Building M+ / The Architecture Collection

The M+ museum (M+ stands for museum and mroe) will showcase visual culture that spans local 20th and 21st century art, design and architecture from China, Asia and beyond.

At the M+ exhibition at the ArtisTree I visited a preview of the museum’s growing collection of architectural models, drawings, renderings and photographs. It included original drawings of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel by Frank Lloyd Wright, images of the Guangzhou Opera House by Dutch photographer Iwan Baan and several models.

The show includes the typical Hong Kong residential towers by Rocco Design Architects (like Tai Koo or the Hollywood Terrace) …

… and fantastic unbuilt dream towers by MAD like these for the city of Beijing.

But what I found more interesting are the images of anothermountainman, who shows the negative side of architecture. His series ‘Lanwei’ (rotten end) shows failed and abandoned buildings that were begun – but never completed – during recent property booms throughout Asia.

Finally, a number of easily recognisable buildings. From Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid, one of the most significant architectural projects to rise in Beijing during the period of the city’s 2008 summer Olympics…