Riverfront museum for Shanghai

The first look for the West Bund Art Museum in Shanghai has been revealed by David Chipperfield Architects. The firm has tied up with the West Bund Group to stage exhibitions in the museum as a part of a 5-year deal starting in 2019. The project with the deal is being hailed as “the most important long-term cultural exchange project” taking place between France and China with around 20 exhibitions, including a focus on contemporary Chinese art, included in the deal.

For the masterplan for the West Bund of Shanghai, the project is going to be of vital importance as owing to the location of the project, the visitors will not only get a chance to be able to interact with the museum and the riverside but also the views to downtown Shanghai.

The building’s height is to be kept at 18 metres with the prominent sides sprawling in the North, West and South sides of the site. The galleries, even though stacked, are designed in order to be able to provide clerestory lighting to the lower level galleries. The galleries on the top would be top lit. As one goes higher, the galleries on the upper floors would be a site for providing visitors with spectacular skyline views of downtown Shanghai, the park to the south and the local Huangpu river bank. According to the architects, the central area of the building stands out on grounds of three elements: a three storey lobby with a central triple-height atrium, a single storey long café pavilion located along the river’s edge with a rooftop viewing terrace connecting the upper lobby with the riverside, and a landscaped sunken courtyard connecting the underground museum level with the riverside terrace and promenade.

Project:West Bund Art Museum
Architects:David Chipperfield Architects
Location: Shanghai, China