K11 Musea Opens on the Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront

K11 Musea opened in August 2019 on the harbourfront at Tsim Sha Tsui, in Hong Kong. The ten-storey complex of 1.2 million square feet, about 110,000 square metres, is the retail and cultural centre of Victoria Dockside, the redevelopment of the former New World Centre site by New World Development, which also includes Rosewood Hong Kong and the K11 Atelier office tower.

The idea

The project was led by Adrian Cheng, then the executive vice-chairman of New World and the founder of the K11 brand, which since 2008 had combined shopping centres with exhibition spaces in Hong Kong and mainland cities. He described Musea as a muse by the sea and as cultural commerce: a place where art, architecture and design would be part of the visit to the same degree as the shops. The claim invited scepticism, and the building has done better than most at meeting it.

The building

About a hundred architects, designers and artists contributed, a group the developer called the 100 Creative Powers. The overall architecture is by Kohn Pedersen Fox, with a limestone facade and large planted walls. The landscape of the waterfront promenade outside, the renewed Avenue of Stars, is by James Corner Field Operations, the designers of the High Line in New York. OMA designed a retail space, and the Hong Kong studio LAAB made much of the interior detail.

The centre of the building is the Opera Theatre, an atrium 35 metres high lined with curving walls of hand-finished aluminium panels and lit from an oculus of some 1,800 programmable spotlights. Suspended within it is the Gold Ball, a faceted sphere that serves as a room for exhibitions and events. There is a sunken amphitheatre on the harbour side, a rooftop garden with a children’s playground, and an urban farm and nature education centre on the upper floors.

The art

Works by more than forty artists are placed through the public areas, among them pieces by Elmgreen & Dragset, Erwin Wurm and Katharina Grosse, along with commissions from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese artists. Guided tours of the collection and the architecture are offered, and the K11 Art Foundation uses the building for exhibitions during art week in March.

Shops and restaurants

The tenants include the larger fashion houses, a MoMA Design Store, the first of its kind in Greater China, and a floor of restaurants with harbour terraces. The basement food hall is useful for a quick meal.

For the visitor

K11 Musea stands between the Hong Kong Museum of Art, which reopened three months later next door, and the Avenue of Stars, where Louis Vuitton held its men’s show in 2023. The three together, with the Star Ferry at one end, make the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront one of the most rewarding walks in the city.