Architecture

Artificial island to house Asia's largest private art museum

View 16 Images
The Pingtan Art Museum will be situated on an artificial island connected to Pingtan Island by an undulating pier
The Pingtan Art Museum is a center piece of a new city
The Pingtan Art Museum will be situated on an artificial island connected to Pingtan Island by an undulating pier
The Pingtan Art Museum combines exhibit halls and public spaces
Central to the island is an oasis park
The design is intended to reflect Pingtan's geography
Interior spaces are based on ancient caverns
Cross section of the Pingtan Art Museum
View from the Pingtan Art Museum
A "beach" on the artificial island
Interior spaces and pedestrian walkway
Interior space of the Pingtan Art Museum
Model of the Pingtan Art Museum
Model of the Pingtan Art Museum highlighting the pier
Site map of the Pingtan Art Museum
Topographic plan of the Pingtan Art Museum
Plan of the Pingtan Art Museum
View gallery - 16 images

Art Museums regularly push the boundaries in terms of architecture, but Beijing architecture studio MAD has gone one step further by designing an artificial island to form the Pingtan Art Museum. Dominated by three concrete mounds, the museum will feature exhibit halls and public spaces and be linked to Pingtan Island by an undulating pier.

Located on the east coast of Fujian province, China, Pingtan Island is the largest island in the Fujian province and the closest large island to Taiwan. Currently home to fisheries and a military base, it was designated a "Comprehensive Experimental Zone" by Beijing in 2010 and a new city is under construction to encourage closer trade and cultural ties with neighboring Taiwan.

The Pingtan Art Museum is the third museum project by MAD Architects, which claims this will be the largest private museum in Asia. With a construction area of over 4,000 sq m (43,000 sq ft) at a cost of 800 million RMB (US$130 million), it will display over a thousand pieces of art including national treasures.

The artificial island is intended to reflect the geography of Pingtan with the museum formed from a series of hills designed to suggest topographic lines. The exterior, made of concrete and local sand shells, is intended as a public space with a central oasis, while the interior spaces are designed to resemble ancient caverns.

Construction of the island and museum has already begun, though no completion date has been announced.

Source: MAD via Dezeen

View gallery - 16 images
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
1 comment
Lewis M. Dickens III
Looking for all the world like a giant stingray from one angle, it really is handsome yet poses the problem of how to hang the art if there is any to hang.
When Bill Muschenheim graciously stepped down to insure that Frank Lloyd Wright would be the sole architect on the Guggenheim a new world was born for Art Museums.
They became the prime advocates for Modern Architecture.
So Frank used embedded steel stems protruding from the convex walls.
One might presume the same here.
It seems that it's unfortunate that the Architects could not do more for the City and the street Layout.