Location: Beijing, China.

Architect: Mario Botta Architetti.

The Tsinghua Art Museum (TAM) is a building located in the Tsinghua University campus in Beijing. It was designed by Mario Botta Architect and Ass. LLC and constructed between 2012 and 2016. The building is a long parallelepiped clad in horizontal bands of pink granite, with four exhibition levels and a big portico with huge columns facing the open space to the south. The building’s distinctive feature is a big central space created by a majestic staircase that crosses the whole building lengthwise and leads to the upper exhibition floors. This space is characterized by a grid of skylights that let natural light flood the last exhibition floor. The building offers a balanced relationship between the open spaces and the interiors, with a covered plaza that generously welcomes visitors. The building was the result of a competition project in 2002 and was inaugurated in September 2016.

Photo credit: Enrico Cano.