The 11^th learning center of HKU SPACE, Kowloon West Campus, held its grand opening on 10 March 2023. The campus is set at a strategic location. Situated at 888 Lai Chi Kok Road, it’s connected to the main roads in the area and can extend in all directions; it is adjacent to the Lai Chi Kok MTR station with complete transportation facilities, providing the School’s faculty staff and students with the greatest convenience for their daily commuting. The site selection of the campus adheres to the School’s motto of “bringing classes to the students”, and fulfills the professional mission of bringing education into the community.

Witnessing the opening of the School’s new chapter

On 10 March 2023, HKU SPACE held an opening ceremony at the new Kowloon West Campus. About 100 guests including members of the School’s Board of Directors, the Committees and Alumni Council, management and faculty staff attended and witnessed the historical moment of the School.

At the ceremony, Professor Ian Holliday, Chairman of the HKU SPACE Board of

Directors, and Professor William K.M. Lee, Director of HKU SPACE, delivered speeches respectively. Professor Ian Holliday mentioned that the School paid great attention to geographical location when looking for suitable places for new campuses - the sites of all learning centres must have convenient transportation links, to be able to meet the needs of different people. “The acquisition of the new campus aims to develop and improve the School’s teaching and learning facilities, and at the same time, to fulfill our core mission of providing lifelong learning opportunities for the community,” he said.

Professor William K.M. Lee said, “The new Kowloon West Campus embraces sustainable development as its design concept to ensure that the School will provide a modern campus while fulfilling its corporate environmental responsibility. The new campus is equipped with the most advanced teaching and learning facilities. For example, special rooms are set up to meet the learning needs of wine and coffee tasting in modern society, together with computer labs, providing a more diverse learning environment for full-time and part-time students.”

After the ceremony, the guests had lunch together. During the lunch, Ms Susanna Poon, a part-time teacher of the School’s wine programmes and a Champagne Chevalier of Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne (OCC), was invited to introduce the wine tasting techniques, and give tips of how to pair red and white wine with different foods; and Mr Keith Tse, a part-time coffee teacher and professional barista who has won several times the Hong Kong Latte Art Championship, performed specialty coffee latte art, and brewed specialty coffee for the guests to taste. These lunchtime events showcased the professionalism and excellent teaching quality of the School’s wine and coffee programmes.

The professional skills and knowledge of the two teachers were eye-opening. Everyone was full of praise for their wonderful performance, and the atmosphere was relaxed and lively. Enjoying the amazing aroma of the coffee and wine, people had a great time together.

Classrooms are equipped with complete facilities to benefit the School’s teaching ability

To be in line with the School’s sustainable development direction is an important factor in choosing NCB Innovation Centre as the site for the new Kowloon West Campus. NCB Innovation Centre is a green building project - it conforms to sustainable and green operating models, which can effectively improve energy efficiency and environmental management. This project has won many awards, including the Best Office Development (Asia) at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards in 2022 and BEAM Gold rating etc. In order to further save energy and reduce emissions, the School has also installed energy monitors in the offices and classrooms to reduce energy consumption.

The acquisition of the property is part of the School’s long-term development strategies, which is to expand and improve teaching venues and student facilities. The campus extends over two floors and has a total floor area of nearly 50,000 square feet, some of which are designed with floor-to-ceiling windows to increase the sense of space and the use of natural light. The design uses a mix of different materials, such as metal, glass, and Zelkova wood, which have different textures, in order to create a high-tech atmosphere. Also, through the use of bright colours, the design delivers strong modern vibes. In terms of facilities, the new Kowloon West Campus has an enrolment centre, 9 classrooms of different sizes, 1 special room, 2 computer labs, 3 student common rooms, a teacher room, a DIY E-Learning room, and a sick room, etc.; some space in the building is designated as offices, convenient for faculty staff to handle daily teaching affairs. The new campus has advanced and complete facilities, providing students with the best learning environment.

With the completion of the new Kowloon West Campus, the total number of the School’s classrooms and computer/special rooms is increased to 255, and the gross covered floor area is increased to 613,000 square feet.

In line with the School’s strategy of developing e-learning, the classrooms at the new Kowloon West Campus are featured with the latest technology and equipment to support  on-campus and off-campus teaching at the same time; echo-free classrooms are ideal for discussion and Q&A sessions; digital interactive whiteboards are in place to help achieve easy illustration and more efficient teaching; touch interface is available to control audio, video, lighting and the delivery of signals, which can support wireless teaching and presentation.

In addition, given the demand and trends in learning wine and coffee tasting in modern society, the new Kowloon West Campus has a special room with an area of 2,000 square feet. The room is specially designed to be a professional-grade “life kitchen” with Arclinea, a famous Italian brand kitchen cabinets. The aesthetics of Arclinea combine the Italian design with better-performing equipment and more sophisticated and durable finishes. It has wine cellars, espresso machines, coffee grinders, ice making machines, glass chiller, cooking stoves, and other advanced equipment, simulating a real-life environment in a café or wine bar. Its interior design adopts simple light and clean tone as backdrop, with dark and metallic tone tables and chairs as highlight for the whole space. The setting of the special room is to complement the School’s plan in developing more food & beverage related programmes. For those who aspire to become professional sommeliers, baristas, or just want to learn dining etiquette and wine & food pairing, learning in such a modern kitchen will definitely help them acquire knowledge and master skills more effectively.

The special room is also equipped with a cleaner room with the latest model of a heat-recycle dish washer to meet the fierce demand of cleaned wine glasses and kitchen utensils. The cleaner room layout meets the heavy demand with an ergonomics design for the health benefits of our staff.

The coffee and wine programmes currently offered by the School have all reached the professional level, and have been certified by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WEST) respectively. Some graduates have already become professional instructors in those fields. The School’s part-time coffee teacher, Mr Keith Tse, is an Authorized Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) Trainer. He holds the ‘Brewing Professional’ and ‘Barista Skills Professional’ from Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), and has won the Hong Kong Latte Art Championship 4 times. Keith loves and enjoys coffee and he wishes to share his knowledge and professional techniques with more like-minded people.

The School’s wine teacher, Ms. Susanna Poon, is a Certified WSET Educator. Her passion in wine has led her to various wine qualifications such as Champagne Expert (Distinction), Italian Wine Maestro, and Champagne Chevalier of the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne (OCC) from its Hong Kong branch. As a former student of the School’s wine programmes, Susanna is now appointed as the judge of Wine Luxe International Awards. Moreover, as part of the Coach Team for HKU SPACE Wine Team, she led our students to win The Left Bank Bordeaux Cup Blind Tasting Competitions at Chateau Lafite in 2019.

The Student Common Rooms also have very ingenious designs – the extensive use of glass partitions allows plenty of natural light to penetrate into the interior, creating brighter, more dynamic, lively and energetic space; the adoption of warm tone colours create a cozy and relaxing atmosphere, bringing out a “home sweet home” feeling to the students, and promotes a sense of belonging; the indoor seating arrangement and space can be adjusted flexibly, allowing different types of student activities of different sizes.