HISTORY WITHIN THE HILLS

A traditional Chinese musical instrument inspired the curving lines of this futuristic local history museum in Liyang City.

- MICHELE KOH MOROLLO

In the new Yan Lake Park urban district in Liyang City, in China’s Jiangsu Province, architecture firm CROX has completed Liyang Museum, an undulating, organically-shaped local history museum inspired by the jiaoweiqun – a traditional Chinese mandolin that is one of the region’s cultural symbols.

The brief from the project’s client, Suwan China Cooperation Demonstration Area Construction, was for a local history museum with contemporary architecture but Chinese cultural attributes.

“Liyang Museum is a multi-functional venue that showcases a collection of cultural relics, as well as urban planning and temporary exhibitions on the waterfront of the new urban park,” says CROX’s Director, C.R. Lin who designed the museum as a 19,000m 2 space with about two-thirds of its programme located above ground and the remainder underground.

Within the building are three main zones – a hall dedicated to artifacts from prehistoric Liyang, a hall that showcases displays related to Liyang’s more recent developments, and a third zone spread across the three floors that showcases Liyang cultural relics from different periods in Chinese history.

THE CHINESE MANDOLIN

Though the museum’s flowing form looks somewhat futuristic, it was in fact an ancient Chinese folktale that led the architects to the idea of the jiaoweiqun, which in turn informed the silhouette of the structure.