Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture by Steven Holl



All images courtesy of Steven Holl Architects

Nanjing China's newest cultural facility, the 'Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture' by Steven Holl Architects is now complete. Regarded as the gateway to a new cultural development, the museum explores shifting viewpoints and layers of space reminiscent of spatial compositions seen in traditional chinese paintings. 

A single winding passageway is lifted into the air by a two large stilts, unwrapping in a clockwise turning sequence until it stops to focus on the city in the distance. Acting as a visual axis to the nearby urban and natural environments, the raised and linear volume creates an intimate gallery space that isolates and controls the attention of the visitor. 

A single open stairway provides access to the upper gallery, housed within the off-white corrugated structure. An encircling bamboo-formed concrete wall limits access and shelters the structure, rising and falling as it makes its way around the volume.