8/3/2019 Liangzhu Culture Museum David Chipper Field

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Set on a formerly contaminated industrial site once isolated from the town of

Yuhang in Zhejiang Province, the stone-clad Liangzhu Culture Museum provides a

contemporary home for an ancient civilization. The site, which is now a park with

rolling hills and streams, is an artificial topography that provides an evocative

setting for the sculptural forms of the new museum. Plans call for generating an

inviting landscape with a densely wooded area west of the museum tocomplement the man-made streams winding through the regenerated property

The museum will display some of the archeological objects and valuable relics of

the Liangzhu Culture, dating from 3000 BC, that were found in the area. Although

the building is finished, the museum will not open until the end of the year, when

visitors will be able to see remnants of the Neolithic Yangtze River Delta people

handiwork artifacts of jade, silk, ivory, lacquer, and black-burnished pottery

Just as the Yangtze River was essential to the prosperous Liangzhu people who

developed aquaculture and irrigation systems, the manmade waterways in the

new landscape play an integral role to the museum design. Visitors enter the

building, which is surrounded on three sides by a pond, via a bridge, and can see

the modern structure reflected in the water,.

The London-based architect David Chipperfield designed the 9,500-square-meter

museum as a series of four long rectangles, each 18 meters wide, but of varied

lengths and heights.

Within these long boxes, Chipperfield inserted a set of five courtyards which act

as joints connecting indoor galleries to outdoor rooms. The courtyards enliven

exhibition spaces inside the building with daylight and soften rectilinear stone

passageways. Wooden balustrades frame the internal courtyards and serve as

perimeter benches, creating spaces for visitors to linger and relax.

We felt that abstract geometry and linear spaces were quite sensible for this

project, says Chipperfield. Since it is a museum, and is an exploratory

environment, we wanted to create a sequence of indoor and outdoor spaces that

would take visitors on a journey through an ancient culture. The reference to

Chinese courtyards relieves the linear route while referring to architectural

traditions, explains the architect. Chipperfield clad the building in cream and

tan-colored Iranian travertine, which recalls the milky-white jade cylinders that

the Liangzhu people were renowned for.

On crossing the bridge to the entrance courtyard, visitors can choose to begin

their exploration of either the permanent collection or the temporary exhibitions,

both of which are accessed separately from the entrance hall. A rear courtyard

leads visitors to a second bridge that connects to a small island where outdoor

exhibitions will be mounted. Here visitors will be able to gaze at the hilly

landscape that stands atop the buried treasures of past cultures.