'Bird's Nest' architects Herzog & de Meuron win M+ museum design

A team led by the architectural firm behind the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium in Beijing and London's Tate Modern gallery has fended off five other big names for the right to design the M+ museum in the West Kowloon arts hub.

Herzog & de Meuron of Switzerland, with local firm TFP Farrells, won with a minimalistic concept for the contemporary visual-culture museum that promises to become a playground for artists.

The partnership demonstrated an internal space that was ideal for M+, said museum committee chairman Victor Lo, who sits on an eight-member panel that selected the winner.

"I feel [the design] is very Hong Kong," Lo said.

Locally, the Swiss firm was also responsible for the design of the Central Police Station compound in Central.

The team envisioned M+ as a cultural centre rather than a museum. Its design is a combination of a horizontal and a vertical structure that, viewed from the side, looks like an upside-down "T" - and is reminiscent of the Bankside Power Station housing the Tate Modern in London, designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

The horizontal structure holds a wide variety of spaces ranging from an underground area moulded around the Airport Express MTR line and capable of housing enormous installations, to individual galleries for different types of art. A large public space is created by elevating the building from the ground.