n a late evening in July, billionaire Hong

Kong developer Adrian Cheng points a laser beam

at a single light bulb, one of 1,800 scattered across the

ceiling of the 35m-high atrium in his newest and most

ambitious project yet. The atmosphere Cheng wants

to create is that of a sparkling galaxy, and this is best

achieved through a diverse range of lighting intensities,

so he is identifying each light and adjusting their

illumination one by one.

The process is painstaking, but Cheng has spent ten

years considering almost every detail of his bold new

ten-storey retail-and-art complex, designed to appeal

to brand-savvy millennials. The project is very personal.

K11 Musea is the last segment of the ambitious

US$2.6bn Victoria Dockside cultural district on

a 28-hectare site on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront.

Originally known as Holt’s Wharf, the district was

an important railway hub before it was bought in 1971

by Cheng’s grandfather, the local hotel and property

magnate Cheng Yu-Tung, who turned it into New

World Centre, a retail, hotel, residential and office

complex. It was closed in 2009 to allow for the

redevelopment, which already includes a 65-storey

Tony Chi-designed Rosewood flagship hotel, the

K11 Atelier office tower, and the 21-storey K11 Artus

residences, with interiors by architect André Fu.

K11 Musea, camouflaged with a 5,000 sq m living

garden façade, is the collaborative effort of 100

architects, artists, craftsmen, conservationists and

designers, working with James Corner Field Operations

and Kohn Pedersen Fox. ‘I don’t think one person

can do everything, so that is why we have so many

designers and one person – me – to pull it together,’

Cheng says of this unusual, multi-designer approach.

Part of Cheng’s vision includes rethinking the

city’s ubiquitous, inward-looking megablock malls by

creating well-designed connections between K11 Musea

and the harbour-front public promenade, upgraded

as part of the project. A 100m-long, 40m-wide and

8.4m-high ‘visual corridor’, a strategic opening lined

with butterfly-shaped panels that can be programmed

to create special lighting effects, now links Tsim

Sha Tsui and the water. ‘K11 Musea is the core that

holds Victoria Dockside together,’ Cheng explains.

‘It is a hub. I think of it as a cultural Silicon Valley.’

The project’s sustainability credentials are

impressive, including gold certifications by Leed

and Hong Kong Beam Plus. There’s significant green

space, with vertical green walls, a rooftop kitchen

garden and playgrounds, as well as urban biodiversity

exhibits of rare and local plants, and a top-floor

aquarium that reflects the harbour’s aquatic life.

Rainwater harvesting provides 100 per cent of the

project’s irrigation water, while a seawater-cooled,

oil-free heating, ventilation and air-conditioning

system reduces energy consumption.

Inside, K11 Musea continues its divergence from

generic luxury retail offerings with an immersive

‘phygital’ shopping experience that Cheng says

embraces the digital world. ‘We don’t see digital retail

as the enemy. Both [physical and digital] worlds are key

to being relevant in the future.’ Cheng should know:

he has spent the last decade combining retail with a

beguiling mix of craft, heritage, design and creativity

at his K11 shopping malls in China and Hong Kong.

This philosophy has been extended to several of his

high-end residential and office projects. Together with

the findings of a K11 task force that researches what

Generation Z, millennials, and Generation Alpha (born

after 2010, the year Instagram and the iPad launched)

super-consumers in Asia want, it underpins his belief

that the way forward is for K11 Musea to be an ultra-

high end, experiential retail, art, cultural and dining

destination. Exclusive, bespoke products will be on

offer from the likes of MoMA’s first permanent store

in China and Moda Operandi’s first showroom in Asia.

K11 Musea will also house Van Cleef & Arpels’ first

permanent School of Jewellery Arts outside Paris. (^) »

O

K11 GROUP FOUNDER

ADRIAN CHENG IN FRONT OF

THE ATRIUM’S 10.4M-WIDE

SPHERICAL EVENT SPACE

COMPRISING 285 CARVED

GLASS PANELS

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Architecture