With its cast-in-situ concrete parallel barrel-vault structure, the Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum in Taizhou, China offers a unique spatial atmosphere with a ruin-like roughness. Designed by Atelier Deshaus, well-integrated lighting and spatial connections between the inside and the outside of the Museum are further integral elements to the design.
With a total floor area of 2,450 square meters, the Museum has eight exhibition rooms. As each room is tall with a relatively small area, adjacent rooms were shifted by half of the floor-to-ceiling height in section to create different levels and enhance the spatial richness of the interior space. The result is a sense of upward movement as one moves through the spaces.
With respect to the spatial sequence, the circulation starts at the central exhibition hall, which opens up onto a new public square. Circulation then ascends and revolves, level by level, until reaching the last exhibition room, which itself opens towards Feng Mountain.
Interestingly, due to the low construction skill and lack of experience with cast-in-situ concrete on site, the inaccuracy and even errors of the construction result here in an expressive quality that was not intentionally designed.
