Highcliff is a

luxury apartment A luxury apartment is a type of apartment that is intended to provide its occupant with higher-than-average levels of comfort, quality and convenience. While the term is often used to describe high-end regular apartments, or even typical apartmen ...

on a south slope of Happy Valley on the

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. The 75-

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

building's construction (70 floors of which are liveable space) began in 2000 and was completed in 2003 under a design by DLN Architects & Engineers. It was the Silver Winner of the 2003

Emporis Skyscraper Award The Emporis Skyscraper Award was an award for architectural excellence regarding the design of buildings and their functionality. The award was presented annually by Emporis, a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany ...

, coming in second to

30 St Mary Axe 30 St Mary Axe (previously known as the Swiss Re Building and informally known as the Gherkin) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. ...

in London. The tower is the tallest "all"-residential building in

Hong Kong island Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...

. Highcliff is thin for such a tall building; it has a

slenderness ratio In architecture, the slenderness ratio, or simply slenderness, is an aspect ratio, the quotient between the height and the width of a building. In structural engineering, slenderness is used to calculate the propensity of a column to buckle. ...

of 1:20 thus being one of the thinnest buildings in the world. Therefore, a passive wind damper was fitted to the top, the first of its kind for a

residential A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family resi ...

building. This was installed because

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

s approach Hong Kong most late summers. Because of the obvious similarity with a nearby similar building The Summit, the two have been informally called "The Chopsticks". These two buildings highlight the characters of

pencil-thin tower A pencil tower (also known as a skinny skyscraper, pencil-thin tower, super-slender tower, or super-slim tower) is a high-rise building or skyscraper with a very high slenderness ratio that is very tall and thin. There is no universal definition ...

s that are highly concentrated in Hong Kong.

References

External links

Highcliff official homepage
(Building elevation chart and layout plans for each floor are available as pdf.)
SkyscraperPage.com's entryEmporis.com
– Building ID 100639 Landmarks in Hong Kong Happy Valley, Hong Kong Private housing estates in Hong Kong Residential buildings completed in 2003 Residential skyscrapers in Hong Kong Pencil towers in Hong Kong {{HongKong-struct-stub

See also

References

External links