OMA has installed a golden cube-shaped kiosk and black marble furniture outside the K11 Musea retail development in Hong Kong.
Called Kube, the installation is positioned on the Victoria Harbour waterfront by K11 Musea's main entrance and is designed by Rem Koolhaas' studio OMA to offer "a distinctive and intimate place for encounters and happenings".
It includes a golden kiosk for a local artisan coffee brewer that is modelled on a dai pai dong – a type of open-air food stall found in Hong Kong – and stone blocks beside it for use as tables and chairs.
"The Kube is a multifunction installation to connect people visiting K11 Musea and passersby, who share a moment to be fully present to experience the city, and possibilities of encounters," said architect OMA managing partner David Gianotten.
The Kube kiosk's golden glow is created by its anodised aluminium cladding, designed by OMA to appear to change colour as light reflects from it.
Its aesthetic is also transformed at night when all its openings are closed so it evokes a minimal sculpture, illuminated by lighting concealed around its edges.
OMA's Kube installation is complete with black marble blocks positioned adjacent to the kiosk, which have been arranged to encourage interaction between passersby.
"Seating is an integral part of the installation," explained the studio."People stopping by the stone cubes for coffee breaks, or simply to enjoy the harbour view, readily end up in serendipitous conversations."
While providing a meeting and rest space for passersby, OMA also hopes Kube will be used for public events and outdoor performances beside the K11 Musea.
For particularly big events, a giant red balloon will be attached to the golden pavilion's roof. Visible from across the Victoria Harbour, this will act as an "urban pin" to allow people to easily locate the installation.
K11 Musea is a shopping centre on the Tsim Sha Tsui harbour-front in Hong Kong that was completed earlier this year by an architecture team led by Kohn Pedersen Fox.
The retail development is clad in Portuguese limestone, and features 4,600 square-metres of green walls and a green roof featuring urban farms.
"In creating K11 MUSEA, we worked with 100 creative talents to propagate culture and inject inspiring content into the new consumer's daily life," added Adrian Cheng, K11 Group founder.
"What David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas' Kube adds to K11 Musea is therefore more than an iconic OMA feature, but a symbolic space that explores Hong Kong's waterfront culture, coffee culture and a new way to become part of a larger community."
OMA, which stands for Office for Metropolitan Architecture, is a Dutch architecture studio founded in 1975 by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. Its headquarters is in Rotterdam, and it also has offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, New York, Dubai, Doha and Sydney.
Other recent projects by the studio include proposals for an angular extension for SANAA's New Museum, a department store and hotel in Vienna and a residential Wafra Tower in Kuwait City.
Photography is by Kevin Mak for OMA.
Project credits
Partner-in-charge: David Gianotten, Rem Koolhaas Project Architect : Ricky Suen, Ken Fung
Concept: Ricky Suen, Alan Lau
SD: Ricky Suen, Slobodan Radoman, Camilla Mori DD: Ricky Suen, Slobodan Radoman
CA: Ken Fung
Project management: K11 MUSEA
Facade consultant: Front
Structure consultant: BuroHappold
Lighting: Inhabit