In the early 21st century, China experienced a museum-building boom. Cities across the country developed with a foundation of cultural revival, historical reconstruction, and social care, establishing a new international vision for China's first-tier cities. Over the past 20 years, amid events like the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai World Expo, Hangzhou Asian Games, and the COVID-19 pandemic, cities have undergone numerous changes and transformations. The grand architecture that symbolized cities has gradually shifted towards more humanistic, life-oriented, artistic, and socially focused acupuncture urban regeneration plans.
Simple Art Museum is a contemporary art museum that showcases contemporary art creations from China to Asia, exploring artists' thoughts on the environment and society. Located in Anhui, China, this museum is situated in a new urban development area on the outskirts of the old city. Historically, the region developed unique Hui-style architecture due to its strategic location, characterized by culturally symbolic elements such as roofs, gables, columns, and gardens. As a new city, the challenge for the museum is to imbue new cultural significance while continuing historical value.
Architects Jenchieh Hung and Kulthida Songkittipakdee, the founding principals and of HAS Design and Research, propose a new cultural perspective. Their design continues Anhui's traditional architectural forms, extracting elements like roofs, gables, and gardens and transforming them into a new contemporary space that combines human spirit and social interaction. The design continutes Hui-style village from the old town, with highlighted in a floating, undulating roof that hints at the traditional Hui-style gable from fire-proof introversion into a new shading and public extroversion symbolic, and extends to form a continuous indoor art creation space. This series of art and cultural exhibition spaces includes art exhibitions, galleries, workshops, multimedia, design salons, and cafes. The architecture itself interacts with the interior's freely flowing walls, embodying a translation between tradition and modernity.
On the ground floor, a large grey space provides an open area for communication, dialogue, care, and greetings, reflecting the local people's expectations of life and their mutual regard. This emotional exchange enhances residents' imagination of art and beauty, infusing everyday life with powerful energy. The building's jagged roof connects several exhibition spaces, supported by curved walls below, creating a winding path reminiscent of Chinese gardens. This interaction of natural light and shadow with art presents an eternal spatial experience. The upper floor houses open offices, continuing the cultural exhibition of the ground floor. Unlike conventional workspaces, the design's undulating curved walls naturally separate and connect various cultural office areas. The freely extending walls impart a sense of purity akin to the museum itself, fostering creativity and cultural design while enhancing communication and discussion among workers, thereby creating a vibrant and art-infused workspace.
During the day, the museum's roof creates large shadowed areas in the external art plaza due to the movement and changes of the sunlight, offering visitors a place to rest and experience environmental changes. In the afternoon, light filters through building openings into the interior, creating a sacred and ethereal linear light space, imbuing visitors with a sense of spirituality and ceremony. At night, internal lighting extends outward, providing a sense of belonging and direction in the city's disoriented urban fabric.
Moreover, Simple Art Museum is near the Nanfei River, a river rich in cultural memories and historical value, often referred to as the "Mother River of Hefei" by local residents. The river's rippling effect under the setting sun reflects its millennial history shaped by the natural environment. Hung And Songkittipakdee (HAS) ingeniously translated this unique water ripple into spatial perception through the curved walls and undulating roof. In the afternoon, as sunlight penetrates the interior, the roof mimics the Nanfei River's rippling effect, with light reflecting throughout the space, making the building itself resemble an abstract work of art. This building is not just a museum for art galleries and cultural exhibitions. Architects Jenchieh Hung and Kulthida Songkittipakdee aim to inspire local people's curiosity and desire for beauty through the space, creating a place with a cross-era spirit that connects tradition and contemporary culture in the concrete city.
Team:
Lead architects: Jenchieh Hung, Kulthida Songkittipakdee
Design team: Jenchieh Hung, Kulthida Songkittipakdee, Atithan Pongpitak
Lighting consultant: Jenna Tsailin Liu Lighting technology: Visual Feast (VF)
Landscape consultant: Weili Yang Construction consultant: Zaiwei Song
Constructor: Guangdong Xingyi Decoration Group Anhui Co., Ltd
Photographers: W Workspace, Fangfang Tian
