Overlooking the Pearl River in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou will be a cluster of museums dubbed “Three Museums, One Square.” Spanish practice Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos’ design was chosen for the Guangzhou Science Museum, while German firm gmp Architekten’s was selected for the Guangzhou Museum.
The two new structures will join the Guangzhou Art Museum, which was commissioned last year and is being designed by Thomas Herzog Architekten. The museum complex will located near the landmark Canton Tower.
For the new Guangzhou Science Museum, Nieto Sobejano’s winning proposal is a collection of nine volumes “conceived as a flexible sequence of large ‘ceramic vessels,’” ArchDaily reports.
The other museum, designed by gmp Architekten, will reference the historic chigang pagoda, which lies to the north of the building’s site. The building’s height on the northern end will be limited to 18 meters, respecting the historic tower.
According to Designboom, the building’s height gradually rises “toward the south to a total height of 40 meters,” creating a roof terrace facing the pagoda and offering a view to the city’s skyline.
The building will have a total area of 80,000 sm to accommodate temporary and permanent exhibition rooms, theaters, auditoriums, and an indoor garden.
Guangzhou Science Museum, by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos
GUANGZHOU SCIENCE MUSEUM - NIETO SOBEJANO ARQUITECTOS from Nessun Dorma on Vimeo.
Guangzhou Museum, by gmp Architekten
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Museum celebrates African-American heritage
The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture recently completed construction on the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus in Charlotte, N.C. Designed by the Freelon Group, Durham, N.C., with Batson-Cook's Atlanta office as project manager, the $18.8 million project achieved nearly 100% minority participation.
| Aug 11, 2010
Design for Miami Art Museum triples gallery space
Herzog & de Meuron has completed design development for the Miami Art Museum’s new complex, which will anchor the city’s 29-acre Museum Park, overlooking Biscayne Bay. At 120,000 sf with 32,000 sf of gallery space, the three-story museum will be three times larger than the current facility.
| Aug 11, 2010
Thom Mayne unveils ‘floating cube’ design for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Calling it a “living educational tool featuring architecture inspired by nature and science,” Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne unveiled the schematic designs and building model for the Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park in Dallas. The $185 million, 180,000-sf structure is 170 feet tall—equivalent to approximately 14 stories—and is conceived as a large...
| Aug 11, 2010
Piano's 'Flying Carpet'
Italian architect Renzo Piano refers to his $294 million, 264,000-sf Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago as a “temple of light.” That's all well and good, but how did Piano and the engineers from London-based Arup create an almost entirely naturally lit interior while still protecting the priceless works of art in the Institute's third-floor galleries from dangerous ultravio...
| Aug 11, 2010
The Art of Reconstruction
The Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C., completed in 1867, houses two Smithsonian Institution museums—the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. Collections include portraits of all U.S. presidents, along with paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings of numerous historic figures from American history, and the works of more than 7,000 American artists.
| Aug 11, 2010
Silver Award: Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall Philadelphia, Pa.
Built in 1875 to serve as the art gallery for the Centennial International Exhibition in Fairmount Park, Memorial Hall stands as one of the great civic structures in Philadelphia. The neoclassical building, designed by Fairmount Park Commission engineer Hermann J. Schwarzmann, was one of the first buildings in America to be designed according to the principles of the Beaux Arts movement.
