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HK #2

Hong Kong

By Kai Bernstein

February 13^th, 2020

Please enjoy on a big display in fullscreen mode for the best experience.

This is the second part of my Hong Kong series. Find the first part here. In this episode you'll see the following:

Hong Kong Cultural Centre

K11 Musea

Hong Kong Island

Contemporary Art

Victoria Peak

I really enjoy architecture more and more each year. I love looking at the exterior and I'm trying to fully appreciate the whole work process without fully being able to comprehend the calculations going into such a big project. Interior design excites me just as much and I could see myself working in the world of architecture in the future. The next photos are of a few buildings that caught my eye. While these images won't make it into my architecture portfolio they are part of a little side project that attempts to picture their beauty from a personal standpoint.

Hong Kong Cultural Centre

A gigantic and interesting building with lots of corners and angles directly at the promenade of Kowloon. From some perspectives it looks a little aged and cold to me, from others it feels warm and futuristic. Either way there is something special about it.

The space between the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Cultural Centre

K11 Musea

This huge building is also situated at the waterfront next to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the HKMoA. It looks massive and expensive and that appearance is not deceiving. K11 Musea was planned and created by approximately 100 architects and designer. Among other things it holds more than 225 retail shops and around 70 restaurants! It immediately made me reminisce about Singapore.

Hong Kong Island

After walking several kilometers around the north part of Hong Kong I moved over to the main business district – Hong Kong Island. How else than by ferry?

I never felt as alienated in a city like I did in Hong Kong. It is incredible what we have achieved as humans in terms of infrastructure. There are pedestrian bridges going through whole buildings and leading into perfumed shopping malls. Up down, up down, diagonal, vertical, long escalators and people everywhere you go. Somewhere among this all are six- to eight-lane streets for a cars, trucks and busses.

Two things that I realized:

Surprisingly it's not a city full of scooters as seen in other Asian cities
There are barely any bicycle lanes and the only people on bikes I saw where Westerners

Imagine the weight of all the glass used for all these skyscrapers!

Contemporary Art

There is a lot of contemporary art in HK. Some buildings are entirely filled with a variety of galleries. Just take the lift all the way up and visit each gallery floor by floor on the way down. If you feel particularly rich you can ask about the prices and leave your contact information with one of the concierges.

It's called Infinity-Nets, finished in 2007

Sadly, I never heard back from the gallery regarding my price request for the piece shown on the last picture below.

Back outside, strolling around, feeling inspired.

Victoria Peak

One of the must-do's is viewing the city from the Victoria Peak lookout. To have a different experience I went up a less common way. I took the MTR (subway) to the Hong Kong University stop and went up the winding 'Lung Fu Shan Morning Trail'. Being unsure if I took the right way up and in a slight hurry to catch the sunset, ambitious runners overtook me but I made it to the top just in time. The view is amazing and at the same time is has been shot so many times that it’s almost boring. ALMOST.