Designed by Foster + Partners, the masterplan for the West Kowloon Cultural District has been recently unveiled in Hong Kong. Located on a reclaimed harbor-front site, the massive 40-hectare urban park is designed to be completely carbon-neutral. It will include 17 cultural venues and 30,000 square-meters of arts education facilities. The new venues will house the 17 new cultural venues, a Great Opera House, M+ (a pioneering museum of modern art), concert halls and a 15,000-seat Arena with an Expo Centre below.
The proposal involves two parks – a city park and the main 23-hectare great park. The streets, avenues and waterfront will be heavily planted to provide a landscaped setting for a series of spectacular new cultural buildings. The low-energy design district has provision for features like cooling/heating, gray water recycling, energy recovery systems for sewage, recycling, a waste-to-energy scheme and the generation of local, low-carbon electricity. In addition, the green energy produced by the solar panels and wind turbines will help in meeting terms with the energy requirement.
An underground network will keep the vehicular transportation below the ground, increase the size of the green and public spaces above. Foster + Partners have put their 31 years’ experience in the city to design an urban district with a rich mix of spaces that come with green benefits. The designers expect it to a new landmark on the world’s cultural map.
Via: Dezeen