Location: Hangzhou, China.

Architect: Kengo Kuma and associates.

The Folk Art Museum in Hangzhou, located on the campus of China Academy of Arts, was designed to blend in with the surrounding tea fields and hillsides. The building’s floors follow the natural ups and downs of the slope, creating a sense of connection to the ground. The museum is divided into units of parallelograms, each with its own small roof, giving the appearance of a village with extending tiled roofs. The outer wall is covered with a screen of tiles hung up by stainless wires, controlling the volume of sunlight coming into the rooms inside. The old tiles used for both the screen and the roof came from local houses, with varying sizes that help the architecture merge into the ground naturally. Overall, the design of the museum aims to create a harmonious relationship between the building and the environment, while also showcasing the beauty of traditional folk art.

Photo credit: Eiichi Kano.