Location: Shenzhen, China.

Architect: Rocco Design Architects.

RDA was one of three finalists in the international competition for the Guoshen Museum, part of an ongoing campaign to build new landmark cultural projects for Shenzhen. Commissioning the building, the Shenzhen Qianhai Development Corporation set three goals: the design should express the essence of traditional Chinese culture, reflect the unique character of traditional Chinese architecture, and embrace the spirit of Shenzhen as a cosmopolitan city. RDA submitted a design that reinterprets Chinese cultural and architectural traditions to offer a world-class contemporary museum. The proposed design houses the museum’s galleries in three interlinked, tube-like volumes that sweep across six stories. Natural light filtered through linked ‘funnels’ helps to propel visitors to their upward journey.

The proposed scheme calls for an active facade that responds to the climate, using a semi-transparent metal scrim that defines the edges of the building and blurs the undulating masses inside. The facade of the museum is designed to maximize natural light and ventilation and create an elegant, rectilinear volume that glows from within. The galleries are multi-story, glass-lined lobby spaces while maintaining the light and environmental conditions required in the galleries. The atria that link the galleries are open 24 hours a day and double as venues for events and installations. The spatial arrangement of the museum invites visitors to meander between internal and external spaces, between nature and exhibits, recasting the experience of traditional Chinese courtyard architecture in three dimensions.