8 | Wednesday, December 23, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CULTURE HK Building a community rchitects of the Swiss architec- impressed by Fumihiko Maki’s postmod- exhibit,” says Lee. “Instead of having the In Part 2 of a series that ture fi rm Herzog & de Meuron ern design for Sea World Culture and Arts museum design tailored to specifi c exhibi- ran into a hurdle while design- Center in Shekou, Shenzhen, where the tions, it appears now that exhibitions are Roxy Paine’s metallic silver turns the spotlight on ing the M+ museum building. Design Society museum is located. The tailored to suit the museum’s architecture installation is etched against AA defunct Airport Express tunnel passing three wings of the structure — overhangs — metallic-silver dead trees matching a con- the slatted walls of the He new and upcoming under M+’s West Kowloon Cultural District looking out into an idyllic panorama of hills, crete-grey austere building — revers- Art Museum in Foshan, Guangdong province, like a site was creating a design issue. Eventually, lush green rolling lawn and the sea — are ing the hierarchical relationship museums in Hong painting. the solution was to write the emptiness that held together by a green rooftop and many between museum and exhibition.” Kong and how they had been unearthed into Jacques Herzog’s external staircases. stack up against their design of the museum. “The conventional notion of site and Art meets nature “Most architects would want to hide building, ground and roof, have been Such overturning of hierarchies counterparts on the such a thing,” says Marisa Yiu, cofounder of subverted by blurring the distinctions,” ties in with the reality that people the Hong Kong architecture fi rm, Eskiyu. says Lee. “Postmodern museum design do not always visit museums to look Chinese mainland, “But Herzog & de Meuron celebrated it. uses playful forms that have the benefit for art, and that’s perfectly legit. The Chitralekha Basu They wanted to reveal it like an excavated of expanded accessibility, which is a good Hong Kong Museum of Art, which space, giving it more of a 3D spatial quality. way of drawing in the audience by making reopened after a massive three-year explores the ways in I thought that was a smart move.” people literally walk all over the building.” renovation in November 2019, is a which smart architecture Hailed as a “found space”, the hollow in “I think Maki’s main contribution is the case in point. the ground now sits at the bottom of a sleek creation of orientation,” comments Design The Architectural Services Depart- and landscape design tower-on-podium structure — a take-oŽ on Society director Ole Bouman, “and hence ment of Hong Kong team led by Vivi- Hong Kong’s most ubiquitous architectural it’s a celebration of the incredible values of en Fung pulled down the building’s Social Network Factory, a playground can aid the process of form but served with a twist, by stretching the landscape around us: mountain, sky- former functional box, borderline brutalist, installation by People’s Architecture Office, on the lawn of Design Society, Shenzhen, the generic pencil tower horizontally. The line, greenery, seaside horizon, a history of façade and replaced it with a glass front. showcasing art and Guangdong province. sea-facing tower façade comes with a giant connections. The idea is to not just see all The close-range and uninterrupted view of heritage while creating a 65.8 meters by 110 meters LED screen and this, but to feel it.” the Hong Kong skyline across Victoria Har- the promise of an audio-visual treat for “What we have done to deepen and bour that HKMoA now commands, seems space for visitors to feel at the people of Hong Kong when it goes live amplify this strategy is to see all programs inspiration enough to want to go spend home. next year. as an invitation to participate, to vary pro- time at the museum. “That screen will be a space where muse- gram for diŽ erent kinds of audiences, and “One of the favorite spots in the museum um content is delivered,” says M+ museum give everyone a stake,” Bouman says. is the sea-facing corridor, where people can director Suhanya RaŽ el. “Many people will The crowds have returned to SWCAC to sit and look at the most famous scene of have their fi rst encounter with M+ via that take back ownership of the premises since Hong Kong,” says HKMoA director, Maria screen.” the end of March, when the pandemic-trig- Mok. “And that creates a sense of belong- gered restrictions were eased in Shenzhen. ing. The view and the sense of the place He Art The public sculptures on its expansive lawn, are synchronized with the experience of art Museum Treasure chest director Shao Architects have been trying to build an like Social Network Factory — a jumble of appreciation.” Shu says the enticing, often playful, attitude into their pipes, funnels and other industrial shapes, The marvellous interface of nature and Lam Tung-pang’s video museum’s designs for Hong Kong’s future museums. magnified and painted in a disarming architecture was utilized by a number of installation, Image Coated, “DNA For instance, Rocco Yim’s design for the shade of red — seems to be a hit with young artists at HKMoA’s inaugural show. For shown at the Hong Kong staircase” is an Hong Kong Palace Museum looks like an and mature visitors alike. instance, Raymond Fung paid homage to Museum of Art, highlights the architectural inverted Aztec pyramid from the outside “It’s super fun,” says Yiu, who happens Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010), recreating the many imprints time has left on breakthrough. — not the kind of structure one would read- to be the cofounder of the Design Trust, a intense concentration and repetition of the scene at Victoria Harbour, ily associate with an institution meant to Hong Kong-based foundation that funded motifs in the master painter’s ink and color Hong Kong. showcase precious items from the Palace Social Network Factory, which was created landscapes by covering the glass panes Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City. by the design collective, the People’s Archi- on HKMoA’s fi rst-fl oor with bird shapes Artist Lam If the HKPM building has a box of trea- tecture O¤ ce. The sculpture lends itself to made from recycled tiles. Tung-pang feels the sures look, the surprise element lies inside. “a range of social activities that are a great Lam Tung-pang used an anonymous sea-facing The building’s soft fl uid, curvilinear ceilings form of creative engagement,” Yiu adds. mid-19th century lithograph of Victoria windows combine elements of the Frank Gehry-pio- Island (as Hong Kong Island was called of the neered crumbled box style of architecture The double-helix effect then) from HKMoA’s Paul Chater col- Hong Kong as well as “the mathematically derived aes- He Art Museum, in Shunde, Foshan, lection to create a video installation, Museum thetics of the British architect Zaha Hadid’s Guangdong Province, scores a fi rst in muse- superimposing an old landscape on of Art can signature parametric design,” says Lee Ho- um architecture, with its double-helix slick the museum windows with a harbor stir people’s yin, director of Architectural Conservation concrete staircase spiraling upward, reach- view. He also added his own drawings interest in art. Programmes, Faculty of Architecture, the ing out for a piece of the sky. to the mix, including that of an intrigu- The double-helix staircase designed for the He Art The University University of Hong Kong. “When audiences standing in the middle ing human fi gure, covered with scales and Museum by Tadao Ando of Hong Kong’s “While there is no apparent connection of the central atrium look up above, they wearing a fi sh tail. culminates in an opening in architecture with traditional Chinese culture, I think it see a natural light, shining down from the Lam says he wished to capture the idea of the ceiling, bringing in ample professor is a bold step for Yim to design the HKPM sky,” says the He Art Museum director Shao a Hong Kong that is continuously evolving natural light. Lee Ho-yin architecture in a way that contrasts with the Shu, adding that for many visitors “the — “being shaped, imagined and re-shaped, applauds exhibition rather than echoing it,” says Lee. architectural atmosphere” of the museum taking on layers of meanings, from time museum The design scores in terms of “provoking is as much of a draw as the art exhibitions. to time.” The juxtaposition of the mythical architects who thoughts and revealing surprises,” realizing The He Art Museum recently installed man-fi sh (Lou Ting) with a landscape paint- are subverting the ambition of many architects around the a large-scale installation, Ballast, by Roxy ing of Victoria Harbour from 19th-century convention. world who want to do “more than designing Paine, in the museum compound — a series colonial Hong Kong and Lam’s own artistic a complementary stage for the exhibi- of bare tree sculptures with a metallic-silver response to the way the city is today, are tion a museum houses,” he adds. finish etched against the grey-blue slat- meant to be “in a dialogue with each other.” Architect Marisa As far as bending of rules and ted façade of the stacked discs-shaped “If Hong Kong itself is a museum, then Yiu says subverting conventions go, building. the sea-facing windows of HKMoA are like Herzog & de some of the new museums “Ballast by Roxy Paine a frame on it,” says Lam. “I think the sea-fac- Meuron’s use on the Chinese mainland seems to be challenging ing fl oors are a good place to remind people of the defunct have pulled it off to the hierarchical rela- of the changing landscape of Hong Kong, railway spectacular eŽ ect. tionship between where the view can stir one’s imagination tunnel in the Lee sounds the museum and make them relax. Who knows if one day M+ building hugely and a visitor who came to the museum to enjoy site was the great view might not get interested in smart. the art in the building?”

Rocco Yim’s design for the Hong Kong Contact the writer at Palace Museum intrigues the mind, [email protected] preparing it for the surprises in Herzog & de Meuron store. PHOTO COURTESY HONG KONG To read a Q&A with Shao Shu, direc- turns a defunct PALACE MUSEUM tor, He Art Museum, please click on… tunnel under the M+ https://bit.ly/3axCu9I building site into a functional area and calls it a “found space”.