Shangrao is a developing inland city. Like most other inland cities, Shangrao is undergoing a period of urban construction and rapid upgrading and expanding. A large comprehensive building group, consisting of a number of smaller city cultural buildings, is typical in similar cities, which is often discussed by architects in urbanization process.
The museum is located on the east side of the central axis of Shangrao city center, covering an area of about 40,000 square meters and a total construction area of 42,000 square meters, including museums, urban planning exhibition halls and urban construction archives. From the north to the south, the central axis of the city connects the administrative center, the Citizen Park, the Entrepreneurial Park and the landscape mountains, and extends to Xin River in the south end. Around the grand City Square, there are high-density urban building groups, forming a sharp contrast between high density outside and zero density in the square. The museum base is 360 meters in length, traversing spaces with totally different densities. The biggest problem designers face is how to conciliate the two parts with proper construction features. The overall layout to purse huge building group is avoided. From the south to the north, the urban construction archives, the urban planning exhibition hall and the museum are laid out according to users, area and mode. The three buildings of different sizes are well-proportioned. Outdoor spaces of different sizes are formed in the City Square and the road around the base, and these spaces are equipped with different contents and landscape elements according to functions of the buildings. Thus, the entrance and the route of visitors are clear. In addition, these outdoor spaces play the role of transition between the roads and the Square, creating the impression of space, enriching the functionality of the City Square, and endowing the Square with a lively atmosphere.
As the ways people consume and share art and culture evolve, museums around the globe aren’t just changing their programming and offerings to attract visitors, they are also approaching the design of the museum itself in a way that enhances the visitor experience, creating a space for community members and tourists to convene and enjoy the museum’s offerings in a complete, immersive experience. No longer are these buildings designed as post-war fortresses—they are now welcoming, animated buildings that engage their communities.
The new Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University brings art to the forefront of university life – and the entire Inland Northwest region. As the only dedicated fine art museum in a 230-mile radius, Design Principal Jim Olson sought to create a building with bold visual appeal that would engage and inspire. The resulting reflective façade, crafted to match WSU’s signature crimson red, establishes the museum as a beacon for the arts in the heart of the Pullman, Washington campus.
WAY Studio recently completed the re-design for the west wing of Silk Road International Cultural Exchange Center. The center is located in Langfang, He Bei, one of the new cultural hubs for northern China, and takes its name “Silk Road” after China’s recent “Belt and Road” initiative. It is a mixed-use cultural complex, which contains an opera house, a theatre, a music hall in its center; a museum in its east wing; an art museum in its west wing, and commercial inserts scattered throughout. Each program has its own designated visitation route, allowing the entire complex to work together or individually.
On the mountainside of Guniujiang Resort sits Qifeng Village of Shitai County, Chizhou City, Anhui Province. Our first visit there took us an hour’s drive around the steep and winding mountain roads. At the entrance of the village stood two ginkgo trees, which were said to be over 1,000 years old, with trunks so strong that at least two or three people were needed to encircle one. Flat farmlands with crops as tall as a man stretched in front of the village, and farmhouses with white walls and black tiles lined along the hillside. Qifeng Village seemed to have receded into the bamboo groves in the mountain.
On first sight, houses in the village revealed roughness simple and practical. Unlike Huizhou courtyards with complex layout and mansions with delicate decorations, the village houses stayed simple with black-tiled pitched roofs and square windows revealing a sense of time, while draped eaves and gable walls were the only decorative elements. Buildings at the entrance of the village were mostly for public use, such as mills, tool storage rooms and the commune’s house, while villagers’ homes receded deep into the mountain.
The building is located in Kaliningrad region in old German town which was seriously damaged during World War II. In an empty place adjacent to the railroad a modern plant of brandy production was built. Our task was a warehouse building project which apart from its main function – storing brandy tierces – would serve as a place of meetings and com-munication, guests reception as well as a symbol of creation and rebirth, demonstrating the role of the plant in the city life.
The applied while considering all the parts of the project has led us to creation of an ex-tremely symbolical architectural ensemble.
The city of Jishou, where the Jishou Art Museum is located, is the regional capital of Xiangxi (western Hunan), a minority autonomous zone. Initially, the municipal government considered parcels of lands in the development zone outside the city; however, we the architects proposed to build the art museum in the center of the old town because we believed that a cultural facility should be easily accessible. A river called Wanrong runs through the middle of Jishou, which makes the most central location for the art museum over the water course and the art museum then doubles as a pedestrian bridge naturally. We hope that people in Jishou would not only make a special trip to see art but will also encounter art on their way to work, to school, or to shop.
The Vasco da Gama Aquarium is an old navy facility that opened to the public in 1898 for scientific investigation and educational purposes. It continues to have an important role in the knowledge of the sea and the sea-species. To celebrate the importance that the Portuguese King Carlos had on the origins of the aquarium and in the investigation of the ocean, the entrance hall was restored to receive this exhibition.
Papalote was remodeled in a total way, this expansion includes new interior and exterior exhibition areas, a new store, and a new food court area, a new multiple use room, a new parking and service building, and a general improvement of its offices.
Papalote’s integral renovation contemplated the efficient use of natural resources, adapting the spaces to use natural light and ventilation, adding intellingent lighting (LED), and a water treatment plant to recycle water. This will translate into an earning of nearly 25% of its energy consumption, and up to 90% in its water consumption.
Photography: JAIME NAVARRO, MARÍA DOLORES ROBLES MARTÍNEZ G
Renders: LEGORRETA®, DECC
Client: PapaloteChildren’s Museum, Mexico City’s Government
Structural Design: Izquierdo Ingenieros y Asociados S.C.
LEGORRETA® Team: Víctor Legorreta, Miguel Almaraz, Adriana Ciklik, Carlos Vargas, Miguel Alatriste, Berenice Corona, Daniel Reyes, Ana Paola Espinosa, María Beckmann, Koji Makita, Héctor Guillén, Fredy López, Oswaldo Anaya, and Joel Rojas.
Studio Vertebra has been entrusted with the Bukhara City project which is planned to be constructed in Uzbekistan’s city of Bukhara on a 535 thousand sqm area located between the historical city and the airport with half a billion dollars’ worth of investment. Studio Vertebra’s role in the project will include urban planning of the Bukhara City project and architecture and interior architecture designs of all the buildings included within the scope of the project as well as acting as the project management consultant, which will also involve selection of all investors and contractors.
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