Just a few days after news of 3XN's river-like Delta Natural History Museum being commissioned in Shenzhen, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has unveiled its own museum for the booming Chinese city. Named the Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum, the project will offer an easy to navigate interior and feature an energy-efficient design focused on keeping it cool during summer months.
If the Delta museum is a flowing river, then ZHA's offering is more like a squat stone, with the overall design meant as a response to the immediate area, which alternates between built-up city and landscaped park.
The museum will measure around 125,000 sq m (roughly 1.3 million sq ft), with a U-shaped interior layout that incorporates public spaces, galleries, and educational facilities centered around an atrium courtyard. Elsewhere will be multiple terraced areas. As well as being easy for visitors to navigate, ZHA also says that the interior will be flexible and able to adapt to the type of exhibition being shown at the time.
The building is specifically designed to have a reduced energy usage during Shenzhen's hot humid summers and ZHA employed extensive computer modeling and wind tunnel testing to ensure excellent thermal performance. It will feature large amounts of insulation, energy-efficient cooling and lighting systems, skylights to promote natural lighting, and smart building management systems. It's slated to achieve the highest rating of China's own Green Building Evaluation Standard.
"The design is a volumetric response to the distinct conditions of the site," explains the firm. "Responding to the city to the east, the design is defined by its solidity and dynamic curvilinear geometries that express the many urban circulation routes to the east of the site.
"These fluid lines are gradually elongated along the museum's north and south elevations with openings carved into the volume to offer glimpses of the activity within. To the west, the building transforms as it extends towards the natural landscapes of Guangming Park to define layers of terraces that frame the glazed wall leading to the courtyard atrium at the heart of the museum."
Construction work is already underway and the Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum is planned for completion in late 2023.
Source: ZHA