design
K11 GROUP reveals K11 Musea, the crown jewel of its cultural enterprise
K11 Group unveils plans for K Musea in Tsim Sha Tsui, crown jewel of its cultural enterprise
IIT TAKES A remarkable degree of foresight and a little chutzpah to inherit one of Hong Kong's largest property developers, 48-year- old New World Development Company Limited, a group whose total asset value amounted to HK$468.1 billion as of December 31, 2017, and reinvent its identity as a cultural enterprise. Such has been the mission of Adrian Cheng, which began a decade ago with an entity called K11 Group, a multifaceted vehicle rooted in culture and interconnected by three core values: art, nature and people. Cheng, the executive vice-chairman of New World Development and founder of the K11 Group, envisioned an ecosystem of art and retail, property, fashion, tech, entertainment and media that could merge and disrupt stagnant industries and foster cross- cultural dialogues.
Some vision. Ten years on and that mission has manifested itself across a diverse array of cultural assets: the world's first museumretail concept, the K11 Art Malls, in Hong Kong and across Greater China; a network of K11-branded office buildings for the next-generation workforce, the K11 Ateliers;
the open education platform K11 Kulture Academy; the curated K11 Design Stores; the terrarium-inspired transformative retail space K11 Natural; and the K11 Art Foundation, China's first private not-for-profit incubator for Chinese artists and curators.
And now comes the proverbial icing on the cultural cake, almost like a crown jewel. K11 Musea ( k11musea.com), a new flagship museum-retail complex, will transform
Hong Kong's iconic US$2.6 billion Victoria Dockside development on the Tsim Sha
Tsui harbourfront, christened “Hong Kong's Hudson Yards” by US media, when it opens in the third quarter of 2019.
More than just a new cultural emporium, K11 Musea – a name inspired by A Muse by the Sea – will represent a new immersive experience that takes inspiration from research that highlights Asian millennials as “super-consumers” – a prominent driver of global consumption with spending power set to reach US$6 trillion by 2020 as they grow to account for 60 per cent of the world's millennial population. Thus, visitors can expect ultra-high-end experiential retail, art and dining at this new cultural hotspot, which will simultaneously reinvigorate the harbourfront, one of the most covetable pieces of real estate in Greater China.
Overseeing the architecture of the 10-storey K11 Musea is James Corner ( James Corner Field Operations) and Forth Bagley (Kohn Pedersen Fox). The exterior of the structure promises to be something of an artwork in and of itself; the facade will feature one of the world's largest living walls of more than 50,000 square feet, while a one-of-a-kind outdoor amphitheatre space and a large LED screen will also be in place for a collection of cultural happenings.
Given Cheng's development-versusimpact credentials, sustainability lies at the heart of K11 Musea's offerings. The project's core and shell has achieved green building pre-certifications and will set a new benchmark for green design in Hong Kong.
Its interior features natural materials such as limestone and wood, and salient features include rainwater harvesting (which provides for 100 per cent of irrigation water) and a seawater-cooled, oil-free HVAC chiller system that reduces annual energy consumption by more than 12 per cent.
“K11 Musea, anchoring the newly designed Victoria Dockside, marks a significant milestone in retail development,” says Cheng. “As K11 approaches its 10th anniversary this year, I'm delighted to announce the naming of K11 Musea, K11's proudest project since the brand's inception.”
And just as you'd expect from a man whose ambition has moved economic, cultural, social and even philosophical mountains, his vision remains sharper than a whip. “K11 Musea will bring great cultural content back to Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, which has lost its legendary charm since the late '90s.
K11 Musea will be Hong Kong and Asia's new cultural destination, where global millennials convene and discover their muse.”
Groundbreaking stuff, indeed.