Mountain & Sea Art Museum | gad

Located in the western part of Kunming City, this art museum plays a pivotal role in the Cuifeng Ecological Park. The concept of “Mountain & Sea” stems from its strategic positioning, offering a tranquil escape from the city’s commotion while standing prominently on the mountainside. Additionally, it resides at the northern terminus of the Dianchi Lake system, encompassing remarkable natural scenery that seamlessly blends the city, water, and mountains into one breathtaking vista. These distinct site features lend a unique character to this art space.

Harnessing the Landscape- The site is located roughly a 15-minute drive from the mountain’s base. As you ascend, you’ll encounter a meandering stone forest, and the mountain is divided into upper and lower plateaus, separated by a height difference of over ten meters, creating an appearance of steepness and poetic allure. While exploring this terrain, you may come across various structures, such as platforms, tea houses, viewing pavilions, verandas, and playing pools, thoughtfully erected by previous scholars and arranged from the base to the pinnacle of the stone forest.

Seemingly Chaotic Yet Intriguing- While it may initially appear disordered, upon closer examination, it resembles a constellation diagram that depicts the accumulation of people’s understanding of this site, lending it a captivating quality. Consequently, the architect abandoned constructing the art museum on a conventional stable platform. Instead, they embarked on a journey to deconstruct it, dispersing the Art Museum’s spaces throughout the natural terrain, allowing it to harmonize with the stone forest and giving rise to a community of interconnected elements. This process gradually shapes an image suitable for admiration, exploration, and contemplation.

Leveraging the Scenic Setting- Amidst the hillside, the spectacular scenery unfolds across distant, intermediate, and close levels, offering valuable hints for determining the art museum’s layout. Amidst the consistent changes in elevation, the deconstructed art gallery spaces find their place along a serpentine-shaped pathway, either arranged side by side or linked sequentially. By defining distinctive frame scenes, these spaces seamlessly merge the exhibition and the surrounding environment, creating a harmonious architectural ambiance reminiscent of “scooping a ladle of Dianchi Lake and placing it on the hillside.”

Mountain & Sea Art Museum’s Design Concept

Harnessing the Form- The stone forest on the site is unquestionably a distinctive feature of Yunnan’s landscape. From the architect’s perspective, the most fascinating design of art museum aspect is using columnar, flaky, or tufted architectural elements to enclose an ever-changing space with dynamic variations in width and height. As the design evolved, this spatial enclosure language was enthusiastically incorporated. Abstractly resembling the stone forest, the spatial enclosure employs a segmented wall system. It encloses the north and progressively opens to the mountains and sea in the south. This overhead arrangement seamlessly integrates with the stone forest, creating a unique architectural harmony.

Incorporating the Natural Landscape- The architectural form seamlessly aligns with the contours of the stone, evoking a sensation of weightlessness through a “low intervention” approach. The structural system adeptly navigates around the stone forest’s obstacles, finding support within its voids. The indoor tree-shaped columns are lightweight, fulfilling the requirements for a well-lit and transparent primary exhibition space.

Engaging the Senses- The deconstructed “Mobius band” serves as a connecting thread that weaves together the exhibition’s flow, the viewing experience, and the exploration of curiosity. This design choice serves as a deeper reflection and interpretation of the site, offering a unique and immersive experience. The Art Museum materials incorporate the distinctive visual characteristics of local rammed earth and Yunnan’s red clay. As visitors move through the space, a captivating interplay of light and shadow animates a dynamic dialogue between people and the surrounding scenery.

Beginning at the base of the stone forest, where space is constrained, visitors encounter an interactive and tangible guide to their perceptions. As they ascend to the elevated starry sky platform, they experience an immediate emotional elevation. Designed with a specific focus on exhibition functionality, the art museum maintains a profound connection to its historical and geographical context, creating a comprehensive viewing experience that encompasses the senses, knowledge, and comprehension.

In Conclusion: Quoting “The Great Spirit” from “The Literary Mind and the Carving of the Dragon” by Liu Xie, the text encapsulates the essence of the Art Museum: “Standing on the mountain, the feeling seems to permeate the mountain; looking at the sea, the imagination is like the surging water.”

site sketch

Positioned at the crossroads of mountains and sea, the tiered stone forest is the foundation that sparks the design, fostering the spatial continuity that the concept aims to convey. With the builder’s support, the Art Museum gracefully synchronizes with the site’s context, seamlessly merging with the mountain and sea, creating a harmonious union between architecture and nature.

original site analysis

Project Info:
Architects: gad
Area: 2998 m²
Year: 2020
Photographs: Guangkun Yang
Interior Design: Shenzhen Matrix Interior Design Co.Ltd, IDM Studio
Landscape Design: ZhongDi Landscape Design Co.Ltd
Project Director: Jiangfeng Wang
Project Creator: Jiangfeng Wang, Jiaying Chen
Architecture Team: Jiangfeng Wang, Wei Wang, Jiaying Chen, Chao Zhang, Yinghui Deng, Xin Li, Ziyi Yan, Sheng Sun, Hui Xu
Structure: Jie Wang, Yuan Ren, Liang Huang, Long Zhang, Zhan Shi, Zhuo Chen, Yichao Xi
Water Supply And Drainage: Ning Tuo, Mengxiao Wang, Hao Zheng, Hai Sun
HVAC: Dake Mao, Zhifeng Xu, Yafeng Wei
Electrical Engineering: Jin Wang, Xiaoyun Chen, Feng Sun, Jianpeng Zhang, Weijie Yan
Owner: Yango Group Co.Ltd
City: Kunming
Country: China