Ningxia Art Museum

Project background. From the launch of the Ningxia Art Museum project in 2013 to the completion of the civil works, nearly a decade has passed. Its completion fills the long-standing absence of a provincial-level art museum in Ningxia, providing a high-quality exhibition and research space for the future communication and development of art in the region. The Ningxia Art Museum is located in Jinfeng District, Yinchuan, at the starting point of the east-west public activity axis of the northern new town. The surrounding space is very open; across the road to the north stands the massive Yinchuan Civic Center. The design responds to the surrounding environment and to Ningxia's regional culture with a megalithic massing. Architectural concept. The rock art carved by ancient peoples onto the cliffs of Helan Mountain has, over thousands of years, become an indispensable part of Ningxia's culture and art; Helan Mountain has thus become the natural carrier and symbol of Ningxia's cultural art. The design takes its meaning from the stones of Helan Mountain, hoping that the building itself will carry the deep cultural heritage and spiritual strength of Ningxia. In architectural form, the design extracts the rugged and powerful character of Helan Mountain stones; through the combination of five stone-like volumes, it presents a tense, expressive form, making the art museum itself a public sculpture in the city and a new spiritual anchor within the massive scale of its surroundings. Architectural generation. The five volumes are arranged around an entrance plaza, their rough facades of local stone contrasting with the large glass openings that bring light into the galleries. The project is a regional museum that translates the geological and rock-art identity of Ningxia into a contemporary civic building, using the metaphor of mountain stones to give the flat new town a cultural landmark.