China_Liangzhu Culture Museum by David Chipperfield Architects

David Chipperfield Architects said :

The museum houses a collection of archaeological findings from the Liangzhu culture, also known as the Jade culture (c3000 BC). It forms the northern point of the ‘Liangzhu Cultural Village’, a newly created park town near Hangzhou.
The building is set on a lake and connected via bridges to the park. The sculptural quality of the building ensemble reveals itself gradually as the visitor approaches the museum through the park landscape.
The museum is composed of four bar-formed volumes made of Iranian travertine stone, equal in 18m width but differing in height.
Each volume contains an interior courtyard.
These landscaped spaces serve as a link between the exhibition halls and invite the visitor to linger and relax.
Despite the linearity of the exhibition halls, they enable a variety of individual tour routes through the museum.
To the south of the museum is an island with an exhibition area, linked to the main museum building via a bridge.
The edge areas of the surrounding landscape, planted with dense woods, allow only a few directed views into the park.
The entrance hall can be reached via a courtyard, the centrepiece of which is a reception desk of Ipe wood, lit from above.
The material concept consists of solid materials that age well, Ipe wood and travertine stone, and extends to all public areas of the museum.