Location and Campus Layout — The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

# Location and Campus Layout — The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The Clear Water Bay campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is the most recently built and systematically planned of Hong Kong’s three research universities, set on a hillside overlooking the sea at Tai Po Tsai, on the northern Clear Water Bay Peninsula in Sai Kung District. Before the university arrived, this plot of land was once designated for a British Army garrison known as Kohima Camp — a project shelved by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. A forward-looking university of science and technology thus rose on land that history had suddenly vacated. This article traces the campus’s geographic coordinates, land area, the layered site plan, the construction timeline, and that little-known pre-history of the site.

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# 1. Location

# Administrative Division and Precise Coordinates

HKUST is situated at Tai Po Tsai, Clear Water Bay, Sai Kung District, New Territories, Hong Kong. Its postal address is 1 University Road, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon; administratively it belongs to Sai Kung District but is commonly identified by the geographic marker “Clear Water Bay”^※. Its approximate coordinates are 22°20′17″ N, 114°15′47″ E.

The campus occupies the northern tip of the Clear Water Bay Peninsula, overlooking Port Shelter (Sai Kung Hoi)^※. Port Shelter is a natural bay in the north‑eastern waters of Hong Kong, surrounded on three sides by the Sai Kung Country Parks. Its water quality is comparatively good and suffers little industrial pollution; it is also one of the areas in Hong Kong’s eastern inshore waters with richer ecological diversity. The Tai Po Tsai site itself is rugged terrain with an average elevation of about 85 metres^※, part of the still‑relatively‑undeveloped hillside zone on the north side of the peninsula — one of the topographic reasons the British military chose it for a barracks (see “Pre‑history of the Site” below): secluded enough, yet close to the coast for deployment.

# Distance from the City

According to study‑abroad information from the University of Calgary^※ and UCEAP materials^※, the campus is about a 30‑ to 45‑minute drive from the Kowloon urban area. Taking Clear Water Bay Road, one reaches it in about 45 minutes; public transport via Choi Hung Station takes roughly 30–40 minutes. Perched on a hillside with no direct MTR link (the nearest stations are Hang Hau and Po Lam, requiring a connecting bus or minibus), this relative isolation is an important reason many students choose to live on campus.

It is also worth noting that the Clear Water Bay Peninsula is home to TVB City, the headquarters of Television Broadcasts Limited. After the barracks plan was shelved and the university built, Tai Po Tsai gradually developed a community form centred on HKUST and TVB City, attracting many film‑and‑television industry professionals to settle nearby^※. The northern section of the peninsula thus presents a distinctive geographic and cultural landscape of “university + media”, quite different in character from the beach‑resort atmosphere of the southern part of Clear Water Bay.

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# 2. Land Area

The HKUST campus covers about 60 hectares (roughly 150 acres)^※, making it a medium‑to‑large campus among Hong Kong universities. Because of the topography, the developable footprint is not identical to the flat area — a large proportion is hillside greenery and woodland. According to figures compiled by construction‑management scholar Prof. Anthony Walker^※, the completed Academic Building alone has a gross floor area exceeding 170,000 square metres, accompanied by more than 2,000 student residential places, nearly 350 staff quarters, and over 5 kilometres of internal roads — meaning that a considerable share of the 60 hectares has been converted into high‑density buildings and infrastructure, not simply kept as open space. Starting in 2010, the Lee Shau Kee Campus, centred on a site south of Hang Hau MTR station, added a further 10 hectares^※, an extension to the south of the main campus that officially opened in 2013; from 2025 onwards, four planned new teaching blocks will add another 2.1 hectares (see “Subsequent Expansions” below).

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# 3. Campus Planning and Overall Building Layout

# Background to the Master Plan

At the inception of HKUST, the Hong Kong government selected the master‑planning team through an architectural design competition. The consortium of Simon Kwan & Associates and the UK firm Percy Thomas Partnership submitted the runner‑up scheme^※, yet it was this runner‑up that was eventually chosen to serve formally as campus master planners from December 1987^※ — the winning entry was not adopted and the second‑placed scheme was implemented, a detail rarely mentioned in the university’s own public narrative. The challenge for the planning team was a steep Clear Water Bay hillside with substantial level differences, while they also had to preserve as much green vegetation as possible and integrate a large number of academic, residential and sports facilities.

As architectural commentary has summarised, HKUST’s terraced pattern has since become a consistent design principle^※: academic facilities occupy the highest platform, while undergraduate halls and sports facilities are placed in the lower zone near the shore, with the various levels connected by vehicular roads and a network of footbridges and lifts known as the “Bridge Link”. This approach — “respect the topography, build in stepped terraces” — was later carried through into new student‑residence designs such as the Jockey Club i‑Village, which opened in 2026.

The campus design documents retained by Simon Kwan & Associates (including sketches, drawings and master‑plan sheets) are held by M+ museum and are regarded as one of the important archives of Hong Kong’s post‑war architectural history^※.

# A Topography‑Driven Layered Pattern

According to a Wikipedia synthesis of the campus layout^※, the core strategy of the plan was “respect the topography, build in stepped terraces”:

• Upper Terrace (high on the hillside) — clusters the Academic Building, the library, the administration building and departmental research offices, forming the main academic spine.
• Middle Level — houses the Entrance Piazza, student‑services facilities, canteens (LG1, LG7, etc.), and student activity spaces.
• Lower Level and Waterfront Area (at the foot of the hill near the sea) — contains the Undergraduate Halls, sports pitches, the Water Sports Centre and the promenade, facing directly onto Port Shelter with open sea views.

The different levels are linked by vehicular roads, pedestrian bridges and multiple outdoor lifts (the Bridge Link system), creating a three‑dimensional transport network. Because of the steep height differences and the complex network of link bridges, “wayfinding by lift number” has become a customary mode of orientation in everyday conversation among HKUST staff and students (for related campus‑culture phenomena, see Landmark Buildings and Public Art^※ and the relevant campus‑anecdote chapters).

# Overview of Major Functional Zones

The campus has two main entrances, North Gate and South Gate, each with bus and minibus stops that are the primary access points for daily arrivals and departures. Because of the undulating terrain, walking through from one gate to the other takes considerable time, so campus shuttle buses and van services operate back and forth between the two ends (see Transport and Campus Facilities^※). This “two gates at north and south, linked by vertical bridges” framework is the spatial skeleton that has endured since the consortium plan of Simon Kwan and Percy Thomas was implemented.

The Academic Zone also has a clear circulation design: inside the Academic Building, a long “Academic Concourse” connects most of the lecture theatres in sequence from North Gate to South Gate — LT‑A through LT‑E along one axis, LT‑F through LT‑H along a parallel corridor, and LT‑J and LT‑K at the southernmost end^※. This method of orientation by “letter code plus spatial sequence”, like the “wayfinding by lift number” habit, forms part of the unique directional vocabulary of the HKUST campus.

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# 4. Pre‑history of the Site: The Hillside That Almost Became a Barracks

Before it became a university campus, this hillside at Tai Po Tsai had a little‑known episode of planned military use — an entry that, relative to earlier versions of this article, has been newly clarified as a “not‑found” item.

# Kohima Camp: A Garrison Planned for the Gurkhas

According to the English Wikipedia entry for “Kohima Camp”^※, in 1980–81 the British authorities assessed Hong Kong’s garrison requirements and planned to build a new barracks at Tai Po Tsai to accommodate an additional infantry battalion. The planned barracks was named “Kohima Camp”, after the Battle of Kohima (1944), which turned the tide of the Japanese offensive during the Second World War^※, to commemorate its historical significance. The chosen site was precisely the rugged hillside at the northern tip of the Clear Water Bay Peninsula, Tai Po Tsai, with an average elevation of about 85 metres^※ — land that corresponds closely with today’s HKUST campus.

More specifically, the site was intended to house the 2nd King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles and the 7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles^※ — two elite infantry regiments of the British Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas, composed of Nepalese soldiers and a key component of Britain’s defence posture in Hong Kong at the time.

# The 1984 Sino‑British Joint Declaration: Why Was the Barracks Abandoned?

With the signing of the Sino‑British Joint Declaration in 1984, Hong Kong’s future was settled and Britain began scaling back its garrison, so the Kohima Camp project was shelved^※. In other words, had history taken a slightly different turn, the entrance piazza where HKUST’s Red Bird sundial now stands would probably have been the parade ground of a barracks.

After the barracks plan was scrapped, the land lay temporarily unused. From 27 December 1986 to 1 January 1987, the World Scout Movement held the “Diamond Scouting Jubilee Jamboree” here^※ — the last publicly recorded use of the hillside before it was handed over to the university’s preparatory committee and entered the campus‑planning phase.

# Tai Po Tsai: A Hakka Village Older Than the University

The “Tai Po Tsai” where HKUST is sited is far from anonymous; it is one of the long‑standing Hakka settlements on the Clear Water Bay Peninsula. Local gazetteers record that Tai Po Tsai Village was founded in 1629, making it one of the oldest villages in Sai Kung District^※. It once belonged to the village alliance centred on Ho Chung known as “Ho Chung Tung” (colloquially “Ho Chung Heung”), a league of seven neighbouring villages in the northern part of Sai Kung that historically shared temple rituals, irrigation and local governance — a microcosm of the dual “lineage + locality” structure of New Territories indigenous society. The 1911 census recorded 172 residents (77 males)^※, a medium‑sized village by the standards of the New Territories at the time; all indigenous residents bore the surname Wan (温)^※, typical of a single‑surname Hakka hamlet.

From “300‑year‑old Hakka village” to “planned British barracks” to “leading Asian research university”, the land at Tai Po Tsai has undergone three identity changes in under a century. As the barracks scheme and later university construction proceeded, villagers moved away in stages; traces of the old settlement remain in places on the hillside north of the campus, though systematic village‑history records are fragmentary.

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# 5. Construction History

# Site Selection and Decision (1986–1987)

The Hong Kong government announced its plan to build a third university in March 1986^※ and set up a preparatory committee that September. After evaluation, the hillside site at Tai Po Tsai, Clear Water Bay (the former Kohima Camp reserve land) was chosen. One reason was that the land was already under government acquisition and had a relatively straightforward tenure, and its proximity to the port yet distance from urban bustle favoured a research‑university atmosphere.

In June 1987, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced a donation of HK$1.5 billion (subsequently increased to over HK$1.9 billion) to fund campus construction^※, one of the largest private educational donations in Hong Kong’s history. The Jockey Club was also directly involved in project management, with half the members of the Campus Construction Committee drawn from its representatives. According to Prof. Anthony Walker’s analysis of the HKUST building process^※, in May 1987 the Jockey Club Board of Stewards had already confirmed to the Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong Government its willingness to finance and oversee the university’s construction^※ — effectively making the entire project a “turnkey” undertaking, with the funder deeply embedded in project management to ensure completion on a highly compressed schedule.

As Prof. Walker tallied, the scale of work was enormous: the Academic Building’s gross floor area exceeded 170,000 m², complemented by more than 2,000 student places, nearly 350 staff quarters, and over 5 kilometres of internal roads, together with all trunk utilities for gas, water, sewage and electricity^※. All of this was accomplished within less than four years from ground‑breaking to the opening of the university — a pace he describes as an exceptionally fast case in Hong Kong engineering history.

# Construction Phases (1988–1993)

Campus construction proceeded through a preparatory phase followed by Phases I, II and III:

A notable foundation ceremony took place even earlier: on 8 November 1989, the then Prince of Wales, Prince Charles (now His Majesty King Charles III), visited the Tai Po Tsai site to unveil the foundation stone for the HKUST campus^※ — nearly two years before formal opening, when the site was still in the middle of Phase I construction. On 2 November 1991, HKUST held its Opening Ceremony, with 560 first‑year undergraduates and 140 postgraduates entering the campus^※. The then Governor, Sir David Wilson, attended the ceremony and praised the library’s bilingual online catalogue as being at the forefront globally^※.

# Subsequent Expansions (2010s to Present)

• 2010: Construction of the Lee Shau Kee Campus began on the hilltop south of the main campus, covering about 10 hectares.
• 2013: The Lee Shau Kee Campus and Lee Shau Kee Business Building (LSK) officially opened^※; the Lo Ka Chung Building (HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study) opened at the same time.
• 2016: The Cheng Yu Tung Building (CYT) was inaugurated on 23 February^※, adding about 10,000 m² of floor area, primarily for engineering and interdisciplinary research.
• 2021: The Shaw Auditorium opened on 17 November^※, giving the campus a dedicated performance‑arts venue.
• 2021–2026: The Jockey Club Global Graduate Tower (postgraduate hall, 2021), a new Student Centre (2023), the Jockey Club i‑Village (2026), and the Martin Ka Shing Lee Innovation Building (scheduled for completion in 2025)^※ were completed or are under construction.
• Plans from 2025: It is reported that HKUST plans to add four eight‑storey teaching blocks on the south‑western side of the Clear Water Bay campus, near the South Gate bus terminus, covering a total of about 2.1 hectares — 1.2 hectares of which is private land donated by the Shaw Foundation and 0.9 hectares government land^※. The new blocks will mainly house laboratories, teaching spaces, offices, learning commons and catering outlets, in response to growth in student and staff numbers, with construction possibly beginning as early as 2027^※.

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# 6. Natural Environment and Landscape Character

The scenic value of the Clear Water Bay campus is often remarked upon by staff, students and visitors. The 150‑acre site is embraced on three sides by the green belt of the Hong Kong Country Parks and faces Port Shelter on the fourth^※, with a panoramic sea‑and‑sky view that distinguishes it from other university campuses in Hong Kong. This arrangement — green on three sides, sea on one — echoes the logic behind its earlier designation as Kohima Camp: the secluded terrain the British Army prized likewise fostered the university’s atmosphere of “far from the madding crowd, facing the sea”.

The vertical drop from the Entrance Piazza to the waterfront promenade is some tens of metres, giving the campus a visual layering of “academic zone on the hilltop looking down towards the hall zone by the bay”. A large area of natural secondary woodland and hillside vegetation is preserved on campus, with the Hong Kong common acacia (Acacia confusa) being the most ubiquitous; in spring the yellow blooms set off the blue waters of the bay. Some of these acacia stands date back to the period of natural succession after the barracks plan was dropped and before university construction began — they are among the few natural elements on campus that “pre‑date the university” (acacia timber has in recent years been reclaimed for interior finishings in the new Student Centre; see Green Campus, Eco‑Environment and Expansion History^※).

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# 7. Supplementary Notes and “Not‑Found” Items

• Clear Water Bay Road: The trunk road that runs the length of the Clear Water Bay Peninsula and the route of bus routes 91 and 91M, linking the Kowloon urban area with the campus.
• Architectural style details (such as whether they derive from a particular regionalist tradition): Existing public sources describe the style in broad terms as “modernist”; the specific design philosophies of Simon Kwan and Percy Thomas are largely held in the M+ archives and there is no detailed public discourse — this item is recorded as “not found”.
• Whether Kohima Camp ever broke ground: All available sources only mention “planned” and “shelved after the Joint Declaration”; no public records have been found of any actual construction of barracks infrastructure (e.g. barrack foundations). It is inferred that the scheme was terminated late in the design stage — this item is recorded as “no evidence of actual construction found”.
• Specific timeline and relocation details for Tai Po Tsai villagers: Basic facts — the village was founded in 1629, had 172 residents in 1911 — are documented (see “Pre‑history of the Site”), but details such as the exact year the villagers moved away because of the barracks plan and subsequent university construction, and the resettlement arrangements, remain fragmentary in the public literature — this item is recorded as “no systematic record found”.

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