Snøhetta Completes Pavilia Farm: A Network of Community Spaces and Urban Farming in the Heart of Hong Kong
A Network of Community Spaces and Urban Farming
With the completion of Sky House, the final clubhouse at Pavilia Farm, Snøhetta's vision for a unique urban community centered around nature, wellbeing, and collective ownership is now realized in full. Located within New World Development's residential project in Tai Wai, Hong Kong, the four clubhouses create a vibrant green lung and urban farm amidst one of the world's most densely populated cities.
First launched in 2022 with the opening of Tea House, Well House and Farm House, Pavilia Farm introduced a new model for residential living, one that extends beyond private apartments and into a network of shared spaces designed to foster connection, wellbeing, and everyday encounters. With the completion of Sky House, the project is now fully realized, bringing together four distinct yet interconnected destinations that support residents throughout all stages of life.
Commissioned by New World Development in 2017, Snøhetta conceived the clubhouses as a sequence of experiences woven through the development and connected by movement, nature, and community. Together, the houses encourage exploration and interaction while offering places for reflection, recreation, learning, cultivation, and social exchange.
"Pavilia Farm began with a simple ambition: to create meaningful connections between residents, nature, and Hong Kong itself. In one of the world's densest urban environments, the project provides a shared green sanctuary, the project demonstrates how architecture can shape relationships as much as it shapes space. With the completion of Sky House, that vision is now complete." says Richard Wood, Managing Director Asia.
Rather than treating landscape and architecture as separate disciplines, Pavilia Farm explores their integration. Buildings, gardens, water, and social programs are woven together to create an environment where ecological awareness, community life, and daily rituals of gathering, reflection, and cultivation reinforce one another.
A Sanctuary Within the City
Situated between the surrounding mountains and the Shing Mun River, Pavilia Farm creates a sanctuary of calm and simplicity in the midst of Hong Kong's high-paced, urban intensity. Closely integrated with nature, the project offers residents access to shared gardens, urban farming, wellness facilities, gathering spaces, and recreational areas designed to enhance quality of life while strengthening community bonds.
Four Houses, One Community
1) Tea House: Arrival and Reflection
The Tea House marks the threshold between city and home, offering a place of transition, contemplation, and calm. Water is the defining element of the building, with an indoor pool on one side and a cascading waterfall on the other. The sound of moving water becomes part of the architectural experience, encouraging residents to slow down and leave the pace of the city behind. A cantilevered pavilion overlooks the surrounding landscape, while carefully framed views create a sense of retreat and quiet reflection.
2) Well House: Wellness and Movement
Extending the journey from contemplation to activity, the Well House is dedicated to health, recreation, and wellbeing. The building brings together a gym, spa, sauna, badminton court, and swimming pool that flows seamlessly between indoor and outdoor environments. Generous glazing and strong visual connections to nature blur the boundary between architecture and landscape, creating spaces where movement, fitness, and restoration coexist.
3) Farm House: Gathering and Sharing
At the heart of Pavilia Farm sits the Farm House, surrounded by the project's urban farm and conceived as a place for gathering, cultivation, and exchange. Three kitchens, flexible event spaces, and communal dining areas encourage residents to cook, host, and share meals together. At the center of the building is a custom-designed rail-bound table system, inspired by the role of a dining table within a home. Adaptable and moveable, the table supports everything from intimate family meals to larger community events. The Farm House celebrates food as a catalyst for connection and transforms the act of growing, preparing, and sharing meals into a collective social experience.
4) Sky House: Play and Connection
Completing the ensemble, Sky House brings together spaces for play, learning, discovery, and intergenerational connection. An outdoor playground welcomes children and families into a landscape of play that continues indoors through a children's play area, classroom, and music room. At the center of the building, a dramatic domed skylight and rope-climbing tower create a vertical connection through the space, filling the interior with daylight, movement, and imagination. The upper level provides lounge spaces, fitness facilities, and outdoor exercise areas designed for senior residents. By bringing together spaces for different generations under one roof, Sky House supports meaningful encounters and strengthens community ties through everyday life.
An Interconnected Journey
Each clubhouse has its own character and purpose, yet together they form a connected network of experiences distributed throughout the development. Residents move from contemplation in the Tea House to wellness in the Well House, from gathering in the Farm House to play and exploration in the Sky House. Rather than functioning as isolated amenities, the four clubhouses create a layered neighborhood within the larger residential development, encouraging discovery, interaction, and participation in community life.
A Place for and With Everyone
"The most generous spaces are never finished; they keep evolving, enriching, and giving back. At Pavilia Farm, home extends beyond the walls of an apartment into a verdant sanctuary where generations gather to rest, play, and inspire one another, cultivating a vibrant community shaped by the rhythms of nature." says Emily Yan, Director, Studio Hong Kong (Asia Region).
Taken together, the four houses form more than a collection of communal facilities. They create a rich network of destinations woven into daily life, supporting residents of different ages, interests, and lifestyles.
Pavilia Farm Clubhouses
Location: Hong Kong
Year: 2017-2026
Status: Completed
Client: New World Development Ltd
Size: 5,650 m2
Typology: Park & Garden, Recreation, Residential
Scope: Architecture, Interior Architecture
Landscape: Ohtori Consultants Environmental Design Institute
Collaborator: Ronald Lu & Partners
Photos: Harold de Puymorin/HDP Photography
Serein Liu