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Nanjing Museum

Nanjing Museum
Front elevation of the gallery of art. Image © Guangyuan Zhang

Nanjing Museum

CCTN Design

ARCHITECTS
Cctn Design

ARE
84500 M²

PHOTOGRAPHS
Guangyuan Zhang

CATEGORY
Museums & Exhibit, Extension

YEAR
2013

LOCATION
Nanjing, China

Text description provided by architect.

The Nanjing Museum is inside Zhongshan Gate, at the foot of Purple Mountain, edging along the old city wall in the east.

Nanjing Museum
Aerial view. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
View of the old main hall and the distant mountain from the newly built cultural heritage gallery. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design

The construction of the main exhibition hall (commonly known as the Old Main Hall) in the original building started in 1935, but was interrupted by the Anti-Japanese War before being completed in 1952; an art exhibition hall was added in 1999. Phase II of the reconstruction and expansion project was initiated in 2004.

This was an important reconstruction and expansion project. Those architects of the old generation, such as Liang Sicheng, Yang Tingbao, Liu Dunzhen, Xu Jingzhi, and others, successively lead or participated in the design and construction of the project, so the structure deserves to be called a “classic” building.

Nanjing Museum
Junction area between the reserved old main hall and the newly built gallery of history. Image © Guangyuan Zhang
Nanjing Museum
Gallery of intangible cultural heritage. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design

In addition to that, it carried the historical memory of the city. The designer approached the project with great reverence.

The new construction was considered the extension of the historic and traditional Nanjing Museum. As a result, the design concept for this project was: “expansion, integration, and restructuring.”

Nanjing Museum
Gallery of special exhibitions. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Junction area between the old main hall and the gallery of history. Image © Guangyuan ZhangExhibition Hall. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Facade Detail. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design

After careful measuring and calculation, the Old Great Hall has been elevated by 9.84 feet (3 meters) on the same spot, so the building no longer lays lower than the city streets themselves.

This has been achieved without making any impact on the building itself or to the natural outline of Purple Mountain, all the while minimizing the need for extensive underground earthworks, greatly improving the state of the building and making it easier to comprehensively streamline and organize both the aboveground and belowground areas of the complex.

Nanjing Museum
Facade Detail. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Facade Detail. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design

The facades of the architecture have a unified design, made up of hanging stone materials with a texture of pale gray and cinnabar dots and lines on the surface, rendered in a classic look so that the overall structure takes on a rough but reserved appearance, both tender and stately.

It was decided for the interior to be decorated with copper plates. The unadorned, decorous, and elegant plating is congenial to the primitive-modern qualities of the overall design, and works well with the glazed roof tiles to bring out the material’s best features.

Nanjing Museum
Facade Detail. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Exhibition Hall. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design

The original wood stairs with more than 80 years of history are retained for exhibition in the junction area between the old main hall and new building.

The atriums are of various sizes and functions, so as the courtyards, which are meant to interrupt the tediously long course of a visit and make it into a rhythmic one to give visitors a more pleasurable and contemplative experience.

Nanjing Museum
Exhibition Hall. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Exhibition Hall. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design

The skylights of the atriums are designed using the reference of “Zaojing,” a traditional decoration in Chinese architecture. The use of copperplate makes it both modern and elegant, creating a unique central hall.

Post-expansion the Nanjing Museum now occupies an underground construction area of more than 322,917 square feet (30,000 square meters). The design uses a 656-foot-long (200-meter-long) underground passage, four sunken courtyards of different sizes, and

Nanjing Museum
Atrium of gallery of history. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Original Wood Stairs At the Junction. Image © Guangyuan Zhang
Nanjing Museum
Underground light corridor. Image © Guangyuan Zhang

12 naturally-lit atriums were designed to connect multiple underground exhibition halls, enlivening the underground space while successfully solving the general problems of poor lighting and bad ventilation common to underground public spaces.


Nanjing Museum
Main axis view. Image © Guangyuan Zhang
Nanjing Museum
View of the old main hall from the art. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Exhibition Hall. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design
Nanjing Museum
Atrium of Gallery of Special Exhibtions. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design


Nanjing Museum
Sketches
Nanjing Museum
Sketch


Nanjing Museum
General Plan
Nanjing Museum
Plans
Nanjing Museum
Original Plan


Nanjing Museum
Sections and Elevations
Nanjing Museum
Facade Detail. Image Courtesy of CCTN Design

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