HENN: nantong urban planning museum

‘nantong urban planning museum’ by henn architekten, nantong, china
image © bartosz kolonko

german firm HENN has just inaugurated the new ‘nantong urban planning museum’ on the east-west axis of the central river, in a culturally
developing region of nantong. a 16 meter square-footprint box floating above an inset glass base offers spaces for exhibitions, a cafe, offices,
conference rooms and a bookstore. the predominant feature of the project is the double skin system, with the inner transparent envelope thermally
sealing the interior. the exterior layer is a parametrically designed shading system on a diagonal-axis reticular frame system. made of individual removable
components, each skewed diamond-shaped panel contains a shade that varies in visibility from 9% to 60%, which makes a breathing veneer that shades
specific points of the facade in a fluid gradient fashion.

located next to the central river of nantong
image © bartosz kolonko

inauguration day
image © bartosz kolonko

approach
image © bartosz kolonko

entrance with motorcycle parking under a cantilever section
image © bartosz kolonko

dynamic skin system above a glass pedestal
image © bartosz kolonko

gradient transparencies
image © bartosz kolonko

image © bartosz kolonko

corner detail
image © bartosz kolonko

image © bartosz kolonko

secondary skin with gradients of shading components
image © bartosz kolonko

image © bartosz kolonko

image © bartosz kolonko

site plan

floor plan / level 0

floor plan / level 1

floor plan / level 2

section

section

elevation

elevation

elevation

elevation

section model

parametric panel system

massing

massing development

project info:

architects and lead consultants: HENN
principal: prof. dr. gunter henn
design: leander adrian, daniel da rocha, martin henn, anthony hu, alan
kim, agata kycia, paul langley, jeewon paek, emil pira, klaus ransmayr, wei sun, mu xingyu
planning: georg pichler, arjan pit, mu xingyu, jakob drömmer
quantity surveying: tshinghua university architecture design institute
construction management arjan pit, mu xingyu
structural engineers: tshinghua university architecture design institute, beijing
technical building services: tshinghua university architecture design institute, beijing
landscape design: HENN
coordination/costing: tshinghua university architecture design institute
project team: arjan pit, mu xingyu, li zhi
construction management: tshinghua university architecture design institute, beijing
arjan pit, mu xingyu
interior design: feng yu zhu (a blue design), shanghai
contact: [email protected]
design period: november 2011 to may 2012
construction period: march 2012 to october 2012
gross floor area: 8,100 m2
net floor area: 7,000 m2
exhibition area: 4,900 m2
contractor: xinhua, nantong