West Kowloon Cultural District

An approach to the public realm proposes a unique urban development in Hong Kong. On one level this will be a cultural district. On another level it will be a 40-hectare park, physically threaded into the life of the city and the harbour. This is a park in the sky, an undulating landscape affording all who visit ? whether by day or by night ? amazing views of the harbour and Central District?s glittering citadels.

The normative urban model includes natural landscape features as occupants of the ground plane and building facades. In the normative model, buildings literally sit on the landscape, and the architecture divides and controls the urban spaces caught between. In this new conception, landscape becomes part of the experience of the city fabric, co-habiting with the built environment.

The groundscape references natural landscape formative processes. Water behaviour is the activator in this process, as it moves through the landscape and deposits materials on its journey to the sea. This process of attrition sculpts the different levels of ground, revealing layers of strata, subsurface water flows and durable landscape components. These components appear as architectural forms.

Carved through the landform are canyons, both narrow and wide, which give access to the buildings below the park. In the walls of these canyons are the performing arts venues, theatres and museums where Hong Kong?s cultural heart is going to make its home.

The focal canyon, the central promenade, runs through the site in response to the desire lines of its visitors. Again, following nature?s flow, this becomes the conduit through which nodes of activities and destinations are connected.

Powerful, iconic architectural forms rise up out of the central promenade, revealing the diverse cultural activities inside. Activities that would extend the hours of use within the district are introduced. This is no localised cultural ghetto, but a genuine district, where the diversity of use creates activity that starts in the morning and spreads long into the night.

The canopy, as waves on water above the urban park, provides visual continuity along the waterfront as it floats uninterrupted over the buildings it covers. Organically tied to the master plan, the canopy hovering over the park is supported by an orchard of tree-like columns on an 80meter by 50meter grid. The roots of the columns disappear into the ground beneath. As the columns land, skylights and light-wells are created, allowing a gentle wash of light into the venues below.

The WKCD performing arts complex will be an exciting, inviting, vibrant and human space, full of life and activity. It will not only be a performing arts centre, but a true cultural district and a model for the performing arts in the 21st century. The attractiveness of these facilities will be greatly enhanced because they are intermingled with the museums of the cultural district. All the theatres and museums cluster between the waterfront and the central promenades and have frontage to at least one major piazza. Mixing the two types of venue into a single cultural cluster will create an energy that will extend far into the night.

As an architect striving for innovation and vision, Andrew Bromberg has led the design on numerous award-winning projects throughout the world. Andrew Bromberg has over 15 years of professional experience in Architecture, with the last six of them being in Hong Kong. Andrew is lead designer for Aedas in the Middle East and Asia, recognized for his ability to conceptualize and realize complex designs within a wide range of project types.

Since joining the company in 2002, Andrew has led many high-profile projects and competitions. Recently this includes Sino / Wharf consortium?s bid for the West Kowloon Cultural District in which he led the design and an internationally recognized team to this highly publicized scheme. The proposal is for a HK$40 billion development, which is the single largest urban centre development in history, and includes 2.5 million sf of cultural facilities. The scheme has received several design awards including a ?Masterplanning Community? commendation from Architectural Review at MIPIM 2006.

In the Middle East, Andrew has reaped enormous results for Aedas. He started to venture into the Middle Eastern market in 2004 and in no time won the First Prize upon an international design competition for DAMAC Properties? Headquarters Building in Dubai Media City. In the same year, he received two design commendations at Cityscape in Dubai for West Kowloon Cultural District and Guangzhou Luo Xi Residential Development. His successes have led Aedas to set up in Dubai in early 2005. With a solid base in the region and with a reputation for cutting edge designs, Andrew has been successful in numerous international design competitions. In 2005, he won the First Prize in an international design competition for DAMAC?s Ocean Heights One Residential Development in Dubai Marina, which later received the Bentley International Award 2005 for ?Best Architectural Design?. Following this, he also won the First Prize for another residential development for DAMAC, Ocean Heights Two also in Dubai Marina. This 460 m (106 storeys) building will possibly be the tallest residential tower in the U.A.E. His adventurous designs have caught the imagination of many other prestigious developers including Emaar Properties for Emaar Towers in Dubai, Capital Investment for Dancing Towers in Abu Dhabi and U-BORA Tower in Dubai for Bando, a South Korean developer. Recently he has designed Dubai TV?s new 300,000 sm station and mixed-use development. Andrew has already completed concept designs for these projects and is currently implementing these design schemes with expected construction completion between 2007 ? 2009. In a short two year, Andrew has provided designs for a total of over 1.8 million sqm of projects in the Middle East.

His design reputation has also spread to China and India with his current commissions being North Star Mixed-use Development in Beijing and Summer?s Builder?s Atlas Mills Mixed-use Development in Mumbai.