By night, the Hong Kong skyline is one giant electric rainbow, a riot of twinkling, swirling lights. Some of its towers carry pixellated messages across their facades. Others throb with the logos of businesses and banks. But one illuminated sign now stands out from the rest. This big rectangle operates on an entirely different frequency. One minute, it pulses with animated op-art patterns. The next, it delivers a slideshow of mid-century furniture and architectural models. Then it erupts with a cloud of pink cherry blossom against a bright blue sky, creating a surreal backdrop to the ferries crossing the harbour.
“It’s like a pirate ship,” says Jacques Herzog, one half of Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects behind this 20-storey-high building cum billboard, “sailing into the commercial landscape of Hong Kong with an artistic message.”
