The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) announced the appointment of Herzog & de Meuron + TFP Farrells, a partnership of two leading architectural practices in the world and in Hong Kong, to design the building of M+, the museum for visual culture, in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD). The team will work with the WKCDA over the next four years to design and deliver a world-class facility to house Hong Kong's future museum for 20th and 21st century visual culture, scheduled for completion in 2017.

Six teams were shortlisted in December last year and invited to submit conceptual designs for the building, including the international design heavy hitters Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Shigeru Ban Architects + Thomas Chow Architects, Snøhetta, and Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects + Benoy Limited. (Project images, below).

Situated on the waterfront of the Victoria Harbour at the edge of the 14-hectare Park, M+ will be one of the first batch of arts and cultural venues to be completed in the WKCD.   Principally it will be a museum for the Hong Kong people, firmly rooted in the location and its unique culture, which provides a Hong Kong perspective, with a global vision, expanding to other regions of China, Asia and the rest of the world.  M+ will provide space for artists to meet, exhibit and experiment, as well as housing a world-class permanent visual culture collection.  The winning design was selected unanimously by an international Jury Panel.

The Board resolved to adopt a pragmatic approach to develop facilities that are fit for purpose, which will be implemented according to the following principles:

1. Rigorous cost containment of individual facilities to a level as close to the original budget as possible.
2. Emphasis on content rather than form of these facilities.
3. Early delivery of the Park as well as some arts and cultural facilities for public enjoyment.

On cost containment, the WKCDA is conducting rigorous value engineering exercise for the Xiqu Centre and negotiating with the selected design team of M+ to lower the project cost as far as practicable, without compromising the overall function and quality of the facilities.   The Board was informed that the WKCDA has made progress on this front, where the estimated cost of the Xiqu Centre has lowered from $2.7 billion to $2.5 - $2.6 billion.

Project Description from the Architects

M+ is not just another museum. M+ is a cultural center for 20th and 21st century art, design, architecture and the moving image. As such, it embraces the entire spectrum of spaces, means of display and activities related to exhibiting and viewing these media. They range from the conventional white cube, reconfigurable spaces, screening rooms and multipurpose facilities to so-called third spaces and even an “industrial" space. It was the special request for this “industrial” space that motivated us to take a closer look at the specificity of the center's future location. How should a post-industrial space be created from vacant land? A mere 20 years ago, the ground occupied by the WKCD was part of the seaport. Section by section, the land has been reclaimed from the sea and the natural harbor filled with earth. This artificial piece of land is now the construction site for the new buildings of the WKCD. What can lend authenticity to reclaimed land? Paradoxically, yet another work of engineering defines the specificity of this place: the underground tunnel of the Airport Express. Initially an obstacle that complicated planning, this distinctive feature has become the raison d'être for our project, consisting of a rough, large-scale exhibition universe which quite literally anchors the entire building in the ground. By uncovering the tunnel, a spectacular space is created for art and design, installation and performance; the excavations reveal nature of a “second order”, a “Found Space” that is a challenge to artists and curators alike, a space of unprecedented potential. Together with an adjacent, L-shaped Black Box, a flexible, easily reconfigurable Studio Space, direct access to the loading dock and a large part of the storage area, a sunken forum and exhibition topography have been created, which are not only tailored to the needs of art and design in the 21st century but also set the stage for a unique art experience, inseparable from the specific character of this location.

The horizontal building hovering above this “industrial” landscape houses the more conventional display spaces. As in a city, the arrangement of all the galleries is based on an orthogonal grid. A central plaza provides direct access to the entire exhibition area. This includes not only the temporary exhibitions but also three clearly defined Anchor Rooms. A tall Focus Gallery, with two lateral bands of daylight just below the ceiling, rises out of the horizontal exhibition building and plugs into the lower part of the vertical staff and education building. A sequence of galleries is accessed from each of the four corners of the central plaza. A specific space introduces each sequence: an elongated sky lit gallery, a courtyard with direct access to the roof terrace, a room with extensive glazing towards the Park and an auditorium facing Victoria Harbor. These distinguish and structure the sequence of exhibition spaces, which can in turn be combined or divided into smaller units by additional third spaces. The galleries themselves may be illuminated from above or from the sides; they may be introverted or extroverted. A variety of precise openings in the façade frame views of the Artist Square, the Park and the skyline of Hong Kong Island across the harbor.

In the joint between the “Found Space” and the horizontal, floating exhibition building, there is a spacious entrance area for the public. Instead of building a solid object that blocks off access, light and views, this covered area forms a bright, welcoming platform that can be entered from all sides and levels: open and transparent yet shielded from direct sunlight. It becomes a forum and focal point between the West Kowloon Cultural District and the Park, the newly built Avenue and Victoria Harbor. Here visitors encounter all the uses and activities of M+ at a single glance. Specific functions are assigned to each quadrant of the platform. Ticketing, museum shop and information are situated in the corner next to Artist Square. The large temporary exhibition space faces the Park and is accessible directly from the main platform. Overlooking the waterfront promenade and Victoria Harbor, there is the auditorium on one side while, on the other, the glazed rotunda of the Resource Center receives interested visitors. A broad diagonal opening in the floor of the platform affords a view of the excavated “Found Space”. And through a large circular cut-out above, visitors see the exhibition level and also a view of the vertical building and open skies.

The vertical plane of the M+ building is centered on the horizontal slab of exhibition spaces and spans its entire width. The two elements form a single entity, fused into the shape of an upside down T. Making full use of the height specified in the master plan, the vertical building establishes M+ as part of the Victoria Harbor skyline. It is here that most of the educational facilities and museum offices are housed. Abundant daylight and expansive views make learning and working a special experience. A series of multistory interior courtyard spaces and meeting zones establish varied connections between front-of-house and back-of-house. The top floors of the vertical building contain restaurants, bars and a sky garden. Integrated into the sun-shading horizontal louvers of the façade, an LED lighting system activates the building as a coarse-grained, oversized display screen for works of art selected by curators or created especially for M+.

The resulting structure is not simply anchored in its surroundings; it is also formed by them. The precise and urban, almost archaic, shape reiterates the iconic character of Kowloon’s skyline on one hand, yet on the other hand, this convention is subverted by the transmitted message of the art and artists, visible from afar, that will consequently make M+ a site of constant renewal, rather than being locked to a predefined form. This is a universal place with an inner organization whose openness and transparency make it possible to link the complexities of the content and the space in many different ways. Through its specificity, it becomes a distinctive, singular and unmistakable piece of Hong Kong. But above all, M+ is a public forum, a built platform for the exchange, encounter and activity of people and art.

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Herzog & de Meuron Architekten is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog (born 1950), and Pierre de Meuron (born 1950), closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. They are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London to the new home of the Tate Museum of Modern Art (2000). Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994 (and in 1989) and professors at ETH Zürich since 1999. They are co-founders of the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, which started a research programme on processes of transformation in the urban domain.

Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by five Senior Partners – Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler and Stefan Marbach. An international team of 38 Associates and about 362 collaborators.

Herzog & de Meuron received international attention very early in their career with the Blue House in Oberwil, Switzerland (1980); the Stone House in Tavole, Italy (1988); and the Apartment Building along a Party Wall in Basel (1988).  The firm’s breakthrough project was the Ricola Storage Building in Laufen, Switzerland (1987).  Renown in the United States came with Dominus Winery in Yountville, California (1998). The Goetz Collection, a Gallery for a Private Collection of Modern Art in Munich (1992), stands at the beginning of a series of internationally acclaimed museum buildings such as the Küppersmühle Museum for the Grothe Collection in Duisburg, Germany (1999). Their most recognized buildings include Prada Aoyama in Tokyo, Japan (2003); Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany (2005); the new Cottbus Library for the BTU Cottbus, Germany (2005); the National Stadium Beijing, the Main Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China; VitraHaus, a building to present Vitra’s “Home Collection“, Weil am Rhein, Germany (2010); and 1111 Lincoln Road, a multi-storey mixed-use structure for parking, retail, a restaurant and a private residence in Miami Beach, Florida, USA (2010), the Actelion Business Center in Allschwil/Basel, Switzerland (2010). In recent years, Herzog & de Meuron have also completed projects such as the New Hall for Messe Basel Switzerland (2013), the Ricola Kräuterzentrum in Laufen (2014), which is the seventh building in a series of collaborations with Ricola, with whom Herzog & de Meuron began to work in the 1980s; and the Naturbad Riehen (2014), a public natural swimming pool. In April 2014, the practice completed its first project in Brazil: the Arena do Morro in the neighbourhood of Mãe Luiza, Natal, is the pioneering project within the wider urban proposal “A Vision for Mãe Luiza”.

Herzog & de Meuron have completed 6 projects since the beginning of 2015: a new mountain station including a restaurant on top of the Chäserrugg (2262 metres above sea level) in Toggenburg, Switzerland; Helsinki Dreispitz, a residential development and archive in Münchenstein/Basel, Switzerland; Asklepios 8 – an office building on the Novartis Campus in Basel, Switzerland; the Slow Food Pavilion for Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy; the new Bordeaux stadium, a 42’000 seat multifunctional stadium for Bordeaux, France; Miu Miu Aoyama, a 720 m² boutique for the Prada-owned brand located on Miyuki Street, across the road from Prada Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan.

In many projects the architects have worked together with artists, an eminent example of that practice being the collaboration with Rémy Zaugg, Thomas Ruff and with Michael Craig-Martin.

Professionally, the Herzog & de Meuron partnership has grown to become an office with over 120 people worldwide. In addition to their headquarters in Basel, they have offices in London, Munich and San Francisco. Herzog has explained, “We work in teams, but the teams are not permanent. We rearrange them as new projects begin. All of the work results from discussions between Pierre and me, as well as our other partners, Harry Gugger and Christine Binswanger. The work by various teams may involve many different talents to achieve the best results which is a final product called architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.”

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Published on: June 29, 2013
Cite: "Herzog & de Meuron to design M+ museum in Hong Kong" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/herzog-de-meuron-design-m-museum-hong-kong> ISSN 1139-6415
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