Art Museum Guangzhou | 2023

Location: Guangdong, China
Architects: Thomas Herzog Architekten (Thomas Herzog, Roland Schneider, Lingyun Zhang), Germany
Architects of Record: South China University of Technology (Yimin Sun, Weikang Ye), Guangdong Province Architectural Design and Research Institute, China
General Contractor: Guangdong Construction Engineering Group Co. Ltd.
Consultants: Advanced Solar Power Inc.
Client: Guangzhou Administration Office of Major Public Construction Office, China
Photographers: Hongyi Lou (TORYO),  Weikang Ye

GFS: 82000 m2 Gross Volume: 567800 m3

The new art museum is a mighty, spectacular building of a very special kind which hosts one of the greatest art collections in China, a country with approximately 5000 years of cultural history. Incredibly beautiful, world-class historical exhibits are on display.

The building is oriented symmetrically on its diagonal axis to the south and west, towards the sun and towards the large new inner park. The surface of water encircling the building adds distance between it and its surrounding open space, while also enabling adiabatic cooling. The vegetation creates ideal microclimatic and spatial conditions. Low-lying courtyards with bamboo plants bring daylight to the basement floors and allow for natural ventilation.

The division of the shell of the building, which is double-rounded with an elliptical curvature, into individual sections serves to create an effect of spatial dimensions and direct light—a form of façade that has never been realized before. The curtained, fanned-out, second translucent glass façade acts as ventilated “clothing.” A part of the outer umbrellas consisting of twenty thousand semi-transparent large glass elements carries PV-printed surfaces relating to the precious contents of the building. They absorb solar energy and convert it into electricity. They partially shade the large outer wall surfaces of the inner façades behind them, which are differentiated by subtle colour gradations.

Depending on the position of the sun, the interaction between the outer semi-transparent façade and the inner colored opaque one creates many different, visually attractive, ornamental effects in the play of light. A central, cylindrical, 40-meter-high interior space is illuminated from above with zenith light via a flat glass dome. The rope network of a translucent membrane ceiling hanging below is tensioned by the weight of a central ring. The exposed surface of the large, all-round, elegantly curved roof, which is visible from the surrounding high-rise buildings and the 600-meter-high observation tower as a “fifth façade,” serves both as a means of shading and as a PV surface for generating electricity.

The interior of the building offers exhibition areas for over 33.000 works of art with a variety of subdivisions as spatial variants. In combination with radial and circular routing, it is a flexible room layout. Sales areas, technical equipment, extensive storage areas and parking areas for visitors are located on two basement levels.