REGENERATION
We’re going into unknown
territory. That’s where real innovation can occur
details have not yet been revealed. The museum’s curators wanted to avoid the fate of many high-profile museums, like the Guggenheim Bilbao, which have been criticised for being visually striking but func- tionally poor, so they have spent the past year working with Herzog & de Meuron architects to complete the schematic design. “[Herzog & de Meuron] won because they understood the importance of creating dia- logue between these different platforms for culture instead of just compartmentalising everything,” says museum director Lars Nittve, who previously oversaw the creation of London’s Tate Modern. Along with contem- porary art, the museum’s mandate includes architecture, design and moving image, a decidedly 21st-century mix of disciplines that calls for an especially flexible kind of building. As the finishing touches are put to its design, M+ has been steadily building up its programme with a number of itinerant exhibi- tions. So far, under the guidance of curator Aric Chen, two have dealt with the architecture, including an online exhibition on Hong Kong’s disappearing legacy of neon signage, and a show that provided a glimpse inside the muse- um’s burgeoning architecture collection, with photographs, models and historic documents. Not far from M+, West Kowloon’s flagship Chinese opera house, the Xiqu Centre, will be designed by Canadian architect Bing Thom, who is known for his work on ethe- real civic structures like the Arena Stage in Washington, DC and the Surrey City Centre Library in British Columbia. Thom proposed a
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The landscape design is by Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers, West 8 and ACLA
jewel box structure with a façade of metal fins that bring to mind theatre curtains; inside, public space on the ground floor leads to an upper-level bamboo garden, teahouse and a main stage built specifically for Chinese opera, which calls for a less steeply inclined viewing angle than Western theatre in order to avoid a foreshortening effect that dimin- ishes the exaggerated movements and elaborate makeup of performers. “This art form is hundreds of years old but
there are no contemporary Xiqu theatres,” says Thom. “We’re going into unknown territories. That’s where real innovation can occur.” In keeping with the philosophy behind Foster’s master plan, Thom wants his building to be as permeable as possible: “We want to build a situation where all the circulation is
visible,” he says. The building’s curtain-like façade is marked by distinctly yonic openings, which give the building a certain shimmering transparency. “Even though it’s not physically moving, the quality of light [against the façade] the seasonal changes and the changing of the gardens with different colours will give the building a moving quality,” says Thom.
OPEN SPACE
If all goes well, M+ and the Xiqu Centre will open in 2017. That year will also mark the completion of another district land- mark: the public park, where Freespace is held each year. When the festival held its first edition in 2012, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority CEO Michael Lynch – the man who oversaw the Southbank Centre’s
CLAD mag 2015 ISSUE 1
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