"Sleep for three thousand years, wake up and shock the world!" In 1986, three farmers in Guanghan, Sichuan Province, found jade and bronze masks when they were taking soil, and archaeologists then excavated nearly 2,000 cultural relics in two sacrificial pits, and the mysterious Sanxingdui began to walk in front of the world, stunning the world!
In 2020, the Sanxingdui site restarted excavations after more than 30 years, and so far, more than 11,000 numbered cultural relics have been excavated from the newly discovered sacrifice pit, including the largest bronze mask to date, and even silk residues have been found... The mystery of Sanxingdui is being further revealed.
Renderings of the new sanxingdui museum
A large number of new precious cultural relics and discoveries are constantly being displayed in front of the public, and the Sanxingdui Museum is also facing new "changes". The Red Star News reporter learned that the Sanxingdui Museum currently has two exhibition halls and a cultural relics protection and restoration hall, and the three museums are obviously unable to accommodate the display of newly excavated cultural relics. When will the newly unearthed artifacts be on display? How was the new museum designed and when was it built? These have become the focus of public attention.
On March 29, the construction of the Sanxingdui Museum and its ancillary facilities (referred to as the Sanxingdui New Museum) began, with a planned construction period of one year. After fierce competition, the design work of the consortium team of China Architecture Southwest Design and Research Institute - "Stacking Three Stars, Eye of Ancient Shu" was finally selected!
Before the start of construction, the Red Star News reporter had an exclusive conversation with Liu Yi, chief designer of sanxingdui new museum and chief architect of China Construction Southwest Design Institute, who explained the inspiration and meaning of the design of Sanxingdui new museum, as well as the front and back of the stage that was successfully selected.
"The new museum pays homage to the classics while designing a world-class museum! The curved shape that symbolizes the eye of ancient Shu echoes the 'three stars with the moon' landscape of the Sanxingdui ruins. Liu Yi introduced that sanxingdui new museum has a total of 6 permanent exhibition halls and 1 temporary exhibition hall, with a net exhibition area of 18,000 square meters, which is far more than the exhibition hall of the old museum in terms of exhibition scale. In addition to exhibiting Sanxingdui's precious cultural relics, the additional temporary exhibition hall can also communicate with other museums at home and abroad, bringing more exhibition content to visitors.
【Past and Present Lives】
Sanxingdui Museum was built more than 20 years ago
The design of "heap" and "mystery" became a model for continental museums
At 30°N, on the south bank of the Duck River in Guanghan, Sichuan, the Sanxingdui Museum stands quietly. This is a modern thematic site museum. The park is surrounded by dense vegetation and water systems, and buildings such as the Bronze Pavilion, the Comprehensive Pavilion, the Cultural Relics Conservation and Restoration Hall, and the Visitor Center are scattered among them.
Aerial view of sanxingdui museum park
The Sanxingdui Museum laid the foundation stone in August 1992 and opened in October 1997, collecting and displaying thousands of precious cultural relics such as bronze, jade, gold, pottery and bone artifacts excavated from the first and second sacrificial pits of the Sanxingdui site. The museum, designed by Zheng Guoying of the Southwest Design and Research Institute of China Architecture (hereinafter referred to as the Southwest Design Institute of China Construction), has won many design awards at home and abroad for its unique shape and rich space.
Talking about the construction of the Sanxingdui Museum, Xiao Xianxian, the first director of the Sanxingdui Museum and the current honorary curator, has a deep feeling, from the foundation laying, the completion to the opening of the museum, the "first generation" Sanxingdui people built the museum by means of loans. "In the process of preparation, funds have become a problem in front of him", so he thought of borrowing money from the bank to build a museum, in addition to 31 million yuan of expenditure, he also needed a loan of 20 million yuan! This was a "huge sum" of money that year, and they shocked everyone present when they reported to their superiors.
In the end, after many efforts, a modern thematic museum rose from the duck river, and the huge loans that had been borrowed were also repaid through channels such as exhibitions, tickets, and project funds, writing a legend of "small localities running large museums".
Sanxingdui Bronze Pavilion
Standing in front of the bronze hall of the Sanxingdui Museum, the spiral-like building rises up with an upward meaning. The flowing display interface, flexible spatial form, humanized design such as lighting and music make it hard to believe that such a high-level museum could be built in the 1990s.
In the beginning, why did you choose the design of Zheng Guoying's team when the Sanxingdui Museum began to build?
According to the museum, this mainly comes from two key ideas - one is the "pile", the other is the "mystery"! At the beginning of the design, Zheng Guoying, as a master of Chinese engineering design, repeatedly conceived and finally focused on the concept of "heap". In line with the idea of "growing" from the ancient Shu land, the team used a set of free spiral curves to sway upwards, concisely and atmospherically generating the main form of the museum, and cleverly achieved the four-in-one of "architecture, cultural relics, exhibitions, and gardens". Cultural relics such as bronze longitudinal masks have also left countless puzzles to the world, and Zheng Guoying's team cleverly used the theme of "enigma" as a clue throughout the exhibition route, dividing the spatial sequence into "puzzle", "dot puzzle", "narrative puzzle" and "puzzle solving".
Artifacts exhibited in the Sanxingdui Museum
To this day, Sanxingdui Museum is still active in the world with its romantic and ethereal, mysterious atmospheric design and unique architectural space, which has become the object of study by many scholars and also provides an important model for the diversification of a new generation of museums in the mainland.
"Unfortunately, Master Zheng Guoying has passed away, but the Sanxingdui Bronze Museum he designed has lasted for a long time." Yan Yiyun, head of the party and government office of the Southwest Design Institute of China Construction, told the Red Star News reporter.
【Construction of a new building】
Total investment of 1 billion! Global call for design proposals
Fierce competition, "stacked three stars, the eye of ancient Shu" design was selected
In 2020, the Sanxingdui site restarted excavations and shocked the world.
According to the data released by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, as of now, more than 11,000 cultural relics have been excavated from the 6 newly discovered sacrificial pits of the Sanxingdui site, and more than 2,400 complete artifacts, including more than 870 bronzes, 510 gold artifacts, and more than 450 jade artifacts. More than 400 complete ivory have been extracted, and the mystery of Sanxingdui is being further unveiled.
Archaeological cabin at the Sanxingdui site
During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, the "Bronze Mask" made a stunning appearance at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, attracting more than 80,000 tourists to the Sanxingdui Museum to punch in. And when will the many precious cultural relics of "Shangxin" be exhibited? When will the new Sanxingdui Museum open? These have become the focus of public attention. Red Star News reporter learned that Sanxingdui's existing two major pavilions have a construction area of 10,800 square meters, with the continuous excavation of new archaeological achievements, the existing pavilions can no longer accommodate the display of new cultural relics, and the Sanxingdui Museum also urgently needs to "settle down" for the new cultural relics!
On October 10, 2020, the concept design plan of the new museum and visitor center (new museum) of Sanxingdui Museum was opened to the world, with an estimated total investment of more than 1 billion yuan.
As soon as the news came out, 57 design companies and design teams from home and abroad signed up to participate in the fierce competition. After the selection of the best, only 10 design companies and teams were left to enter the second round of design. Subsequently, the top and professional program review committees in China select 3 programs, and finally the expert group evaluates and selects 1 plan. The original design work of Liu Yi team of China Construction Southwest Design Institute - "Stacking Three Stars, Eye of Ancient Shu" stood out among many programs and was successfully selected.
Liu Yi introduced the design scheme of sanxingdui new museum
"We are very lucky and very happy to be selected in the end." Liu Yi introduced to the Red Star News reporter that after participating in the design of the new museum, the team conducted in-depth research, fully understood the cultural connotation and functional needs of the museum, and successively made multiple rounds of programs, selecting the best of the best, and took more than 3 months to complete the first draft.
"We are not the grandest in terms of design volume, but the 'most hidden' one, the museum should not only show itself, but should meet the requirements of the overall environment of the site." Liu Yi confessed to the Red Star News reporter.
Long Weiguo, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Board of Directors of China Construction Southwest Hospital, said: "Construction is a historical heritage, the new museum, the old museum is an integrated design, in the design of the new museum, our design is first of all to respect the Samsung pile context, continue the roots and texture of the old museum, while benchmarking the world-class museum design, but also invited the International expert team of Isozaki Shin + Hu Qian Firm in Japan as a project consultant, providing technical support, with an international vision and high standards to build." ”
The team carried out reasonable integration and planning of the museum's functions, and targeted space design, and the works were finally formed, which was highly recognized by experts in the architectural, cultural and artistic circles.
【Design Ideas】
"The Eye of Ancient Shu" echoes "Three Stars with the Moon"
The exhibition area of the 7 exhibition halls is 18,000 square meters, and the scale is far beyond the old museum
"The design symbolizes the eye of ancient Shu, and the volume of the building echoes the landscape of the Sanxingdui site 'Three Stars with the Moon'." For the design of the sanxingdui new museum, Liu Yi introduced to the Red Star News reporter that the bronze mask of Gushu seemed to be having a dialogue with the audience through time and space through the expressive eyes. Between "obvious" and "hidden", "new" and "old", "point" and "union", architectural works pay tribute to the original work, while looking for a clever balance, with the appropriate attitude to respond to the complex architectural status quo and historical context of the park.
Liu Yi introduced that the team analyzed the mutual location relationship between the existing bronze hall and comprehensive hall and the new museum and the visitor center of the Sanxingdui Museum, selected the layout strategy of turning zero into a whole, and integrated the design of the new museum and the visitor center, and the layout was arranged in alignment with the bronze hall at the entrance to the east side of the park, which was convenient for facility sharing and complementary functions. The new museum has three piles, two piles on the east side are exhibition space, and one pile on the west side is the logistics reservoir area.
The building is "reduced to zero", adopting a unit layout, arranging the visitor center, exhibition hall, and library area, and rotating the three units by 26°, so that the building faces the Sanxingdui ruins area, forming a spatio-temporal dialogue between the "museum" and the "ruins area".
Liu Yi said that in the concept of the plan, the eye also serves as a window for the dialogue between the internal space of the building and the external heritage park, and cleverly accommodates the two node spaces of "Time and Space Spiral Sequence Hall" and "Circular Flow Ancient and Modern Theater".
In the "Time and Space Spiral Sequence Hall", the circular bronze staircase spirals downward around the bronze Da Liren, which is magnified by 6 times, echoing the atrium of the bronze pavilion spiraling upwards around the bronze sacred tree, exploring the source of ancient Shu downwards and embarking on a future journey upwards; in the "Circular Stream Ancient and Modern Theater", visitors can watch a sitcom from the ancient Shu ancestors, and can also stop through the "eyes" to enjoy the scenery of the old museum and the Sanxingdui ruins. The façade adopts a glass curtain wall and bronze sun visor, and the contrast between virtual and real forms the iconic "Eye of Ancient Shu" of Sanxingdui.
The new museum has a total of 6 permanent exhibition halls and 1 temporary exhibition hall, with an exhibition area of 18,000 square meters. The exhibition hall spans about 15 to 30 meters, the first floor exhibition hall is 8 meters high, and the second floor exhibition hall is 6 to 12 meters high, and the floor is partially hollowed out through the floor slab, which reserves sufficient conditions for flexible exhibition. Liu Yi said: "In the scale of the exhibition, the old museum exhibition hall is only three or four thousand square meters, the new hall is designed with a fixed exhibition hall of more than 10,000 square meters, and there are thousands of square meters of temporary exhibition hall, in addition to exhibiting the cultural relics excavated by Sanxingdui, it can also be exchanged and exhibited with other museums in China and abroad, bringing more exhibition content to tourists." ”
Recently, the general contractor of the engineering design and construction of sanxingdui new museum has been publicly tendered online, and the bidding has been completed and construction will begin in the near future. Previously, the bidding information released by Guanghan Sanxingdui Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd. showed that the project construction site is located in the Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum in Sichuan, the construction area of the new exhibition hall is controlled at 54,400 square meters, and the main passage transformation, fire protection system, digital and information system construction, landscape improvement and other auxiliary facilities are planned for one year.
Liu Yi introduced that according to the plan, the new Sanxingdui Museum will start construction at the end of March, which will reshape the spatial pattern and tour experience of the park, shape a new landmark of Sanxingdui culture, and become a punching place for tourists.
Dialogue with Liu Yi, chief designer of Sanxingdui New Building:
Inspired by bronze mask eyes
Reflect today's level of construction and scientific and technological strength
The Red Star News reporter learned that Liu Yi has been involved in the construction industry for more than 20 years, is a master of engineering design in Sichuan Province, has presided over the design of Chengdu Tianfu Art Museum, Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art and other classic architectural works, and is also one of the main designers of Chengdu Tianfu International Airport.
Red Star News: Where was the inspiration for the design of the new Sanxingdui Museum? What is the moral?
Liu Yi: The design means "stacking three stars, the eye of ancient Shu", and the bronze mask of ancient Shu seems to be having a dialogue with the audience through time and space through the expressive eyes.
In terms of scheme conception, the eye also serves as a window for the dialogue between the internal space of the building and the external heritage park, and cleverly accommodates the two node spaces of "Space-time Spiral Sequence Hall" and "Circular Flow Ancient and Modern Theater".
The façade uses rock forms that represent the layers of history, which contrast with the curved glass wall, forming sanxingdui's iconic "Eye of Ancient Shu".
Red Star News: What new functional designs will the new museum have to meet the requirements of cultural relics exhibitions and visitors in the new era?
Liu Yi: Sanxingdui Old Museum is a classic work of the last century. However, its scale is relatively small, and its functions are relatively single, and many functions are distributed in other peripheral auxiliary houses in the park.
When we build the new museum this time, we will benchmark the world-class museum. Today's museums are diverse, integrated new cultural facilities with diverse functions such as exhibition, collection, research, education, and socializing.
The construction of the new museum is also an all-round upgrade of the entire Sanxingdui Museum Park, with a scale of more than 50,000 square meters, and the designed tourist carrying capacity will be more than double the current carrying capacity. While serving tourists, it is also a sanxingdui academic research and exchange base, providing professionals with comprehensive services such as research and data inquiry.
The new museum adopts a flexible exhibition hall mode with large span and large space to provide flexibility for future exhibition design, which is also the trend of contemporary museum development.
For the exhibition hall environment, we are equipped with security, fire protection, air conditioning, weak current intelligent system are the most advanced, to build sanxingdui museum into a world-class museum, in order to truly match the great Sanxingdui cultural heritage, this is our goal.
In ancient times, Sanxingdui bronzes represented the highest level of craftsmanship at that time, and we also hope that the new Sanxingdui Museum can represent the highest level of construction and scientific and technological strength today, so that our museum can have a dialogue with history across time and space.
Red Star News: The new museum and the old museum are from the hands of two generations of designers of China Construction Southwest Design Institute, in terms of design concept, what inheritance and innovation do you have?
Liu Yi: As a heritage museum, the most important thing is respect for the environment, so it is required that the building is hidden, not too prominent, and integrated with the site environment. When we design, we must deal with the two-dimensional dialectical relationship between concealment and manifestation.
We used the shape of a slope covered earth, like a huge mound of earth rising from the ground. It's a relatively understated and faded building, but as a cultural landmark, it's meant to be expressive, so on the front of the mound, we designed the "Eye of Ancient Shu"—two huge windows, like the eyes in the bronze mask of Sanxingdui.
On the one hand, people can feel the rich activities in the museum through this glass window. At the same time, visitors stand in the hall and see the entire park through the window, see the heritage park and the excavation site several kilometers away.
Inside the exhibition hall, we designed a spiraling downward ramp in the atrium, from the second floor to the negative one underground, forming a huge spatial spiral. This spiral has a cultural origin: the old pavilion (bronze hall) in Sanxingdui also has a spiraling ramp, expressing a worship of the heavens and the gods. The spiral of the new museum design extends downwards, implying a downward exploration of the source of ancient Shu. "Responding to heaven and earth", through the spiral of space, between heaven and earth, forms a dialogue and inheritance between new and old buildings.
Red Star News: This design work can stand out in the fierce competition for design at home and abroad, what do you think its advantages are?
Liu Yi: The program review has gone through a long time, not only the construction expert review, but more importantly, there are many cultural and cultural experts to evaluate the plan. I think we were selected for the following reasons: because the old museum was designed in the courtyard, we have a special understanding of the context of the venue, and we have special respect for it, and probably among all the design works, we are the most hidden and the most integrated into the environment. Some of the pieces are also beautiful, but they may be too self-explanatory. We believe that heritage museums should be more subordinate to the requirements of the site environment.
In addition, we pay attention to the echo with the old museum: the construction of the museum is a time inheritance, through the curved outer wall to connect the old museum and the new museum, the two are integrated design, the interior through the spiral ramp of "heaven and earth", artistic realization of the dialogue between the new and old museums. In addition, we provide technical support with a team of Japanese experts to design with an international perspective and standards.
We are very fortunate that the program was finally selected. At present, the archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui is underway, and our exhibition design will be adjusted and optimized according to the characteristics of newly excavated cultural relics.