Beijing capital museum

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Alban Sparks
5 years ago
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1 press kit june 26 AREP communication Judith Thépot Tel: +33 ()

2 Beijing capital museum Beijing Capital Museum is located on Fu Xing Men Avenue, a major thoroughfare running east-west as a continuation of Xi Chang An Jie Avenue, which runs alongside the Forbidden City and Tien An Men Square. Fu Xing Men Avenue will ultimately be flanked by a series of high-profile cultural amenities including an opera house and a library. The museum was planned as one of the city flagship public building and will participate in the image of Beijing as a worldwide main capital. The museum has a total surface area of 6, m² protected by a rectangular horizontal roof. It stands back from the avenue in order to create a public square that opens out onto the city and in so doing, showcases the building and creates a court where festivals and cultural events may be held. Underneath this large roof that cantilevers off above the public square, the museum layout is composed like a Chinese palace. Three pavilions surround a central hall on its 3 sides, while, on the fourth one, the main entrance is conceived as the entrance of the Chinese palaces: the visitors slip into the museum under a stone wall which is an allegory of the zigzag path one has to go through to enter. Each of the three objects has its own volume, indoor space and materials specifically related to the symbolic and functional uses they receive. The first of these objects, the 7, m² Treasure Gallery, is made of bronze and houses most of the precious objects collection that includes jades, coins, seals, Beijing Opera costumes, paintings etc.. It forms a cylinder leaning at an angle. Its unique volume as well as and the way it is inscribed within the main north-facing façade give the entire building its signature identity. It is the object that identifies the museum, mysterious and startling at the same time. The second volume (4 m wide, 35 m high and 72 m long), with its wooden fascia on both indoor and outdoor surfaces, forms a sort of box which hosts 8, m² of temporary exhibition on the ground floor, 1, m² of permanent collection that retraces the history of Beijing, a part of the collections including porcelain, bronzes, furniture, clothing and religious artifacts, and an educational area containing maps, models and interactive displays that trace the development of the Forbidden City. The third component is the elongated grey stone block closing off the building on the south side and which contains the media library, the research and museology facilities and areas for museum staff. The base, the last component of the complex on which the other three volumes are built, contains ancillary museum facilities, including boutiques, restaurants and an auditorium, together with more temporary exhibition space, an underground car park and technical facilities. The climate and acoustical environment of the extensive indoor areas is tightly controlled to offer visitors maximum comfort. As a result, the museum can host indoor public events during winter and organise performances in the large central atrium. Natural light floods into these extensive spaces through the south and east facing façades and through the roof. It is filtered to minimize glare, shaping the various volumes and bouncing off the different materials. june 26 1

3 The programme echoes Beijing s cultural heritage while simultaneously expressing the city s contemporary, forward-looking ethos. The classical attributes of Chinese buildings are reformulated using a contemporary vocabulary to forge a delicate balance between imposed order and freedom of composition, the connection between the monumental and the intimate, and the progressive unfolding of the spaces as visitors move from the outside in. Client: City of Beijing Prime contractor: AREP (Jean-Marie Duthilleul and Etienne Tricaud, architects), ADIMC (Architecture & Design Institute of the Ministry of Construction, Cui Kai, architect), Beijing Initial studies: 21 - Delivery: 26 june 26 2

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8 level -6 plan 2 - level plan 3 - level +1 plan 4 - transversal section on temporary exhibition 5 - transversal section on main hall transversal section on permanent exhibition 7 - longitudinal section 8 - longitudinal section 9 - structural details of the bronze cylinder june 26 7

WIPO ADMINISTRATION BUILDING GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 2011

WIPO ADMINISTRATION BUILDING GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 2011 WIPO ADMINISTRATION BUILDING The administration building for the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, is located in Geneva s international district, immediately adjacent to the European Headquarters