OMA: proposal for NAMoC in beijing

‘NAMoC’ by OMA, beijing, china all images courtesy of OMA

in the center of beijing, rotterdam-based practice OMA has a produced a proposal for ‘NAMoC’, the national art museum of china. accommodating the growing scale of museums over the past 20 years, the encapsulating ‘large building’ is crossing over into a new paradigm, instead becoming viewed as a ‘small city’. covering a large area and containing a vast amount of art work with a high turnover rate of exhibitions, this will become the first example of this new type of experience. intermingling grassroots and official sectors, the complex has a central structure encompassed by a periphery with an chinese and international district, modern and historical areas and both commercial and government neighborhoods. over time, individual zones can be redefined, renovated or replaced to accommodate inevitable change.

to ensure intimacy is not lost within the complex, the smaller areas are kept at a human scale while when viewed as a collective, introduces a unique sense of variety for visitors. configured within a rectangular plinth with a single storey height, a five-starred network of circulation paths leads to the focal element, a building which takes the exterior form of a lantern. becoming an emblem for NAMoC, the metallic frame is wrapped with a red elastic skin.

view from a distance image © OMA

opposing the intricate collection of displays leading up to this point, the main multi-storey structure of stacked platforms has an efficient internal organization to seamlessly host the temporary displays. six levels of wide open spaces allows complete flexibility within galleries or for holding events. offices, library, research and building services are placed within the thickness of the floor plates.

entry to museum image © OMA

periphery zones lead to the lantern structure image © OMA

intimate interior space of periphery zone image © OMA

base of central museum structure image © OMA

interior of museum building image © OMA

model image © OMA

image © OMA

conceptual diagram of periphery zones image © OMA

axonometric image © OMA

site plan image © OMA

project info:

project: competition for new national art museum of china status: competition first phase: 2010/11 client: national art museum of china location: new cultural district in olympic green, beijing site: 30,000m2 program: 128,000m2 for permanent collection and temporary exhibition spaces partners in charge: rem koolhaas, shohei shigematsu, david gianotten project architect: alessandro de santis team: jing chen, midori hasuike, martin hejl, jinman jo, anu leinonen, adrienne lau, kostya miroshnychenko, pietro pagliaro, ippolito pestellini, jue qiu, yanfei shui, espen vatn, yu wang, james westcott, junjie yan, nurdan yakup, dongmei yao, haohao zhu animation art direction: martin hejl engineering: arup animation: embryo imagery: robota model: RJ models

OMA / rem koolhaas (363)