How Cricursa shaped the 475 glass tubes for the iconic K11 facade

In the heart of Hong Kong's art and design district, at Victoria Dockside, stands K11 MUSEA—a visionary project conceived as the "Silicon Valley of Culture." Inaugurated in 2019, this destination was born from the collaboration between K11 Group founder Adrian Cheng and over a hundred architectural talents, including the firm SO-IL, responsible for the conceptual design of its iconic tubular facade. Years before its inauguration, however, the curved glass panels that create the "floating effect" of this unique and monumental project were designed and processed at Cricursa's facilities in Barcelona—a full four years in advance.

SO-IL conceived the museum as a floating volume, enveloped by 475 glass tubes standing nine meters high and one meter (900 mm) in diameter, each weighing two tonnes.

The Technical Challenge: Materializing the Vision of a "Living" Facade.

Translating this conceptual vision represented a formidable glazing engineering challenge. It was not merely about creating glass tubes, but about achieving a facade that would radically shift its perception based on the viewer's proximity, combining sculptural mass with luminous delicacy.

Cricursa's Execution: Three years before the inauguration, Cricursa took on the challenge of bringing SO-IL's design to life. We manufactured the T001 and T002 Façade Series, transforming flat panels of Low-Iron annealed glass (10 and 12 mm) into perfect cylindrical components, laminated with SentryGlas® in an autoclave. Each of these massive "tubes" underwent an extremely precise CNC bending process, with a 450 mm radius, to guarantee the required geometry and uniformity. The polished edges on all four sides ensured the purity of lines demanded by the architectural concept, enabling the interplay of reflections and transparency that SO-IL envisioned.

SEE THE PROJECT ON THE WEB

THE PROCESS

• Over 3,900 sqm of glazed surface, transformed into a luminous, living glass skin.
• A total of 372 custom-made units, manufactured to create the optical illusion of 475 independent tubes.

View the Technical Data Sheet

Today, the K11 MUSEA facade stands as a powerful testament to what happens when bold architectural vision meets Tvitec | Cricursa's technical mastery and manufacturing capabilities. It represents a perfect dialogue between art and engineering, where curved glass transcends being a mere building enclosure to become a true sensory museum experience.

Today, TVITEC | Cricursa continues to pioneer glazed projects at the frontier of possibility, collaborating with visionary studios to push architectural expression into new dimensions through innovation.