Herzog & de Meuron celebrate milestone for winning design
On 30th November, the topping out ceremony took place for the M+ museum building in Hong Kong, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Situated in the new West Kowloon Cultural District, the building is planned as one of the largest contemporary visual cultural institutions in the world.
The district authorities ran a design contest in 2013, seeking a concept for a new facility that reflected Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international, while defining a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century. Herzog & de Meuron won the competition, with a design based around the underground tunnel for the Airport Express, which was initially seen as an obstacle to construction but became an opportunity for a new exhibition space. Jacques Herzog stated: "For art to enter into the life of a city like Hong Kong it has to come from below, from its own foundations. Our M+ Project does exactly that, by literally emerging from the city's underground."
The building contains 17,000 sq m of exhibition space, cinemas, a lecture theatre, a learning centre, a museum shop, performance spaces, cafes, a médiathèque, and a public roof terrace that looks out to Victoria Harbour and the Hong Kong skyline. Soaring up from the horizontal podium is the museum tower, which houses the library, archive, study centre, members’ facilities, museum offices, and restaurants, and features an LED facade for the display of moving image artworks.
At the ceremony, Suhanya Raffel, Executive Director of M+, placed this milestone in the context of the museum's ongoing work, stating: ‘As we mark this major achievement and move steadily towards the delivery of the museum’s permanent home, we continue our work to ensure the visibility of M+, in Hong Kong and around the world. Over the past few years, we have been working conscientiously to deliver this world-class museum, and plans for the inaugural exhibitions to be held in this building are advancing steadily. This planning is essential to introducing the M+ Collections to the public. We very much look forward to moving into M+’s new home, and to opening the doors of the museum in 2020.’
Lucy Nordberg
TenderStream Head of Research
This competition was first published by TenderStream on 19.09.2009 here
Start your free trial here or email our team directly at customerservices@tenderstream.com
