gad designs fragmented infinity volume for mountain & sea art museum in china

gad constructs Mountain & Sea Art Museum in Kunming City

Architectural design group gad takes over the construction of the Mountain & Sea Art Museum situated in the west of Kunming City, China. The structure stands as one of the most important public buildings in the Cuifeng Ecological Park emerging from the mountain’s stone formations. The construction cuts the terrain into upper and lower tablelands with a height difference of more than ten meters. The site lays out the existing units of an open platform, tea house, viewing pavilion, veranda, and playing pool distributed from the bottom to the top of the stone forest. The arrangement of the museum’s parts spreads out as a ‘constellation diagram’. The ‘disassembled’ art gallery space is nested on the infinity-shaped walking path. The characteristics of the natural surroundings contribute to the unique design of the art space, while local rammed earth and red clay supplement the building material selection.

all images by Guangkun Yang

the art gallery forms fragmented volumes and dynamic shapes

The building layout spreads out on the hillside enjoying views of the mountain and sea scenery. The art gallery forms a continuous elevation change sitting on an infinity-shaped path that frames certain ‘scenes’ of different parts of the exhibition. The design team at gad takes cues from the natural context creating a fragmented volume that traces the terrain with dynamic shifts in width and height. The space is enclosed in the rich forest as the angular geometric shapes abstractly mimic the stone formations opening to the mountain and sea sequentially in the south. Tree figures also inform the interior design where branched columns compose the structural system and arrange the main exhibition space. The deconstructed ‘Mobius band’ guides the exhibition’s dynamic line and path as a spatial interpretation of the site. The circulation system of the museum follows a continuous path of open flow between indoor and outdoor spaces.

the disassembled art gallery space follows an infinity-shaped path

the glazed facade opens up to the water scape terrace

the fragmented volume that traces the terrain with dynamic shifts in width and height

the building layout spreads out on the hillside enjoying views of the mountain and sea scenery

the angular geometric shapes abstractly mimic the stone formations

a mix of local rammed earth and red clay materiality is applied on the facades

landscape design forms outdoor paths between the stones leading to the main building

at the root of the stone forest, an open platform develops under the starry sky

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first floor plan drawing of the Mountain & Sea Art Museum

section drawing of the Mountain & Sea Art Museum

physical model of the Mountain & Sea Art Museum

project info:

name: Mountain & Sea Art Museum
designer: gad | @gad_architecture

project director: Jiangfeng Wang

project creator: Jiangfeng Wang, Jiaying Chen

design team: Jiangfeng Wang, Wei Wang, Jiaying Chen, Chao Zhang, Yinghui Deng, Xin Li, Ziyi Yan, Sheng Sun, Hui Xu

structure: Jie Wang, Yuan Ren, Liang Huang, Long Zhang, Zhan Shi, Zhuo Chen, Yichao Xi

water supply and drainage: Ning Tuo, Mengxiao Wang, Hao Zheng, Hai Sun

HVAC: Dake Mao, Zhifeng Xu, Yafeng Wei

electrical engineering: Jin Wang, Xiaoyun Chen, Feng Sun, Jianpeng Zhang, Weijie Yan

location: Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

photography: Guangkun Yang

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edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom