26 Mar 2021
Work completed on iconic M+ museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron’s in Hong Kong
BY Tom Walker
Construction work has been completed on the M+ museum building in Hong Kong, ahead of its grand opening later this year.
The Herzog & de Meuron-designed museum – created in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup – is the latest addition to Hong Kong's global arts and cultural landscape and is set to become a new international architectural icon.
Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District on the Victoria Harbour waterfront, the building provides a permanent space for M+, the first global museum of contemporary visual culture in Asia.
The museum is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries.
The 65,000sq m M+ building houses 17,000sq m of exhibition space across 33 galleries.
It also includes three cinemas, a Mediatheque, a Learning Hub, a Research Centre, museum shops, restaurants, a tea and coffee bar, a Members Lounge, and office spaces, with a Roof Garden that commands spectacular views of Victoria Harbour.
Most galleries are arranged on a large podium level on the second floor offering visitors a fluid, interconnected experience of the exhibitions.
The architecture of M+ is dominated by monumental horizontal and vertical volumes – an expansive podium and a tower – reflecting the architects’ interpretation of the "unique typologies of Hong Kong’s architectural landscape" and their "sensitivity to local urban conditions".
According to Herzog & de Meuron, the tower defines a "visual dialogue with the urban landscape of Hong Kong".
The podium and tower are united as concrete structures clad in ceramic tiles that also reflect the changing conditions of light and weather while standing out from nearby glass and steel skyscrapers.
The tower facade also features an LED system for the display of content related to the museum, making a distinctive contribution to the city’s vibrant night-time environment.
The museum is set for a public opening in late 2021.
Jacques Herzog said: “M+ certainly has the potential to become the major visual culture museum in Asia.
"It best expresses where we should go as a world culture, where diversity, equality and access to art of all kinds are expressed from the very beginning.
"This kind of diversity and broadness is part of the DNA of M+. This makes it a museum, which is very much locally inspired, but at the same time universal and open: it is for the people and visitors across the world.”
For the M+ project, Herzog & de Meuron formed a design team with TFP Farrells as local partner architect and with Arup as an engineering consultant.
Suhanya Raffel, museum director, M+, said: "This is a major milestone for the museum.
"As we mark the building completion, our opening preparations are in full swing.
"We have moved into our permanent home, and I am thrilled to be able to say we can soon welcome visitors from Hong Kong and beyond to M+."
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