Dalian Urban Planning Museum, Dalian / China by Architects Collective

Project Details:
Location: Dalian, China
Type: Cultural - Public
Procedure: Invited Competition
Result: Finalist
Architects: Architects Collective – www.ac.co.at
Team: Andreas Frauscher, Patrick Herold, Richard Klinger, Kurt Sattler, Matthew Tam
Gross Floor Area: 25.000 m²
Competition Date: 7/2011
Construction Costs: EUR 20.000.000

The Dalian Urban Planning Museum is designed to be the gateway to the city center redirecting several main streets to the main boulevard. The building skin consists of a careful arrangement of transparent and opaque triangular surfaces closing and revealing the interior of the museum to the urban surrounding. This simple formal strategy keeps the building from overheating in summer and allows natural light in winter.

The building is designed using low-tech and high-tech methods to minimize energy consumption and create comfortable and stable interior environments. The primary architectural ambition is to create a very public building with continuous inside/outside spaces creating physical relationships to the urban context. This is emphasized in the interior space by placing lounges, balconies, bridges and platforms the help to orientate the visitor and create visual connections to city.

The exterior of the buildings was formed by rotating the upper three levels to three urban grids and then connecting the corners of these boxes in spatial diagonals creating a continuous upwards spiral. The arrangement of closed and opened triangular surfaces creates an interplay of closing and revealing interior spaces and the urban context. Furthermore the arrangement avoids solar gains in summer and allows natural light into the building in winter.