The first high-rise commercial building in Wan Chai

The Siu Pau Road No. 1 AIA Building, built in the 1960s, was not only the first tall building in Wan Chai, but also had many firsts in the building and won the 1969 Hong Kong Institute of Architects. However, the building is adjacent to the cemetery. It has been said that the windows of the building are designed to be coffins. The non-executive chairman of the AIA Group, Mr Cheung Siu-lam, pointed out that the Group did not specifically request the building design in the year and did not seek the Feng Shui feng shui, but “we feel guilty. The feng shui is very good.”

The Stubbs AIA Building was laid in 1967. It was built in 1969. The building was built by the famous architectural firm Palmer and Turner. The famous architect James Kinoshita designed the 27-storey building together with the basement.

Window like coffin is not special requirements

At the age of 81, Xie Shirong, who joined AIA in 1961, recalled the excitement of witnessing the completion of the new building. He said that the new headquarters has an invincible sea view, in addition to the larger area, than the AIA (7 floors only). There are more than 140 parking spaces, which is considered to be the most berthed building at the time, and there is also a helipad.

Xie Shirong, who was the head of the actuarial department, said that he moved to the new building in 1969. His office is located on the 17th floor and looks at the sea. He was transferred to Taiwan to open up the local market in the following year. In 1983, he returned to Hong Kong as the president of Hong Kong, and the office was at On the top floor, there are sea views and graves, but he is unscrupulous.

Although it is pointed out that the windows on the site are designed to be coffins, they may be related to the nearby cemetery. Xie Shirong said that AIA did not put forward any special requirements in the same year, and the Chinese interpretation of “coffin” is related to “finance”. He believes that the shui feng shui of the Stubbs Headquarters Building is excellent. The building did not find Feng Shui in Feng Shui, but at the opening of the building, the company invited Buddhist monks to pray for blessings. At that time, Gao Song led a group of monks, leading the chairman of the AIA and the top of Hong Kong to pray to the top floor.

Hexagonal design makes good use of plot ratio

Wood said that the windows of the building are independent of the external pillars, but they are hexagonal when viewed from the outside.

The design objective is to make good use of the reduced plot ratio because the building authorities should reduce the plot ratio of the building based on traffic considerations, but allow the plot ratio to start from the glass line rather than the external structure.