NANJING MUSEUM OF ART & ARCHITECTURE
Nanjing, China, 2003-2010
PROGRAM: museum complex with galleries, tea room, bookstore, and a curator's residence
CLIENT: Nanjing Foshou Lake Architecture and Art Developments Ltd
SIZE: 30,000 sf
STATUS: construction phase
The new museum is sited at the gateway to the Contemporary International Practical Exhibition of Architecture in the lush green landscape of the Pearl Spring near Nanjing, China. The museum explores the shifting viewpoints, layers of space, expanses of mist and water, which characterize the deep alternating spatial mysteries of the composition of Chinese painting. The museum is formed by a "field" of parallel perspective spaces and garden walls in black rammed earth over which a light "figure" hovers. The straight passages on the ground level gradually turn into the winding passage of the figure above. The upper gallery, suspended high in the air, unwraps in a clockwise turning sequence and culminates at "in-position" viewing of the city of Nanjing in the distance. This visual axis creates a linkage back to the great Ming Dynasty capital city.
Nanjing, China, 2003-2010
PROGRAM: museum complex with galleries, tea room, bookstore, and a curator's residence
CLIENT: Nanjing Foshou Lake Architecture and Art Developments Ltd
SIZE: 30,000 sf
STATUS: construction phase
The new museum is sited at the gateway to the Contemporary International Practical Exhibition of Architecture in the lush green landscape of the Pearl Spring near Nanjing, China. The museum explores the shifting viewpoints, layers of space, expanses of mist and water, which characterize the deep alternating spatial mysteries of the composition of Chinese painting. The museum is formed by a "field" of parallel perspective spaces and garden walls in black rammed earth over which a light "figure" hovers. The straight passages on the ground level gradually turn into the winding passage of the figure above. The upper gallery, suspended high in the air, unwraps in a clockwise turning sequence and culminates at "in-position" viewing of the city of Nanjing in the distance. This visual axis creates a linkage back to the great Ming Dynasty capital city.
'In truth, Holl's strength lies in his ability to create buildings that are both radical and understandable, ethereal yet still monumental. His levitating tubes and light-flooded interiors may feel transcendent, but they maintain a well-grounded sense of architectural space'.
-Aric Chen, Spoon, December, 2005
-Aric Chen, Spoon, December, 2005
CREDITS
architect
– Steven Holl Architects
Steven Holl, Li Hu (design architect)
Hideki Hirahara (associate-in-charge)
Clark Manning, Daijiro Nakayama (project architect)
Joseph Kan, JongSeo Lee, Richard Liu, Sarah Nichols (project team)
associate architects
– Architectural Design Institute, Nanjing University
structural consultant
– Guy Nordenson and Associates
lighting design
– L'Observatoire International
architect
– Steven Holl Architects
Steven Holl, Li Hu (design architect)
Hideki Hirahara (associate-in-charge)
Clark Manning, Daijiro Nakayama (project architect)
Joseph Kan, JongSeo Lee, Richard Liu, Sarah Nichols (project team)
associate architects
– Architectural Design Institute, Nanjing University
structural consultant
– Guy Nordenson and Associates
lighting design
– L'Observatoire International
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