Project Description:

Lei Yue Mun Park Block 7 was the officer quarter of the former Leymun Barracks. The Barracks were established by the British Army in 1890s and Block 7 was one of the earliest buildings in the complex. Then the building had been converted into a cafe after it was handed back to Urban Council in 1980s as a holiday camp. Since then, Block 7 became one of the most featured buildings in the holiday camp although the building was only provided with primitive fitting-out and the value of this heritage was yet underestimated. Until May 2016, Block 7 and the other building in the complex, Block 10 were being listed as Declared Monuments by the HKSAR government. This became an opportunity to renovate and retrieve the original characteristics of this building.

We were commissioned by the Architectural Services Department in a pilot scheme to allow small architectural practices to take part in the government’s design consultancy. The design has to revive its original glamour to match its architectural characters of the colonial style. The scopes include a full interior renovation, repair, facilities upgrade, and partial exterior improvements. The construction works started in April 2017 and practically completed in August 2017, and now being opened to the Public.

There is a beautiful view overlooking the Lei Yue Mun Strait and we hope that the whole building will be renovated into an elegant space that reveals its colonial architectural style. Therefore, we have particularly looked up the blueprints which were drawn by the British army in 1890s from the Government Archives for reference. The furnishing details were restored in order to match to its original design as well as integrating with the modern technologies and building services.

For the Verandah area, we have restored and reopened the original arch windows on the East and West elevations; and all the air-conditioners on the façade windows were scrapped in order to match with the original blueprints. The internals walls were repainted with lighter color and improved the lightings with concealed LED downlights. The Verandah was designed without air-conditioning to retain the maximum ceiling height while air conditioners were installed on the high-level windows in the main sitting area, chilled air was diverted by ceiling-mounted, antique-style fans. These make the existing Verandah becomes nostalgic, airy and comfortable.

In the Main Sitting area, a feature bar counter is positioned in the center of the hall. It is finished with vertical bronze strips which could reflect and blend in with the surrounding. The original cornices were restored while all the new building services such as concealed LED downlights, sprinkler system were re-routed and accommodated within the ‘island’ suspended ceilings in the middle of each ceiling bay. The air-conditioning, electrical conduits were all well-hidden behind the white-painted louvers which run continuously around the Main Sitting Area on the upper walls. Moreover, the existing fireplaces were restored which the original floor tiles at the fireplaces were retained and the new mantelpieces were rebuilt according to the design of the original blueprints.

The new design has increased the use of daylight by reopening the arch windows on the East and West façade as well as the application of lighter wall color in order to reduce the use of electrical lightings in daytimes. The existing lighting fixtures were also replaced by energy efficient LED lightings. The number of air-conditioners were reduced in which the circulation of chilled air could be promoted by ceiling-mounted fans. All the doors between the Main Sitting Area and Verandah were replaced by air-permissible louvers, that also helps to encourage airflows between all spaces.

In addition to enjoy a brand-new environment, we have also made this project ‘educational’ by redrawing the original buildings of the old Barracks. We have gathered all the information from the archive and produced 13 measured drawings as artworks to decorate in the new cafe. So that visitors can see the original outlooks of the building and its surroundings while enjoying the bend new renovated building. We hope that through these paintings and the new interior, visitors will have a better understanding to the history of this place.