Ningbo Art Museum


Related person
Karla Trott (was created by)
Date
2001
Description
Originally planned to be a renovation but the original was too derelict. The special patter of the original interior was retained in this Wang Shu and Amateur Architecture design. The final building recapitulates the port theme by having the building reached by jetties stretching onto a platform (boat). The jetties line up with the former locations of actual landing bridges. Urbanistically the staging of entry through the smaller courtyard also respects Chinese tradition as opposed to the contemporary flair for massive plazas. In section, the lower part of the museum supports it symbolically, by accommodating the necessary evils of parking and commercial expos, which make possible the maintenance of the art museum. The building recapitulates history through material: brick in the foundation to recall the demolished building, steel and timber above to suggest sipping, and small grottoes in the base, to give a hint that the building was once the place where pilgrims set out to the holy island of Putuoshan.
Style/Period
People's Republic_access of China (1949 CE - Present)
Material
steel frame construction
wood (hardwood or softwood)
concrete
masonry
stone
or earth
Source
Godel, Addison. "China 2011: Architecture and Urbanism in the 21st-Century Supercity." Knowlton School of Architecture. December 2011.