Architects: Vector Architects
Area: 3932 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs: Hao Chen
Lighting Consultant: X Studio, Tsinghua University, School of Architecture
Design Principal: Gong Dong
Project Architect: Dongping Sun
Design Team: Xiaokai Ma, Zhenqiang Chen, Kai Zhang, Yucheng Jiang, Xiaotong Teng, Dan Zhao
Construction Management: Liangliang Zhao
Site Architects: Tianshu Guo, Zhenqiang Chen
Structural & Mep Engineering: Beijing Hongshi Design Co., Ltd.
Ldi Project Architect: Cuizhen Zhang
Ldi Architect: Mo Li
Structural Design: Wei Xue, Zhihong Zhong, Xi Tian
Mechanical & Electrical Design: Juan Shen, Shufang Hao, Jianxia Zhang, Kefeng Shi, Yingping Li
Client: Shanxi Qiandu Real Estate Development Co.Ltd
Structural Engineering: Beijing Hongshi Design Co., Ltd.
Mep Engineering: Beijing Hongshi Design Co., Ltd.
City: Taiyuan
Country: China
Changjiang Art Museum, designed by Vector Architects, is located in Changjiang village, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. This museum, situated at the southern edge of a new residential community, aims to connect the community with the city. Featuring a light well as its central organizing element, the museum includes outdoor terraces, a footbridge, and a series of galleries illuminated by skylights. The design reflects the memory of the village that once stood there while serving as a contemporary cultural space.
Changjiang Art Museum is located in Changjiang village at the northeast corner of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Like many Chinese villages, this village was razed in 2016 to make way for rapid urban development. The spatial context that once held the memory of people’s everyday lives was disrupted. As a cultural and shared space, Changjiang Art Museum aims to commemorate the traces and atmosphere of the human construction that once existed on this land.
The museum is situated at the southern edge of a newly constructed residential community, adjacent to the urban grid. One major concern is how to make the museum function as a linkage between the community and the city. At the lower level of the building, space is carved out at the southwest corner for an outdoor staircase, which leads from street level up through the museum to an open terrace.
The terrace on the second level serves as a raised plaza with a tree courtyard in the center, allowing for public activities and connecting to the northern community across the street via a footbridge. This exterior crossing circulation is public and independent from the museum’s internal route, accommodating both general visitors and local residents.
The museum’s galleries are arranged around a light well, 5.7 meters in diameter and 16.4 meters in height, serving as the organizing “anchor” for all the spaces. The light well is both the starting and ending point.
Visitors pass through the bottom of the light well, ascend the spiral staircase to the galleries, and eventually return to the starting point by descending from the top gallery along the light well.
Inside the galleries, natural light is filtered and softened by skylights, passing through a grid of 1.9 x 1.9 square meter waffle beams, which fills the interior with a uniform and immersive light quality.
The exterior staircase connecting the second through fourth floors, the protruding corner window on the fourth floor, and a southwest-facing vertical window provide glimpses of the contemporary cityscape of Taiyuan.
Changjiang Art Museum, envisioned as a solid block of brick, occupies a specific space-time coordinate, quietly observing the bustling and ever-changing city around it.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: No. 89, Kaixuan Road, Xinghualing District, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
