West Kowloon’s M+ museum's design has versatility down to a ‘T’
Inverted T shape o f West Kowloon's visual culture museum means it will be more versatile than international counterparts, says architect
While the spartan design has raised a few eyebrows, the West Kowloon visual culture museum’s inverted T shape is simple but far from “naïve”, says its architect, who envisions the space to be a versatile culture hub.
Compared to Paris’ Centre Pompidou, the of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles or even the Tate Modern in London, “M+ is a very specific project for Hong Kong. [The] other examples are pure art museums; M+ is a museum for visual culture”.
The spaces we provide are much more diverse than other museums ... It’s a mini city … a culture hub
When the choice of the inverted T was announced in June, the minimalistic facade – a horizontal exhibition space connected to a vertical structure (the end result, when viewed from the side, resembles the symbol for typhoon signal number three) – it was met with mixed reactions.
Some thought it looked simplistic. Design competition jury panel chairman Colin Fournier noted at a Business of Design Week forum in December that the design might be “too easy to understand … no mystery, which could be a weakness”.
But what lay underneath the museum won the jury over.
Herzog & de Meuron turned a potential obstacle – the former Airport Express tunnel underground – into an asset, by excavating an inventive “found space”. Fournier said the feature would allow for future tweaks as M+ evolves, Fournier said.
