West Kowloon Cultural Complex Competition, WKCC Design Contest, Xiqu Centre Project

West Kowloon Design Competition : WKCC Architecture Contest

WKCDA Development – Xiqu Centre : Arts Venue Competition

9 Mar 2012

West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Announces Design Competition for its First Arts Venue

West Kowloon Complex – image : Foster + Partners

West Kowloon Design Competition

March 9th 2012, Hong Kong – The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) launched today a design competition to deliver one of the first landmark buildings for the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Xiqu Centre. The Chinese opera venue will provide a world-class facility for the preservation and development of the art form in Hong Kong and will be designed to host and produce the finest examples of Cantonese and other Chinese opera performances.

The Xiqu Centre, scheduled for completion around the end of 2015, will be the first of 17 core arts and cultural venues to be opened within the District and one of 15 proposed performing arts venues. Occupying a prime site at the eastern edge of the District on the corner of Canton Road and Austin Road West, the centre will provide a gateway of access to the Cultural District. The competition covers the design of a 1,100-seat main theatre, a 400-seat small theatre, a Tea House for performances for audiences up to 200 and ancillary training and education facilities.

Michael Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of WKCDA said, “The competition heralds a new phase of the West Kowloon Cultural District development. We are proceeding to a detailed design stage and I am looking forward to working with inspired creative teams on the realisation of our ambitions for the Cultural District.”

“Following the fantastic response to the West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre performances at the start of the Year of Dragon, we know Chinese Opera has a special place in the heart of Hong Kong people. We want to find a design team that can deliver for Hong Kong a world-class home for Chinese Opera practitioners, students and audiences and a facility fitting for such an important form of Chinese cultural heritage”.

West Kowloon Complex – image : Foster + Partners

A Steering Committee, chaired by Mr Lee Shing-see, a member of WKCDA’s Development Committee, and made up of representatives of professional institutes and arts and culture disciplines, has been appointed to oversee the competition. Interested parties can submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to WKCDA to pre-qualify for the design competition. The selection process of the design/ design consultant is set out at Annex. Deadline for submission is April 10, 2012. Further details are available on WKCDA’s website (http://www.wkcda.hk/en/architectural_competition/xiqucentre).

In due course the design teams who are shortlisted will be invited to submit schematic designs of their concepts. Entries from the shortlisted teams will be examined by a Jury Panel together with assessment through interviews. The selected team will be recommended to the Development Committee and the Board for appointment.

WKCDA also issued today an invitation for Expression of Interest for Theatre Planning and Acoustic Sub-consultants to work alongside the chosen design team.

West Kowloon Cultural District Design Competition

Selection Process of the Design/ Design Consultant for the Xiqu Centre

1. Interested parties submit Expression of Interest (EOI) to WKCDA to pre-qualify for the Xiqu Centre design competition by April 10, 2012.
2. The EOI submissions will be assessed against a set of criteria which measure their professional and financial capability, resources, past experience and track record, as well as quality assurance.
3. The WKCDA Management, led by the Steering Committee and assisted by an Independent Professional Advisor, will shortlist four to six design teams for consideration and endorsement by the Development Committee and the Board. Names of the shortlisted design teams will be posted on WKCDA’s website.
4. The shortlisted design teams will be invited to produce and submit schematic designs, models, etc., of their concepts; they will be compensated with a fee of HK$1,000,000 for preparation and upon satisfactory completion of the submission.
5. The design entries from the shortlisted design teams will be assessed by a Jury Panel of prominent leaders in the relevant professional and arts and culture fields. The Panel will examine the schematic designs, together with assessment through interviews, workshops, etc., to ascertain the individual team’s ability. The selected team will be recommended to WKCDA’s Development Committee and the Board for appointment.
6. Shortlisted design teams will be provided with lists of nominated Theatre Planning Sub-consultants and Acoustic Sub-consultants for selection to collaborate in the competition stage.

Xiqu (Chinese Opera)

Xiqu, also called Chinese Opera, is a form of performing arts which integrates singing, acting, speech, martial arts, gongs and drums, strings, costume and body movement. Xiqu performers make use of symbolic gestures and facial expression to portray the characters and communicate with the audience. According to statistics in 1950s, there were originally 360 forms of Xiqu in China. Today, more than 200 genres are still performed on stage. The best known genres including Kunqu, Cantonese Opera and Beijing Opera, were added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2001, 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Cantonese Opera is the first world intangible cultural heritage in Hong Kong. In recent years, the number of Cantonese Opera performances and operatic song concerts has increased to over one thousand per year, with attendance figures for Chinese Opera performances ranked highest among the four major types of performing arts (theatre, music, dance and Xiqu).

West Kowloon Cultural Complex Design Competition images / information received 090312

West Kowloon Development

West Kowloon Cultural Complex image : Foster + Partners

6 Oct 2011

West Kowloon Development Exhibition

Final public engagement exercise for West Kowloon Cultural District masterplan design by Foster + Partners

30 Sep – 30 Oct 2011

New exhibition of West Kowloon Cultural District plans opens in Hong Kong

The proposed Development Plan is on display at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre from 30 September to 30 October 2011.

A display of the latest designs for the West Kowloon Cultural District has opened in Hong Kong. This is the third and final public engagement exercise and will last for a month, after which the scheme will be finalised for submission to the Town Planning Board around the end of 2011.

Mar 2011

West Kowloon Development

Foster + Partners selected to design masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong

Foster + Partners has been selected for the design of the 40-hectare masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District. City Park will be a major cultural centre for music, performing and visual arts, incorporating public spaces and spaces for Chinese culture, living, working, galleries and studios on a dramatic harbour-front site in the heart of Hong Kong. The announcement was made today by Henry Tang, Hong Kong’s chief secretary and chairman of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, following the results of the international competition including a year-long public consultation. The project is considered to be the largest cultural initiative in the world today.

West Kowloon Cultural Complex images : Foster + Partners

West Kowloon Cultural Complex information from Foster + Partners

West Kowloon Cultural Complex

West Kowloon Cultural District Shortlist

Foster + Partners
OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture)
Rocco Design Architects Limited

West Kowloon Cultural Complex – Design by Foster + Partners
1999-
Architect: Foster + Partners

20 Aug 2010

PROPOSALS LAUNCHED FOR FOSTER + PARTNERS’ CITY PARK
AT WEST KOWLOON CULTURAL DISTRICT, HONG KONG

Foster + Partners’ masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District, on a reclaimed harbour-front site, has been launched in Hong Kong. ‘City Park’ will capture and recreate the DNA that makes Hong Kong such a great city. At its heart, a 23-hectare great park and a green avenue will provide a landscaped setting for a series of spectacular new cultural buildings – the jewels in Hong Kong’s architectural crown. These new buildings will be approachable and welcoming – places for both high culture and popular enjoyment.

The seventeen new cultural venues include a Great Opera House; M+ (a pioneering museum of modern art); concert halls; and a 15,000-seat Arena with an Expo Centre below. Arts educational facilities, apartments, offices, shops and transport links are to be fully integrated, and 2 kilometres of harbour-front promenade will give the people of Hong Kong their first chance to look back at the city’s iconic skyline. A social focus is created along a new central avenue, extending from Canton Road in the east to the Harbour Tunnel mouth in the west, along which a variety of cultural and commercial activities are integrated.

West Kowloon Cultural Complex image : Foster + Partners

West Kowloon Cultural Complex architect : Foster + Partners

West Kowloon Cultural District – design by OMA
Office for Metropolitan Architecture

West Kowloon Cultural Complex image courtesy OMA
West Kowloon Cultural District