ZAO sculpts xiaofeng art museum as cluster of floating galleries in nature

"The Xiao Feng Art Museum by ZAO / standardarchitecture sits at the foot of Daci Mountain in Hangzhou's Xihu District, where the dense forest opens to a concrete courtyard. Conceived as a tribute to painters Xiao Feng and Song Ren, the museum unfolds as a continuous architectural loop. It's an introverted structure whose massing and voids trace the contours of the surrounding hills."

"Approached from a forest road, the entrance is revealed gradually. Visitors walk beneath a cantilevered bridge that frames a still courtyard at the center of the composition. This inner garden defines the museum's orientation, its water surface mirroring the faceted underbelly of the concrete volumes above. The experience is buffered by the mountain's canopy and the cool air rising from the shaded voids below the structure."

The Xiao Feng Art Museum sits at the foot of Daci Mountain in Hangzhou's Xihu District, where dense forest opens to a concrete courtyard. The building is an introverted architectural loop whose massing and voids follow the contours of the surrounding hills. A cantilevered bridge leads visitors to an inner garden whose water surface mirrors the faceted underbelly of the concrete volumes. Circulation unfolds as a sequence of expanding and contracting galleries, narrow passages, and sloped ramps that create a rhythm of compression and release. Polygonal galleries project toward the courtyard with large panoramic glazing that frames the forest as a backdrop. From the courtyard the galleries read as floating rooms in dialogue with the landscape.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine