苏州艺术博物馆及电影院‘园林博物馆’丨中国苏州

Suzhou Museum of Gardens

(Invited Competition, 2014)

Suzhou

Ethos

How to create a cultural institution that highlights and enhances the qualities that make Suzhou unique? How to create a contemporary museum taking into account the city’s rich history without making a futile imitation of the past or an artifact completely indifferent to its context and program?

The Museum of Gardens creates a new form of cultural building by reinterpreting Suzhou’s spatial archetypes, the courtyard and the garden and connecting them with a public promenade and exhibition spaces. A series of pathways connect the diverse levels of the building by means of a pedestrian bridge that hovers over the river to the south of the building, the dock area to the east side, pedestrian connectors to the south and ramps that lead the public to a series of open air, semi-enclosed and enclosed courtyards and gardens.

Program

The program of the building is divided in three main zones: Museum containing all the exhibition spaces and supporting program; Cinema with lobby, concessionaries, a café and a cinemateque; and Administration containing office space, logistics, meeting rooms and archive. These three zones are contained in three volumes on the ground level that give support to three cantilevering boxes that contain the exhibition halls and Dome-cinemas. Of varying height and sizes, the connecting volumes include exhibition halls that interplay with open air gardens to create a dialectical relationship between nature, architecture and art. The neutrality of the spaces allows for maximum flexibility of layouts, creating an endless array of possible use and configurations. The Cinemas are contained into a volume with independent access from the outside and with access to two of the semi-enclosed courtyards of the building. The spatial distribution of the building allows for the spaces to be used at different schedules.

Project:

Suzhou Art Museum and Cinema: ‘Museum of Gardens’

Suzhou

11,000m2

Program: Dome Cinema, Administrative Offices, Media Centre, Exhibition Halls, Café, Store

Project Team

Standardarchitecture WAI Think Tank

Standardarchitecture: Zhang Ke

WAI Architecture Think Tank:

Cruz Garcia

Nathalie Frankowski

Structure:

Tongji Architecture Design and Research Institute

Technology and Sustainability:

Tongji Architecture Design and Research Institute