News: six international teams, including Herzog & de Meuron, SANAA and Renzo Piano, have been shortlisted to design a new visual culture museum in Hong Kong’s new West Kowloon Cultural District, while two Hong Kong-born architects have been chosen to design a centre for Chinese opera (above) in the same area.
The shortlisted teams for the M+ museum are: Herzog & de Meuron and TFP Farrells; Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA; Renzo Piano Building Workshop; Shigeru Ban Architects and Thomas Chow Architects; Snøhetta; and Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects and Benoy Ltd.
The teams have now been invited by West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to submit proposals for the museum, which is scheduled for completion in 2017.
While in Hong Kong last week Dezeen interviewed Aric Chen, curator of design and architecture for M+, who said the museum will help to “place Asia at the centre” of design history rather than on the periphery as western curators have done.
Above: Foster + Partners’ masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District
Additionally, Vancouver-based architect Bing Thom and Hong Kong-based architect Ronald Lu have formed a joint venture partnership to design and deliver the Xiqu Centre, a facility for the preservation and promotion of Chinese opera in Hong Kong.
Last year UK architect Foster + Partners was selected to design the masterplan for the West Kowloon Cultural District, with a proposal for 17 cultural venues – including the Xiqu Centre – and 30,000 square metres of arts education facilities over the 40 hectare site.
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Here’s the full press release from the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority:
Shortlisted design teams announced for M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for 20th and 21st visual culture
The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) announced today a shortlist of six design teams that have been invited to submit proposals for the architectural design of M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for 20th and 21st century visual culture at the West Kowloon Culture District.
The six shortlisted teams are:
» Herzog & de Meuron + TFP Farrells
» Kazuyo Sejima+ Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
» Renzo Piano Building Workshop
» Shigeru Ban Architects + Thomas Chow Architects
» SNOHETTA
» Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects + Benoy Ltd
M+, scheduled for completion in 2017, is an ambitious project. The scale of the museum building alone, at around 60,000 square metres, will be on par with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Situated on the waterfront of the Victoria Harbour at the edge of a 14-hectare park, it will be one of 17 core arts and cultural venues in the West Kowloon Cultural District. M+ will be the flagship hub for visual culture from the 20th and 21st century, alongside major performance spaces, creating interdisciplinary exchange between the visual arts and the performing arts in the city.
The physical design of M+ will be shaped around the museum’s core values. Principally it will be a museum for the Hong Kong people, firmly rooted in the location and its unique culture, providing a Hong Kong perspective, with a global vision, expanding to other regions of China, Asia and the rest of the world. It will provide space for artists to meet, exhibit and experiment. It will house a world-class permanent collection of visual culture from Hong Kong, across Asian and beyond, in all its forms, providing and presenting multiple flexible platforms for multidisciplinary programming, exploring art, design, architecture and the moving image, celebrating the fluidity between the art forms that is characteristic of Asia’s cultural ecology. M+ also aims to complement the ‘white cubes’ and ‘black boxes’ of the contemporary art museum with ‘third spaces’ – new formats of interactive space and new interfaces between public space and back-of-house where learning is prioritised.

Facilities will include over 15,000 square metres of exhibition space and 14,000 square metres for conservation and storage, an education centre, an archive library and bookstore, theatres and screen facilities, artist-in-residence studios and outdoor green spaces, subject to the future detailed design.
Mr Michael Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of WKCDA said, “Major architects from Hong Kong and across the world are vying to collaborate for the opportunity to work on the design of M+ and this is a fantastic line up of talented architects. We have a unique architectural brief for M+ as it will be a very special institution, a leader in its field in Asia and globally and a world class museum for the city providing essential space for Hong Kong’s artists and arts community. Hong Kong will have a new museum that it can be proud of.”
Dr Lars Nittve, Executive Director of M+ said, “We are thrilled with this phenomenal shortlist. Our concept for M+ is a museum built from the inside out around its content and core values. I am really looking forward to seeing designs that reflect this, that respond to the unique needs of a museum for visual culture here and beyond, and a design worthy of Hong Kong’s fast growing cultural scene.”
West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
The teams were shortlisted by the West Kowloon Cultural Authority Board following the recommendation of the world-class Jury Panel, chaired by Rafael Moneo, the Pritzker prize winning Spanish architect. Other members are (in alphabetical order): Eve Blau, Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; Kathy Halbreich, Associate Director, Museum of Modern Art, New York; William Lim, leading Hong Kong architect; Victor Lo, Chairman of Board of Directors, Hong Kong Design Centre; Leslie Lu, leading Hong Kong architect; Lars Nittve, Executive Director, M+; and Uli Sigg, world’s leading collector of Chinese contemporary art.
The shortlisted design teams are invited to submit concept designs of their concepts next year. Entries from the shortlisted design teams will be examined by the Jury Panel together with assessment through interviews. The Authority will be looking for a concept design that is original, sustainable, cost effective, and aligns with the ambitions of M+ and the overall planning intention of the WKCD. Once appointed in June 2013, the design team will work closely with the M+ team and WKCDA to develop the detailed design for the building.
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