The Shanghai Museum will be a building that speaks in low voice, creating a distinctive place on its inside. This special inner courtyard will become an ‘urban patio’ allowing for a necessary area of nature close to the museum; a green transition between the lively city and the massive cultural program of the museum.

By creating such a new public place within the museum, visitors can meet in a quiet and green environment, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. This large scale courtyard is a place where people can stroll, rest and children can play.

For the building complex on the south side of the plot we propose a volume with a plinth and three towers. The public plinth opens itself to the center of the site to create and embrace a new open square, connected to the southern entrance of the museum. This allows this entrance to become a lively place of urban activity, similar to the entrance on the north.

The three towers on top of the podium will be aligned parallel to the long side of the museum and the river. Having the same height, the towers create a clear but modest backdrop for the Shanghai Museum.

The garden is an unexpected yet unforgettable discovery awaiting the visitor… The motto for the Shanghai Museum East is discovery.

Its architecture unites Chinese history – the very purpose of its existence – with contemporary design. Its façade is a sharp illustration of that: its profile and curves refer to the Shi Hu Gui, a food vessel from the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The inner space creates a great surprise. From the outside, the building looks hermetic as a vessel. But after passing under a lintel, the visitor discovers the interior garden, as a kind of surprise. This garden should be perceived partially, step by step, resembling different and succeeding landscapes -unrolling like discovering a handscroll painting-

The possibility of covering the patio, of closing with glass the upper pergola, turning the inner space into an orangery, would also open unexpected possibilities of landscaping.

The design for the Shanghai Museum maximizes the contrast between the outside and the inside, producing an outside boundary with a very strict geometry, and a more organic and free layout inside. The grey, horizontal exterior façade with overlapping layers of grey brick encloses a bright and friendly interior where wood and steel create a light atmosphere of verticality.