The new museum is the first to be completed as part of the CIPEA project, an ambitious development project designed to bring together the finest pieces of contemporary world architecture in the Nanjing suburbs. It is assumed that over time it will be a developed quarter with the most diverse infrastructure, so far only a museum has been built, whose emphatically sculptural form is intended to become a symbol and a kind of gateway to the new district.
Hall enclosed the main gallery in a giant square tube, which, in turn, folded in four and raised two stories above the ground. In this volume, the minimum number of windows was made, but its end is completely glazed, thanks to which the gallery acquires a distinct resemblance either to a telescope, or to a periscope, whose lens is directed to the historical center of Nanking. Note also that the gallery facades are faced with steel panels, and you can get into it either by an elevator connecting the upper level of the museum with the ground level, or by a laconic open staircase leading to a hatch made in the bottom of the "pipe".
The walls of the lower level of the museum complex, where the lecture hall, depository, cafe and technical rooms are located, are made of dark-colored corrugated concrete. From a distance, Hall conceived, this texture resembles a bamboo screen, so traditional in China. The complex also includes several flowing landscaped patios.
A. M.
