This month, the company unveiled the crown jewel for the enterprise: its flagship shopping mall, K11 Musea. Mr. Cheng said he considered the 10-story Musea a museum by the sea and a museum of muses.
Along with retail, Musea expects to offer art exhibitions, live music, creativity workshops and other cultural events. According to Forth Bagley, Kohn Pedersen Fox’s principal for the project, Musea’s exterior will bring to mind elements of a stratified hill or hillside village.
“You are downstairs, and you look up at the building and see terraces all activated by green space and see people coming outside,” Mr. Bagley said. “The awesome garden rooftop experience will take people by surprise.”
The shopping complex will comprise 4,800 square meters of green walls, equivalent to 18 international tennis courts. The complex also boasts unusual features such as a sheer glass corridor on the eighth floor that looks out onto the harbor.
On the ground level is a sunken amphitheater with curved glass walls around it. Public art will be displayed on a rotating basis. Notable will be “Van Gogh’s Ear,” a sculpture of a 30-foot-high swimming pool positioned upright. It was on display at Rockefeller Center in 2016.
Continue reading the main storyBrick-and-mortar stores struggle to survive in the United States because of online competition, but Musea is less risky for New World Development. Mr. Cheng explained that the internet took only a small chunk of retail sales in Asia. Malls are still relevant in providing a venue for exhibitions and events.
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