The 'Art Community': Revitalization Project at Mallory Street/ Burrows Street, Wan Chai (currently named 'Comix Home Base'), of which architecture alumna Ms. Karen Kiang was in charge as an architect of Aedas Ltd., received a number of prestigious awards, including the HKIA Medal of the Year of Hong Kong, and Special Architectural Award – Heritage and Adaptive Re-use of the HKIA Annual Awards 2013, as well as the Merit Award of Hong Kong Building (Renovation/Revitalization) Category of Quality Building Award 2014. The Centre of Architectural Heritage Research of School of Architecture, CUHK, is the heritage consultant of the project.
Completed in May 2013 with a contract sum of HK$155 million, the project 'Comix Home Base' conserves a rare and intact Tong Lau ensemble (Grade 2 Historic Building) dated the 1910s and revitalizes the old district of Wan Chai. The project has achieved the three key objectives of providing public open space within a tight urban site, preserving historic buildings and upgrading them to meet modern building regulations, and revitalizing them into a community-based arts and cultural centre. This project demonstrates how best practice conservation and innovative architectural designs can support district revitalization.