Decade long revitalisation on Hong Kong waterfront’s prominent site finally completed

Starchitects including Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), James Corner Field Operations (JCFO), Ronald Lu & Partners (RLP), Leigh & Orange, LAAB Architects, AB Concepts and PLandscape have completed K11 Musea, a cultural retail destination in Hong Kong’s newest purpose-built art and cultural district, Victoria Dockside. 

K11 Musea is the final milestone in a decade long, 28 hectare urban regeneration masterplan designed by KPF and completed in phases over the past decade. It comprises a 65 storey tower, Rosewood Hong Kong and K11 Atelier offices, a 21 storey serviced-residential tower K11 Artus, harbourfront promenade’s ‘Avenue of Stars’, modelled after the famous street in Los Angeles and celebrates distinguished actors in the Hong Kong film industry, Salisbury Garden and 10 storey cultural retail space K11 Musea. 

Conceived as a Silicon Valley of Culture, the design team was assembled by K11’s founder Adrian Cheng and forms part of the ‘100 creative powers’ involved in shaping the dialogue in the district and sets to defy traditional concepts of retail design. K11 Musea is the result of an international cultural exchange, where cross discipline and cross border practices in art, craft, culture, architecture, interior design and technology worked in tandem.

Built upon a site with history stretching beyond a century, Victoria Dockside was originally founded as Holt’s Wharf in 1910, comprising godowns and served as a busy port in Hong Kong’s growing industrial-era. The site’s redevelopment began in 2009 in response to the growing demand for a culturally enriching district that can serve an increasingly global community with high quality public realm and a destination that can attract next-generation consumers.

K11 Musea fuses design details and inspirations from around the world; from the rare Portuguese limestone facades, green living walls, to the Silk Road inspired louvers at the entrance, each element is inspired by the vision of a contemporary manor house. The stepped façade maximises natural light at ground level; a series of visual corridors and recesses enabling vistas of the harbour from inland, connecting Tsim Sha Tsui to K11 Musea. Uniquely shaped floor plates are stacked on top of another to create indents for terraces, sky gardens and educational pocket parks with seasonal plants to provide much needed public spaces and children’s playgrounds to the community.

Inside K11 Musea, visitors can experience otherworldliness at the dramatic 8 storey atrium and gaze into an infinite galaxy of lights designed by Speirs+Major. The interior is cladded in handcrafted palettes of rich bronze and rustic paintwork by local abstract artist William Lam of HK L&L. The winding pathways flanked by shops lead to focal points where museum quality artworks are displayed. Cheng envisaged the concept as a breakaway from the traditional cultural building typologies and changes the rule of engagement between the viewer and the artwork. Rather than art and design being perceived as unapproachable and privileged; the art and design at K11 Musea represents an informal affair and is imagined as an immersive forum that facilitates creative dialogues for its users.

At Muse Edition, design details pay homage to the history of the site and makes references to godowns, ports and some Brutalist elements from the demolished New World Centre originally built in 1978. The design is imagined as if one stepped inside a cargo ship; raw exposed metallic surfaces, pillars wrapped in sailing ropes and taffrails on the first floor allowing visitors to look down as if they are standing on the edge of a ship’s deck. Another reference to the site’s past is the Brutalist ceiling design, it was once a feature at the New World Centre, a concrete diagrid ceiling is reinstated for Muse Edition and infilled with square lights. 

In November 2019, David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas’ KUBE, a gold aluminium cladded canopy installation, will arrive in the public realm at K11 Musea and will serve as a pavilion for cultural exchange to the neighbourhood. Its reflective cladding will enable visitors to see the Hong Kong skyline in a different light and provides a shelter for contemplation. 

K11 Musea is now fully opened to the public and visitors can register for a guided architecture tour. Completed to a highly sustainable benchmark, K11 Musea recently received LEED Gold Standard and Hong Kong BEAM Plus Gold Standard certification. Visitors can directly access K11 Musea, Avenue of Stars, Salisbury Gardens and all the amenities on Victoria Dockside via Tsim Sha Tsui and East Tsim Sha Tsui MTR train station.