M+ Museum

M+ is Asia's first global museum of contemporary visual culture — a massive institution in the West Kowloon Cultural District designed by Herzog & de Meuron that opened in 2021 and immediately established itself as one of the most important museums built anywhere in the 21st century. The collection spans visual art, design, architecture, and moving image from the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on Hong Kong, China, and Asia that provides a perspective systematically absent from Western museum narratives.

The building is extraordinary — a horizontal base containing the galleries, topped by an inverted T-shaped tower whose facade displays a massive LED screen visible across Victoria Harbour. The screen shows artworks and installations that change regularly, making the building itself a display surface that can be seen from Hong Kong Island. Inside, the galleries are generous, flexible, and lit with the precision that Herzog & de Meuron bring to every museum project, and the collection — including works by Ai Weiwei, Yayoi Kusama, and a significant holding of Chinese contemporary art donated by Swiss collector Uli Sigg — justifies the institution's ambition.

The museum's free general admission for the permanent collection and its harbourfront location (with a waterfront promenade and the Art Park extending along the shore) make it the most accessible major museum in Hong Kong. The views from the museum's terrace — across the harbour to Central — rival the views from TST, and the West Kowloon Cultural District, still developing around the museum, is shaping into Hong Kong's primary cultural destination.