Qujiang Museum: Neri&Hu complete red city block

In the central Chinese city of Xi’an, Neri&Hu have extendedthe museum building of the Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts by adding a rotunda over a deep substructure with an area of 1,990 square meters. The rotunda was inscribed into two wings of an existing building on a site area of 1,492 square meters.

This extension by Neri&Hu is now the main entrance to the 12,000 square meter museum area. Elevators, stairs and escalators provide quick access to the various architectural levels. The extension to the Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts is the second cultural museum building that the architecture and research laboratory Neri&Hu has planned for the capital of Shaanxi province. Back in 2012, Neri&Hu created a cultural building with an exciting hybrid structure with the construction of the Xi’an Westin Museum. The building is also intended to be used as a hotel.

The Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts is located at the entrance to Datang Everbright City with its mix of modern urban structure and Tang Dynasty monuments, including the famous 64-metre-high Great Wild Goose Pagoda, which was built in 652. The Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts is located in Xi’an’s historical cultural area, which is also home to private galleries. As an institution, the Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts takes on all the central tasks for the preservation of Chinese cultural assets in Shaanxi Province and also supports many cultural undertakings in the region.

The Xi’an Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts mainly preserves, collects and presents ancient Chinese murals. It is also dedicated to promoting traditional Chinese customs and supports many cultural activities in Shaanxi. In a permanent exhibition covering an area of 1,100 square meters, visitors can see the entire art history of ancient Chinese wall painting on 88, mostly original panels, which date back to the Neolithic period and are many thousands of years old. In addition, special exhibitions on 900 square meters of display space take visitors into the world of historical Chinese goldware or are dedicated to Pablo Picasso and other important artists of Western art. In order to preserve the valuable heritage of local wall paintings for posterity, the museum also has a center for their conservation, restoration and research.

The experimental studio Neri&Hu has taken the urban and historical significance of the site into account and created a visually striking, eye-catching structure in terracotta red that stands out from the dark existing buildings. The architectural add-on by Neri&Hu is a strong, unified structure consisting of four components. These include the partially sunken plinth, the sculpture path, the raised podium and the actual monument, the rotunda. The entire plinth is made of in-situ concrete. It is partially below the level of the existing square. At the entrance to the second floor, Neri&Hu have partially retained the original wide staircase. These lead down to a sunken piazza. The former museum rooms and the restaurant are located in the solid concrete base, which has been supplemented with newly inserted retail spaces and sanitary facilities.

Escalators lead from the ground-level square to the underground museum on level B2. The platform, which is designed as a post and lintel construction, is located above the sunken plinth. A grid of stone columns and glass façades supports a floating roof on which the retail areas are located. This retail level is deliberately designed as a curtain wall, as it sets itself apart from the deep plinth and the sculptural rotunda above.

The extension for the Qujiang Museum is crowned by a double-use rotunda clad in red travertine. It gives the extension its face and defines its appearance in the urban space of Xi’an. The interior or cavity of the rotunda functions like a circumferential gallery. The roof, which is stepped downwards, is hollowed out on the outside in the shape of a bowl and constructed like an amphitheater – a space for performing arts, catwalks or outdoor meetings far away from traffic. Diamond-shaped stones made of red travertine also characterize the façade of the final rotunda and are arranged at intervals so that light can penetrate through the façade into the interior. This creates a constantly changing play of light.

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