. This provided a platform for the firm to further build on its experience in large-scale city planning and building developments in China.
1996 is the landmark year in the firm¡¯s China adventure when it won an international architectural design competition hosted by the Housing Bureau of the Municipal Government of
Shenzhen, PRC for a large-scale residential development in Meilin,
Shenzhen. This development, which accommodates 8,000 households, was successfully completed in 2000 to wide acclaim. The Shenzhen Meilin Estate is now considered a milestone residential development in China. It is widely publicised and has been visited by state dignitaries such as former Premier Li
Peng, Zhou Rong Ji and the present Premier Wen Jia Bao, Chief Executive of HKSAR Tung Chee
Hwa, etc. The pioneering Meilin planning and design concept were widely studied and became one of the models for many subsequent residential developments in China.
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Design Management
As the firm grew and the nature, the scale of its work, and the operations became more complex, Ho & Partners gradually develope its design control and management system. In 1990 the firm established an independent Design & Quality Control Department implements a system of design quality management. It seeks to firmly ingrain an innovation-orientated and quality-orientated culture in the management structure whilst cultivating a habit of utilising its Quality Assurance system on its projects on a day to day basis. Regular seminars, training courses and group discussions constitute a firmly established set-up in the firm in its commitment to foster continuing education and new design awareness in its staff.
Pioneering Approach
Ho and Partners have always been audacious to use pioneering new technology or methods to assist design work and control its quality. For instance in 1980, it became one of the earliest local architectural practise to adopt Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CAD) before it became a mainstream practice and necessity. It was also one of few Hong Kong architectural practices to have used web-based management systems and is now pioneering the use of an internal website - an Intranet - to serve as a communication and working platform for it¡¯s 400 staff housed in different offices. In 1995, it became the first local architectural practice to be awarded the ISO 9001 Quality Assurance Certification in Hong Kong. Other pioneering internal set up includes a Design Research and Development Department lead by a Ph.D in Architecture and a 40-strong study model team which builds physical models with scale ranging from 1:2000 to 1:5 for study and design refinement for projects at concept to working drawing design stages.
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According to the Chief designer of Ho & Partners, Mr. Bosco Ho, there are three pre-requisites for producing high quality architectural work.
Firstly, there must be the ability to generate creative, new ideas. However innovative idea must be firmly backed up and tested by solid research and analysis. To this end, the firm has set up a ¡°Design Research and Development Department¡± that specifically supports its designers at all levels by constantly investigating new ideas and studying current trends and concepts, new technologies and new materials. The department publishes a bi-weekly magazine on China¡¯s building scene and Design Research Reports are produced from time to time for the firm¡¯s designers and Clients.
Secondly, any innovative idea must be thoroughly supported and verified by detailed design followed by examination and verification. These include the construction of large-scale models and mock-ups (from 1:2000 ¨C 1:200 to 1:50 ¨C 1:5) undertaken by the 40 strong in-house model makers. This would enable the designers to properly develope and modify the design fully before the commencement of preliminary design drawings and working drawings.
Thirdly, the above endeavours would be meaningless unless there is both trust and teamwork among the different parties in the design and construction process. The client and the architect, the consultants and the contractors must all respect and cooperate with each other and must all have the heart to strive for excellency in order to deliver a successful, high quality project.
Set Backs and Failures
Over the past 20 years, Ho & Partners has its share of set backs and failures. Some are due to external factors like economic recession and the collapse of the real estate market. Some are due to internal problems; due to staff changes and due to failure to implement total quality control on its work and so on. The firm has at times made mistakes and has loss some valuable Clients and at times re-gained some very good Clients. To try to achieve the goal of providing true professional services and excellence in design is a painful process but at times it could be a very rewarding process when a completed building attained wide acclaim from the public and received praises by the users.
It is for the reason of trying to eliminate mistakes and failures in the work that the firm embarked on the ¡°White Horse Reform¡± and the firm is gratified that in the past 2 years the quality of work have gained back the confidence of some of the most prestigious Clients who have since given the firm repeated commissions.
¡°The White Horse Reform¡±
The economic boom in China has given rise to fierce competition among architectural firms worldwide competing for projects especially in the huge domestic residential market in Mainland China. Ho & Partners acknowledges that it needs to be more prepared and equipped to meet the challenges ahead. The firm has gained many valuable lessons after completing over 30 million square metres of building developments in Hong Kong, China and South East Asia. In pursuit of excellence in the fields of architecture and professional services, the firm has endeavoured to recruit and retain high calibre & dedicated designers on one hand and on the other hand totally reforming the corporate culture, the mode of business operations, the design production process, working methods and Client / colleague relationship. One facet of this campaign is to study innovative design principles for a new generation of residential developments centred on healthy, ecological and fun living. Other examples include the pursuit of a paperless office and the linking of the firm¡¯s offices through the intra-net not only as an information platform but as working platform for design work as well. It has also introduced a daily 20 minutes break in the afternoon for its staff to relax and to chat and conducts overseas study tours for its outstanding designers.
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Vision and Expectations
Ho & Partners has a considerable portfolio of buildings including residential, office, shopping, hotel, hospital and university buildings; corporate headquarters; railway and airport projects; and large-scale city planning projects. Over the past 20 years, the firm has witnessed the fluctuating cycles in the building industry, suffered set backs and benefited from the booms. The firm considers itself fortunate today to be still in a relatively stable state and to be in a position to ride on the next wave of challenges ahead. On reflection, the firm affirmed that really good projects and good Clients must be treasured as they were hard to come by. There is a need to carry out reforms and innovations to focus more on creative centred and quality centered design work.
Currently, there are over 700 million square metres of building floor area being constructed each year in China. The firm¡¯s vision is to embrace this huge scale of building activity - which has a growth rate in double figure and is unprecedented in human history. The firm aspires to contribute its utmost to the creation and design of the next generation of dwellings with a new perspective focused on environment friendly and ecological living communities which would enable future generations to grow up in a better, safer, healthier, and more stimulating environment.
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The great potential in the real estate market in the Asian Region, in particular China and the recent pick up in Hong Kong¡¯s economy has presented architects and developers with great challenges. The firm strongly believes that its future lies not only in Hong Kong but also the rest of the Region especially China. What is approaching is not only momentous times of great opportunities for the architectural profession and the real estate industry, but also times of great social
responsibility. The immense challenge ahead of the firm is not only to fulfil the dwelling needs of a nation in terms of quantity, but to produce high quality living environments for the world¡¯s most populous countries. Having cast a critical appraisal of its past, Ho & Partners will strive to create better, more innovative and high quality buildings and to make meaningful contribution to the built-environment of the Region.
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