10 May 2013
MAD Architects reveal new China Wood Sculpture Museum
BY Aoife Dowling
Beijing-based MAD Architects have unveiled the completed China Wood Sculpture Museum located in Harbin, China.
The 200m (656ft) long building is sheathed in metal and surrounded by a densely populated Chinese-style neighbourhood and residential complexes.
It was constructed with the aim of adding cultural and surreal essence to the surrounding urban context. The museum takes the form of a twisted strip of steel, punctuated with curved windows.
MAD describes the building as "bringing out an expression and abstraction of nature to an otherwise quotidian surrounding."
The architects blurred the boundaries between solid and liquid throughout the 140,000sq ft (13,000sq m) building to reference the local natural scenery and landscape.
The museum mainly houses local wood sculptures as well as paintings depicting the ice and snow of the regional scenery.
In the context of the large-scale modern urban setting, the museum aims to serve as a new interpretation of nature.
Mad Architects state: "The surreal interaction between the museum and the city breaks through the tedium of the urban shell, revitalizing the surroundings with a new cultural feature."
Designed in collaboration with The Architectural Design and Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology and Gehry Technologies, the building's exterior is covered by polished steel plates, mirroring the surroundings and the changing light.
Solid walls were incorporated to ensure minimal heat loss while the breaking and twisting motion of the skylights splits the surface and allows in light from the low-hanging sun of northern China.
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