MAD architects break ground on pingtan art museum

the new pingtan museum serves as a cultural connection between china and taiwan and a symbolical structure for host island's colorful history,

danny hudson July 12, 2013 2 min

‘pingtan art museum’ by MAD architects, pingtan, china
image © MAD architects

chinese practice MAD architects have just shared with us images of their third museum, the ‘pingtan art museum’, which has just broken ground. with over 40,000 square feet it will be china’s largest private collection and when opened will exhibit over 1,000 pieces of national treasures. in addition to functioning as an important cultural institution, its location on the small fisherman’s island of pingtan is expected to facilitate the communication of art between taiwan and china. the museum itself is considered an island on an island, located in the center of pingtan yet only connected to land by an undulating pier, the project touches on the various symbolical expressions represented through the materiality and scale of each space. it is first conceived as a public space for the community, a bastion of the small island’s history within chinese ideology, and secondly a museum. soft flowing lines of reinforced concrete blend with the sand shells- its fluid form synthesizing the varied terrain: sea, land, mountain, oasis.

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image © MAD architects

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the ‘island within an island’
image © MAD architects

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image © MAD architects

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museum forms the continuation of the landscape
image © MAD architects

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cavernous interior made of layered concrete
image © MAD architects

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image © MAD architects

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pockets in the structure create organic skylights
image © MAD architects

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image © MAD architects

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model
image © MAD architects

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model
image © MAD architects

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pingtan island site

project info:

time: 2011-
location: pingtan, china
program: museum
site area: 32,000 sqm
building area: 40,000 sqm
director in charge: ma yansong, dang qun, yosuke hayano
design team: zhao wei, huang wei, liu jiansheng, jei kim, li jian, li, guangchong, alexandre sadeghi