Location: Shanghai, China.

Architect: ARES Partners.

The HOW Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located in ZhangJiang Hi-Teck Park at Pudong Shanghai. It occupies three levels of the podium floors within the existing HOW Art Hotel building, with a 4200sqm exhibition space and an about 2800sqm space of supporting service area. The museum entry hall is a new addition that takes on a simple architecture form to echo with the existing glass curtain wall. The 22-meter long rectangular form takes one single bend in correspondence to the existing podium building shape. The translucent U Channel glass brings light softly into the reception area during the day and illuminates during the night. The white enamel metal panel wraps the roof and façade as one stroke, visually anchoring the form down to the ground. The interior of the reception area is a coherent pure white space. The museum interior takes a minimal approach, allowing all art pieces and products to be fully expressed in this space, which also encourages an acute dialogue between art piece and viewers as much as possible. The 3rd floor level houses HOW Art center which includes HOW store, HOW library, and a small Gallery space. The design is trying to minimize a sense of form but emphasizes detail and preciseness. The now opened HOW Art Museum is the only private museum in Shanghai that also opens during night time. Together with HOW Art hotel, HOW Art center, and HOW Sculpture Park, it is soon to be a must-see landmark in Pudong Shanghai.

Photo credit: Dirk Weiblen.