d+a | Issue 127 • 2023

36 design and architecture #127 institutional Opened to the public in July 2022, Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) is a new centre for Chinese art and antiquities in Hong Kong. It is home to more than 900 national treasures from the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. Many of the pieces are displayed in Hong Kong for the first time or never been shown to the public before. The seven-storey building was conceived as a civic hub and new landmark for Hong Kong, as well as a platform to connect young generations with China’s cultural history. The 30,000 sqmmuseum will also host interactive and experiential exhibitions. Beyond the three levels of galleries with 7,800 sqm of total exhibition space, the museum boasts a 400-seat lecture theatre for public programmes and film screenings. bringing chinese heritage tomodern audiences HKPM was designed by the Hong Kong-based Rocco Design Architects (RDA). One of the key architectural highlights of HKPM is its “vertical central axis” concept – a spatial reinterpretation of its horizontal counterpart in the Forbidden City. Leveraging on the building’s location – at the western tip of the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) and along the Victoria Harbour waterfront – the architects translated the notion of linked courtyards into a series of stacked atriums that connect the museum’s floors and draw visitors upwards through the nine galleries. Each of the three atriums faces a different direction along the central axis across the ground, second and fourth floors. “The atriums offer views over the WKCD, Hong Kong’s iconic skyline and Lantau Island respectively, allowing visitors to experience the perfect harmony created between the museum building and its surroundings,” says Freddie Hai, Director of RDA. The atriums are also the social heart of the museum, where visitors can gather to discuss the exhibits, take in the surrounding views, and contemplate the art they have seen. Hai adds that HKPM embraces the spirit of rocco yim Principal, Rocco Design Architects (RDA) (Below) The exterior features curved, gold aluminium panels, creating the effect of glazed tiles. (Facing page) The undulating ceiling is a contemporary interpretation of the glazed roof tiles of the grand palaces in the Forbidden City.