ICAM22, Hong Kong, 2-5 December 2024–Conference Report

For decades, HMA MPDC has been a member of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM). We also participated at the 22nd ICAM conference at the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, China.

M+ hosted the 22nd ICAM conference from 2-5 December 2024 with an all-time high attendance of over 120 museum professionals. This was mainly due to the presence of Asian institutions participating or wishing to join. M+, which was founded a little more than a decade ago and only opened its doors in 2021, but aspires to a global status, proved to be an excellent venue.

On behalf of the institution, Suhanya Raffel, Director, and Ikko Yokoyama, Lead Curator of Design and Architecture at M+, welcomed the participants. The five sessions of the conference were divided over four days, with the ICAM General Assembly alongside the formal programmes, accompanied by visits to local architecture firms and a look at the background to M+'s work. The five sessions focused on architectural interest beyond national borders, the importance of long-term strategic planning, architectural storytelling, innovative approaches to architectural exhibitions and the state of university archives. The opening lecture of the conference was given by Chinese landscape urbanist and founder of Turenscape, Kongjian Yu, detailing his well-known theory on the sponge city.

The presentations were accompanied by well-curated site visits, including the Brutalist campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the recent completed The Henderson (Zaha Hadid Architects), currently the world's most expensive real estate development, and landmark buildings in the Central district such as the HSBC Tower by Foster + Partners and the Tai Kwun Cultural Centre by Herzog & de Meuron. The last day's excursion took us to the neighbouring city of Shenzhen, with its 20 million inhabitants.

As part of the programme, of course, the host was also introduced. M+ is part of the West Kowloon Cultural District development, which aims to position Hong Kong as a leading global cultural destination. Two museums have been built alongside several other facilities on the newly developed 40-hectare waterfront site. The 2012 design competition for the new M+, won by Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, led to a completed building by 2020. The opening was delayed by the COVID19 epidemic till November 2021, but the institution has already been present in the city and the area before with a number of programmes.

Over the past decade, M+ has built up an internationally significant collection, with a focus on Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The collection includes works by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, a capsule from the demolished Nagakin Tower in Tokyo, and an archive of models and drawings by the British architectural group Archigram. A permanent exhibition of objects with a Hong Kong focus is also on display. All this is served by a world-class storage and restoration facility in the immediate vicinity of the main building.

The first monographic exhibition of M+ architecture was fortuitously timed to coincide with the conference. Known for the glass pyramids of the Louvre and the Bank of China tower block in Hong Kong, among others, the exhibition presents the work of Chinese-American Ieoh Ming Pei (1917-2019) in six thematic chapters. Its preparations were launched in 2014, but the opening, scheduled for 2021, was significantly delayed by the pandemic. The exhibition, a vast and rich collection of images and objects, was curated by Aric Chen and Shirley Surya, the latter being M+'s Curator of Architecture and Design, who played a lion's share in organising and running the conference.

The ICAM General Assembly, held as part of the conference, saw the departure of Rebecca M. Bailey, who has led the organisation for ten years, and the election of new Co-Chairs Ikko Yokoyama and Martien de Vletter, Director of Collections at CCA Montreal. New members include the Urban Redevelopment Authority - Architecture & Urban Design Group in Singapore, Casa da Arquitectura in Portugal, Di Tella Architecture Archive in Buenos Aires, the Indonesian Architecture Museum Foundation, the Jencks Foundation and the Zaha Hadid Foundation in London, and the Teatro dell'architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

 

Dániel Kovács