Westworld meets Surrealism in the interior design of K11 Musea, a new shopping mall in Hong Kong, a place where the competition for a wealthy Chinese clientele is fierce and ever more abundant shopping malls are trying to lure them into their bowels.

Shopping malls are for Hong Kong what gothic cathedrals have been for the European Middle Ages. In this cathedral of shopping, the overflow of curved lines and patterns makes for an outrageously opulent backdrop. The visitor must wonder if he has landed in a computer game where an AI agent has created a time-warped version of the 19th century including Jules Verne inspired steampunk, drooping mirrors, a huge central sphere as if transported from Westworld 3, and the lighting of the Alien movies. The interior is nicely detailed, and all these metal rods might be easily disassembled and made into a gigantic pop-up somewhere else.

Surprisingly, it all kind of works in its post-post-historical darkness. It is a daring attempt to buck the overall decline of shopping in brick and mortar, trying to dazzle visitors with a spectacular visual experience.