Rogers Partners' "The Spiral Mirror" proposal for West Kowloon Arts Pavilion

Rogers Partners recently shared with us more details of their proposal for the Hong Kong West Kowloon Arts Pavilion competition that concluded a few weeks ago.

Titled "The Spiral Mirror", Rogers Partners — in collaboration with Hong Kong firm Arthur C.S. Kwok Architects & Associates — won 2nd place in the competition.

Scroll down to read all about it.

Project description:

"The Spiral Mirror is a proposal for a new arts pavilion on the edge of the Waterfront Promenade in West Kowloon, Hong Kong, submitted in response to an open competition hosted by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. The competition called for a one-story, 470-square-meter building with a simple program of exhibition space, office, storage, and restrooms. Museum-quality environmental controls were not a priority; budget (HK$20M), flexibility, sustainability, and connectivity to the site were emphasized. The Pavilion is intended to temporarily showcase pieces from the future collection of Hong Kong’s new M+ Museum while the museum is being constructed. It will remain as a site for special exhibitions and events."

"Surrounded by infrastructure and an ever-changing landscape of performing and visual arts and Victoria Harbour activities, the Spiral Mirror is not only a space for art and events, but also an event unto itself – sculpture and experience, simultaneously of its context and apart from it. The Spiral Mirror reflects, extends, borrows from, disappears into, and celebrates the West Kowloon waterfront. It carves out unique and flexible spaces for art of all scales, types, and media, while doubling as a singular waterfront event space for the West Kowloon Cultural District."

"Materiality: A square is pulled open. A mirrored surface turns in on itself, defining a spiraling path through a series of distinct spaces. An architecture of opaque, translucent, and transparent surfaces holds a pristine white-walled gallery within. During the day, the Spiral Mirror reflects the harbor, the skyline, the new M+ Museum, and the surrounding outdoor art space. At night, the mirrored surface along the waterfront becomes transparent, offering views in from the promenade while shining across Victoria Harbour as the jewel of the revitalized cultural district."

"Experience: The Spiral Mirror draws in visitors from both the promenade and the outdoor art space along a path that emerges from the landscape, paved with the same stone as the riprap at the water’s edge. The path leads visitors through a rich and varied set of experiences. First, one enters into the Reflection Hall, an outdoor space like the opening of a snail shell, contained between two mirrored surfaces. The angled planes create infinitely repeating reflections of the visitors and the Hong Kong skyline beyond – an experience and an event, and a unique photo opportunity for tourists. Continuing into the pavilion, one arrives at the Water Gallery, a bright open gallery with skyline and water views, visible from the promenade. Finally the path leads to the white Sky Gallery, a naturally lit, enclosed gallery ideal for the display of anything from paintings and sculptures to projections and light pieces. "

"Sustainability: The principal challenge of the site is to control solar heat gain without blocking light and view.  On its southeast and southwest faces, the pavilion is sheathed in high-performance Low-E reflective glass, which minimizes solar gain and provides the distinctive qualities of the Spiral Mirror – reflective during the day, transparent along the promenade at night. The interior Sky Gallery is positioned for optimum use of natural light, with deep light shelves for indirect natural light from the southeast and southwest, and shallow clerestory windows open to the sky on the northeast and northwest. The clerestory windows are operable, providing a thermal chimney effect to optimize natural ventilation and take advantage of the cool breezes on the waterfront during the temperate months of the year.

The project focuses atmospheric controls in the innermost gallery, so that the sequence of spaces becomes more conditioned as one moves further into the pavilion. The pavilion adjusts its climatic performance to its content: a sculpture exhibit has minimum controls; a crowded performance is pre-cooled."

Images courtesy of Rogers Partners.

Click the thumbnails below for additional images.