Datong Art Museum is an important new cultural destination in China, and recently the Datong Art Museum opened to the public with a special exhibition featuring oil paintings by local artists. As one of the four major buildings in the Datong New Town Cultural Square, it will become a new hub for the creative industries in the region. The sculptural form of the building is conceived as a landscape topography, with a series of interconnected pyramids emerging from the ground — the gallery space sinking underground and surrounded by landscape squares. Complemented by the museum's cultural program is a range of spaces dedicated to education and learning, including a children's gallery, media library, archives and art storage facilities.
Luke Fox, head of Foster + Partners Studios, said: "The museum is conceived as a social hub for people, a 'city living room' in Datong, where people, art and artists come together in a space where they can interact. At the heart of the museum, the Grand Gallery embodies this spirit through a large, flexible exhibition space that houses specially commissioned large-scale artworks, performance art, and other events. ”
Visitors are guided to the museum through a diagonal path in the landscape. The entrance leads through a series of winding ramps leading to an open sunken plaza – which also provides an amphitheater for outdoor performances. Entering the building, visitors reach the mezzanine and have a spectacular panoramic view of the museum's social center, the Grand Gallery, which has a height of 37 meters and a span of almost 80 meters. Further climate-controlled exhibition spaces are located on the ground floor around the museum for easy access. A key aspect of the building is a focus on education and learning, featuring a dedicated children's gallery filled with sunlight from tall south-facing windows.
The height of the four interconnected roof pyramids increases, fanning towards the four corners of the Cultural Square. Natural light enters the interior through roof lights located at the top of each pyramid. The design of the roof directly responds to the building's large structural span and the desire to create a huge, flexible column-free mass while adjusting smaller gallery spaces to the edges. The roof is covered with naturally oxidized curved steel plates that aid in drainage and impart a rich three-dimensional quality to the surface. The proportions of the panels are suitable for the large scale of the museum, and their linear arrangement highlights the form of the pyramid roof.
By sinking the building into the new plaza, the design is linked in scale to the adjacent cultural buildings, balancing the overall composition of the regional master plan while maximizing the internal volume. During the day, the skylights between each mass create an indoor space for natural light, while at night a unique lighthouse is created for the new cultural district.
The building's efficient passive design responds to the climate of Datong. The high-rise skylights make full use of the north and northwest orientation of the building, using natural light to assist the orientation, while minimizing solar energy absorption, ensuring the best environment for the artwork. Burying the building in the ground, coupled with a high-performance enclosure, further reduces energy requirements. The roof is mostly solid and insulation twice as much as required by building codes.
"Designed for the future, we hope that the museum will be at the center of the city's cultural life – a vibrant public destination," Fox added.