Red Brick, Lettered Cores, and Campus Language: PolyU Architectural History and Folk Lore

Module: 15 Campus Lore (Wild History zone) Reading discipline: This module covers modules 13–16, the wild-history zone — sourced material is labelled with citations and a credibility rating; word-of-mouth lore is labelled "unverified, folk account" and kept separate; politically sensitive symbols, memorials, and similar content are routed separately after assessment. This article focuses on the architecture and wayfinding system, a neutral cultural topic.

How red does a building have to be before you step out of Hung Hom station and recognise "this is PolyU"? How many letters does the naming system have to skip before a first-year student gets lost every day of orientation week? The answers to these two questions are written, respectively, on PolyU's brick walls and its door signs — the first is documented in official publications, the second lives in students' everyday complaints. This article covers both.

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# I. Where the red brick came from: a documented design decision

PolyU's most recognisable visual signature is the red-brick facade found across the main Hung Hom campus. This was not accidental — it was a deliberate design language for the campus's first phase of development in the 1970s.

According to a feature article in PolyU's own publication, Excel@PolyU^※: following the formal establishment of the Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1972, a team led by architect James Kinoshita (of Palmer & Turner) conceived the signature red-brick design for the campus's first phase; the style drew on the "red brick" imagery of traditional British and American universities. The institution had already moved to its present Hung Hom site in 1957.

According to the same publication, an early feature of PolyU's buildings was that many were raised one storey above a podium, creating sheltered, semi-open-air public space at ground level for multiple uses. Given Hong Kong's humid, rainy climate and hot summers, this design gave students sheltered space for activity and passage.

Credibility: corroborated by multiple sources — both the origin of the red brick and the podium design appear in PolyU's own publications, so confidence is relatively high.

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# II. Lettered "cores" and "blocks": a deliberately designed wayfinding system

The most common complaint from PolyU newcomers is "I can't find my way." But this apparently confusing system does in fact follow a clear naming logic.

According to Wikipedia and wayfinding-related discussion:

• The campus consists of a series of rectangular "blocks" connected by cylindrical "cores";
• These cores and blocks are named with the letters A to Z, skipping the three letters K, O, and I (as these are easily confused with numerals or other letters);
• The cylindrical "cores" are service cores housing lifts, stairs, toilets, and mechanical/electrical plant; they function as nodes linking together the rectangular "blocks" that hold teaching and administrative facilities.

Credibility: corroborated by multiple sources — the lettered core/block system and the "skips I/K/O" detail can be cross-checked against Wikipedia entries and wayfinding-design discussion.

PolyU buildings often carry two names: a letter designation (for wayfinding) and a donor name (honorific), such as the Li Ka Shing Tower or the Chan Tai Ho Building (see 05 Campus · Landmark Buildings). Students switch between the letter and the donor's name depending on context in everyday speech — this "dual naming" is itself a feature of PolyU's campus language. Phrases students commonly use, like "meet me at Block X" or "go up to Y core," are this institutional terminology put into everyday use — for a newcomer, learning to understand "core" and "block" is the first lesson in fitting into campus life.

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# III. Word-of-mouth lore: the "maze campus" and other stories passed around

The following material is word-of-mouth folk account, which this site has not been able to verify against a first-hand official source; it is labelled "unverified, folk account" and kept separate — take it for what it's worth.

# 3.1 The "PolyU maze"

The Hung Hom campus is known for being "connected, but hard to orient in." Red-brick walkways interweave across three levels — basement, ground, and elevated podium — and buildings are named with sequential letters whose order does not always intuitively match their actual spatial position. This has given rise to the folk nickname "PolyU maze":

• According to online posts (a folk source): new students commonly complain of having to "pass through several blocks and loop back" just to get from one block to another;
• The physical basis for this impression is that the campus has been added to organically since the 1970s — buildings were appended in letter sequence, and walkway routes followed terrain and phased construction rather than a straight-line layout.

Credibility: unverified, folk account. The official framing is that the connected campus is meant to make it convenient for students to move around in the rain; "maze" is a folk nickname used in jest, with a physical basis but no official conclusion behind it.

# 3.2 The "no right angles" anecdote about the Jockey Club Innovation Tower

The Jockey Club Innovation Tower, designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid, formally opened on 18 March 2014, stands roughly 76 metres tall across 15 storeys^※, and is Hadid's first permanent building in Hong Kong, housing the School of Design. Around this fluid-form building, a number of anecdotes circulate among design staff and students: during construction or fit-out, "unable to find a level surface / right angle" is a joke often retold; other accounts describe the building's spiral ramp as "itself a design exercise made into a fixture."

Credibility: unverified, folk account (mainly oral accounts from Design staff and students). The building itself, its opening date, and its designer can be verified (see Wikipedia); details of internal use are difficult to match one-for-one against official sources and are recorded here as folk account.

# 3.3 "Does the red brick fade?"

Folk discussion occasionally touches on maintenance of the red-brick facade after decades of weathering. This is everyday observation and joking; this site has found no authoritative maintenance record and does not state it as fact — it is recorded only as an existing campus topic.

Credibility: unverified, folk account.

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# IV. A modernist landmark "rediscovered"

PolyU's red brick began as a purely functional design choice, intended to give an industrial/polytechnic institution a practical, durable, recognisable campus. Over time, however, the red brick came to exceed its function and become a cultural symbol — it is PolyU's most immediately recognisable visual identity, the origin of the folk nicknames "Hung Hom Poly" and "red-brick campus," and in recent years it has been reassessed by the architecture and culture community as part of Hong Kong's modernist architectural heritage.

According to a ZOLIMA CITYMAG architecture feature^※ (citing PolyU's own publication), PolyU has been described as "Hong Kong's underrated modern landmark"; the feature, titled "Hong Kong's Modern Heritage," discusses PolyU alongside architects James Kinoshita and Zaha Hadid.

Credibility: single source — this is a media opinion piece; its existence is recorded, but it is not treated as an authoritative conclusion.

Part of why the red-brick campus is regarded as a valuable architectural example is that it stands alongside later landmarks (see 05 Campus · Jockey Club Innovation Tower): the 1970s red-brick cores/blocks (James Kinoshita, modernist, red-brick language) → the 2001 Li Ka Shing Tower (postmodern, red brick plus glass curtain wall) → the 2014 Jockey Club Innovation Tower (Zaha Hadid, fluid, parametric). On one campus, you can walk from 1970s red brick, to 2001 red brick plus glass, to a 2014 fluid-form landmark — this "generational overlap of architecture" is uncommon on Hong Kong campuses, and is a major reason PolyU draws attention from the architecture and culture community.

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# V. The everyday experience of the red-brick maze

The red brick and lettered cores are not just an architectural language — they are also the muscle memory students build through daily use of the campus. PolyU's Hung Hom campus is not large, but its floors, podiums, footbridges, cores, block numbers, and entrances overlap with one another; new students usually first learn "which way to go up," "which footbridge is quickest," and "which core leads to which building" before they truly understand the map. The sense of being in a maze is not simply a label for architectural failure — it is the result of a high-density urban campus layering itself on limited land over time.

This spatial experience also enters the language. When students say "red brick," "core," "such-and-such block," "up to the podium," or "cut through the Innovation Tower," they are using everyday vocabulary to build a navigation system for a complex campus. The official map gives a planar order; student speech gives an action route. The sense of being in a maze also produces a shared language — a new student asking directions, a senior student leading the way, classmates arranging to meet at a particular core or under a particular block — these repeated small scenes turn campus space into social language. Many universities have a lawn, a clock tower, or a waterfront as their shared reference points; PolyU's shared language is more like "red brick, podium, block, core, footbridge." It is not romantic, but it is very PolyU.

What truly makes the red brick a cultural symbol is students walking through it, getting lost in it, rushing to class, meeting friends, rehearsing, and taking graduation photos in it, every day. Architectural history gives it a hard framework; student use gives it a lived feel — which is why this article puts architectural fact, media commentary, and folk memory in the same piece: how space becomes language, how language becomes identity, and how identity is in turn reinterpreted by architecture media and alumni memory.

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# VI. Folk nicknames for the university and campus

• PolyU: the officially recognised abbreviation. After the institution's elevation to university status (1994), the word "Polytechnic" was retained in the full name (see 00 Overview · Motto and Identity).
• "Hung Hom Poly": a long-standing folk nickname for PolyU, referring to the main campus's location in Hung Hom (since the 1957 move; see 00 Overview · History). Even after university status was granted, this nickname has continued to circulate informally; it is a cultural observation, not an official term.
• Folk usage occasionally includes various nicknames for PolyU or its students, which vary by time and group and have no official basis; this site does not compile them exhaustively. Nicknames that could offend a particular group are not compiled or repeated here.

Credibility: unverified, folk account (nicknames). "Hung Hom Poly" is not an official name, but it has a physical, geographic basis (the campus is indeed in Hung Hom); other nicknames are folk jokes, and this site deliberately excludes anything potentially offensive.

PolyU students also use a set of terms related to the academic system and daily life (mostly common across Hong Kong universities rather than unique to PolyU): GUR (General University Requirements), Sem (semester), Hall (residence hall, see 10 Colleges/Residence), GE/CAR (General Education / Cluster Area Requirements), GPA (grade point average). These are mostly English abbreviations that entered everyday speech directly, reflecting the language habits of an English-medium teaching environment at PolyU, and can be verified (as institutional terms).

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# VII. The evidentiary boundaries of architectural lore

Architectural anecdotes can be written up, but three categories of material must be kept distinct: the first is verifiable fact (year of construction, designer, naming, donors, official use, and campus maps); the second is media or architectural commentary (modernist heritage, red-brick aesthetics, architectural assessments of the Jockey Club Innovation Tower); the third is folk sentiment (the "maze," "red-brick kid," certain routes said to be especially hard to find). The third category can be recorded, but must not be dressed up as an official conclusion.

Any future additions of campus terminology or anecdotes should, as far as possible, be anchored to student publications, alumni articles, campus tours, architectural commentary, or official publications; unsourced claims should be written as "folk name" or "student slang," not presented as "all PolyU students say this." If a new building opens, an old building is renovated, the wayfinding system is updated, or campus redevelopment affects the red brick, cores, block numbers, or main routes, this article should be updated accordingly, since such changes directly affect the "maze campus" experience.

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