The HKIUD’s Comments on the WKCDA’s Public Consultation on the “Hong Kong Palace Museum Project”

Overall

1.     There are in general two inter-related perspectives in examining the effort of building this Palace Museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Firstly, it is about the location and secondly the architectural expression. Both factors have also to be seen in the context of the building’s relationships with some 17 other cultural buildings and the large parkland around, as well as the total urban fabric and waterfront setting. Clearly there is no single approach to how to design the architecture as each designer may have his/her particular speciality and personality and thus we would examine the design in the following relevant contexts.

Approach

2.     It can be appreciated that after changing the original intention from building a Mega Performance Venue, the new group of buildings still have to be subject to the overall building mass and floor area control parameters. This incidentally restricts attempts if any, to forge an excessively massive or outstandingly tall building in this location. In an area where there is a large group of buildings each seeking to be unique and to become a landmark on its own, the usual question is whether it make sense for the new structure to stand out or blend in with the others. The challenge of building this new building there is how to attain this building’s own character while it could integrate or blend in with the group instead of increasing the visual confusion. In other cities, there are indeed exceptions like the Glass Pyramid at the Louvre, and also in Paris the Pompidou Centre expressing its building services outside, etc. contrasting sharply with the adjacent architecture. However, the West Kowloon Cultural District should perhaps be more suitably seen as a whole where we also value the outdoor spaces, large and small, and spatial relationships between the buildings where people can also enjoy and public activities take place. The whole District should be, as the Foster masterplan claims, “A Place for Everyone”. No particular buildings in the group should dominate all the others. In a nutshell, the District should be seen with its rich cultural and urban contexts in mind. The current concept of building a medium rise building in line with the skyline of the WKCD group of buildings is considered appropriate. Its presence should nevertheless still be legible and befitting in the total environment and cultural atmosphere, reaching spiritually across time and territorial confines.

Location and accessibility.

3.       The building site is located at the western end of WKCD. At present access is not very convenient before all the access roads become available. It is also separated by the portal of the Western Harbour Crossing. Improvement should be made to the pedestrian access between The Elements and the Palace Museum in further detailed design. Compared to the previous MPV proposal, however, the traffic conditions would likely be better since visitors to the Palace Museum would probably come in steady streams, unlikely spectators to a MPV where large crowds arrive or disperse during a short period before or after some major performances.

4.     Visitors to the Museum coming on purpose would not find the location particularly remote but would rather be concerned about the interest and value of the sights and visual experience en-route to make the total experience of the visit more meaningful. Thus, it is right that the Architect makes effort to improve the current master layout plan as far as he is permitted. The improvements include emphasis on a “central axis” along the east-west tree-lined avenue, by even opening up the proposed U-shaped hotel block to stage the Museum at the tip of this axis, making it visible from a distance even to visitors coming from the high speed rail terminal.

5.       One of the less desirable spot in the present WKCD Master Development Plan is a rather odd shaped space set at an angle between the U-shaped site and the original MPV site. The Architect has now made a meticulous effort to set back the proposed Museum to create a larger atrium or open space there.

6.      The Museum should have adequate attraction per se and make the visit to the western part of WKCD worthwhile, bringing the desired vibrancy to the whole district on most days throughout the year, not only on special performance dates if the site was only developed for a MPV. It therefore pays to make greater effort to enhance the pedestrian network and various means of access as further design proceeds, to make the District indeed “A Place for Everyone”, every day – instilling cultural life and art appreciation into everyday life of the city. Easy connections should be provided to the waterfront, and that access from the Harbour by water taxis should also be taken into account.

Building form and architectural language

7.        In view of the above considerations about the contexts, we should rule out any architectural mimicry or so called “duplitecture”. As also explained by the Architect, and we concurred, the building should not take explicitly the form of an ancient Chinese building with pitched roofs since this museum also holds a Hong Kong section and the building does have a role to become a link between the old and the new, and the east with the west. The design should preferably be able to incorporate such elements of massing and spatial qualities distilled from the ancient architecture to be applied in a subtle manner in this modern cityscape. Context sensitive designs are also warranted, with subtle visual dialogue between the existing and the new architecture locally. It was gathered from two Focus Group meetings for professional institutes that the Architect would adopt the concept of progression of courtyard form spaces found in the Old Palace, and would stack such spaces in sequence vertically to address the high rise development form of this city while respecting one of the essential elements in traditional architecture. This is a clever idea, but more 4-D visualisations should be explored since the experience of visitors are affected by the speed and ease of movement (vertically instead of horizontally) and the ambience – made up of architectural features, finishes, the acoustics and lighting which have yet to be demonstrated. Since at this stage only the massing concept has been shown, we would make further comments on the more detailed design in due course. Building elements typical of old Chinese architecture like the coffered ceiling design (zaojing)and colonades, etc. could also be examined and applied as appropriate.

Place making

8.          The Museum exhibits would feature mainly ancient Chinese art and craft (plus provision for a Hong Kong collection) whereas on the eastern side of the tunnel portal stands the M+ which features modern art. The two museums incidentally happen to be located separately yet close enough to express a dialogue as there are common values of humanity and love for art that transcends age, race, time and place. As stated above, people may visit WKCD not just for a single purpose. They could be inspired by other forms of art and culture, such as Interaction with the performing arts, music, etc. To call this “synergy” may sound somewhat materialistic, but the city is indeed the best stage where different cultures mingle and urban life is more fulfilling if art and culture would become part of the daily accessible and affordable experience. The District simply strengthens these relationships physically and manifests the interactions in spatial and visual form.

9.           The place making would not be complete without considering the relationship between the buildings and the external spaces. Thus, in the Focus Group meetings, views have been expressed about the integration with outdoor exhibits in the forecourts of the Museum, along the approach ramps, as well as possible performances in the park. The designer should find a fine balance between such integration or instead, interference, from a widely open welcoming atmosphere on all sides approach to extending the approach path to accentuate the anticipation and interest of the visits emotionally. That said, as the community is diversified, the design should be made user friendly to all age groups, with provision for intensive studies and casual starters, with transitional spaces outside and inside the buildings where people can gather and interact, as well as to retreat and contemplate undisturbed as they may need. These are some of the finer details for consideration.    

Building materials and services

10.      Whereas Hong Kong has its special climatic feature of hot and humid summers, current and popular expectations are that the building should be energy efficient, sustainable and resilient, and instead of using a lot of air conditioning, it is recommended to use more natural lighting and ventilation to take advantage of this rather open site and waterfront location. Greening could be considered to help cope with the heat due to the west facing façade.

Beyond glass, steel and concrete

11.        The project is not seen as just any other community building. Neither is it expected to become an icon per se nor just to play with structures and materials because they are engineering feasible. We have to go back to the basic of asking what the purpose is. Then could we examine whether the building is expressing what we want it to perform and how its components should be expressed - using the characteristics of the materials and benefits of the site’s conditions. It should be a “living” museum. In civic society like ours, public engagement has very much become part of daily life. This is perhaps one of the major differences between our modern architecture, participatory urban life style as distinct from the traditional palatial style of architecture. In this design, another challenge would therefore be how to enhance the opportunities for the public to “interact” – physically or cybernetically, with the exhibits and other visitors, mentors and mentees. Outdoor exhibits usually are expected to be less formal, and thus the design should create more indoor /outdoor interactive exhibition provision if at all possible. Interaction should also be enhanced with the park and landscape. A lot of artwork was inspired by nature and flora and fauna. Techniques of “borrowing the landscape view” in traditional Chinese architecture could be of relevance.

12.      The interaction between this exhibition venue and other cultural facilities may exceed what is sometimes considered as synergy from a cost-effectiveness angle. The design needs not be expensive or elaborate, but should be inspiring. The resonance among different forms of art, ancient and modern, may go well beyond building forms that could be expressed through the steel, glass and concrete.

13.      Whilst welcoming the preliminary spatial concepts in this stage of public engagement, we also maintain keen interest on the further detailed design and would be prepared to offer our professional views as and when appropriate.

The Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design

8 March 2017