Xing Kiln Museum

Designed by YCA, Xing white porcelain is an important part of the history of Chinese porcelain development. Its invention and production broke the situation that celadon dominated the world since the Shang Dynasty, and opened up the famous “Celadon South & White North” phenomenon in the history of Chinese ceramics.
With the acknowledgment of the Xing Kiln Ruins in 2012, to design and build a museum displaying Xing porcelain culture has become an inevitable choice for local government.

exterior. Image © He Chen

Internal research, office space, and equipment rooms are like a wall that separates the museum from the messy everyday environment of surrounding farmlands and low-dilapidated buildings; inside the wall is an open gallery that surrounds a pool elevated from the ground; the exhibition space open to the public is like seven pieces of rustic porcelain floating above the water; below the pool is a continuous space containing the entrance and main exhibition hall; symmetrical but plausible wide steps connect the ring gallery, pool, and square on the north side.
Porcelain showrooms and corresponding ancillary facilities vary in size. In order to bring them together as a whole, circle packing algorithm is used in the design as geometric control diagrams.

exterior. Image © He Chen

Visitors walking along with the square open gallery, wherever they are, will be attracted by the bowl-shaped forms in the middle. During the summer walk, they can appreciate the ripples of light reflected from the clear water at the bottom of the curved outer wall; in the winter, the warm sunlight will freeze the most beautiful moments.
Xing Porcelain originated in Sui dynasty and flourished in Tang dynasty. The Great Tang Empire’s vigor and the simplicity of the square and the circle must be related somehow. How to use square and circle in contemporary times? This is our thinking and answer.

Project Info:
Architects: YCA
Location: Jingtai, Hebei, China
Design Team: Yanchuan Liu, Xiaowei Tong, Jie Yang, Jianlong Ma, Zizhuang Zheng, Yuanchen Wei, Yali
Area: 10890.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: He Chen
Manufacturers: Nippon, Marco polo
Project Name: Xing Kiln Museum