The proposal for the National Art Museum of China captures the spirit of the day, the optimism and dynamism of a nation surging forward.
Great halls and garden spaces at each level offer opportunities for public and social events, film showings, lectures, ceremonies and celebrations.
Visitors can traverse the linear organization of galleries, reminiscent of the Magao Caves, and also ascend vertically, alluding to the mountain-like form of the building.
The museum is a garden oasis and a place of contemplation and celebration at the center of the crowded city landscape.
Located on the Beijing cultural axis, between the Forbidden City and Olympic Park, the new museum is the anchor for a proposed cultural district.
A major cable system supports a pre-tensioned cable wall with catenary rafters. This structural system creates an open and transparent face onto a major water feature -- a new man-made lake within the cultural district.
The National Museum is very large and requires a clear organizational structure to facilitate good orientation to visitors, and simple efficient operations. The museum is designed as linear public circulation terraces, which face west toward Beijing’s Olympic axis and provide views of the river and surrounding institutions. As in Mogao, the museum’s galleries are experienced as a string of chambers in which the visitor always returns to the western cliff, overlooking the valley, for orientation.
From the galleries, visitors circulate into a grand public space of landscaped terraces. These are designed in the tradition of Chinese landscapes and gardens-full of surprising juxtapositions of plants, water, and sculpture.
A spanning glass roof unifies the museum, which is part of the larger ensemble of public cultural landmarks on the skyline.
The terracing organizing of the building fits three levels of galleries above grade, shaped along a great crescent. The crescent is anchored on one end by an entry hall and on the other by a Great Hall event space. The 'cliff side' is modulated by terraced walkways and connecting stairways ascending toward a rooftop garden plateau. The upper levels of the building, above the galleries, are filled with office spaces for Museum staff.
The museum is connected to the surrounding public transit lines below grade, and to a retail mall that is planned for the future.
Along the central axis of the building is a crossing pedestrian way connecting across the site which allows the public to cross the building without entering the gallery halls.
The gardens of the museum offer additional space for sculpture exhibition and display of large scale works.
View to multi-story gallery rooms.
View to public park.
