Creative Media Centre, City University of Hong Kong Creative Media Centre, Hong Kong

The new Creative Media Centre (CMC) for the City University of Hong Kong is currently under construction. The new facilities to enable the university to become the first in Asia to offer the highest level of education and training in the creative media field.

The new centre will include a school of creative media, the centre for media technology and the department of computer engineering and information technology. The building was designed in a competition run in 2002 which was won by Studio Daniel Libeskind.

The new 327,500ft² (26,100m²) building, which started in October 2004, is due to be completed in Cornwall Street in the Kowloon Tong area of Hong Kong by 2008.

The centre will consist of an academic facility, using Government funding of HK$550m, and a public outreach facility for which private funding of HK$200m is being sought.

CONTRACTORS

The associate architects are Leigh & Orange Ltd of Hong Kong. Arup, from their London and Hong Kong offices, are providing structural, geotechnical and building services and a range of engineering services including civil, traffic, fire and environmental.

City Planning Consultants of Hong Kong have provided planning services and the quantity surveyors are Levett and Bailey of Hong Kong. The landscape architect is ADI Limited of Hong Kong.

MEDIA CENTRE DESIGN

The distinctive crystalline design of the new nine-storey building will serve as an architectural icon for the new media departments inside.

The building has been designed with an extraordinary range of spaces rich in form, light, and material that will create an inspiring environment for research and creativity. Internal spaces have been designed specifically to encourage collaboration through an openness and connectivity of the activity area.

The centre will also provide an exciting place for visitors, who will be welcomed to enjoy the facilities as part of an extended public outreach program of courses and events. Private landscaped gardens to the north of the building will be available for students and public alike.

Facilities will include a multi-purpose theatre, sound stages, laboratories, classrooms, studios, library, study areas, exhibition spaces, and a café and restaurant. Professor H K Chang, president of City University, said: "The CMC would make Hong Kong a key player in creative media education in the region. It will enable the school of creative media to train more talents for the burgeoning multi-media industry, which involves the application of digital technology for the production of creative films, animation, or electronic games.

"The centre will also be a testing ground for the creative and digital production companies that provide jobs and are forming a new engine of growth in Hong Kong's knowledge-based economy. The creative industry accounts for over 90,000 jobs, some 4.5% of employment in Hong Kong's service sector."