snhetta sculpts hangzhou's riverfront art museum to mimic shifting tides

"In Hangzhou's Xiaoshan District, Snøhetta has won the international competition to design the Qiantang Bay Art Museum, the cultural center of the city's new Future Headquarters development. The project sits at the meeting point of the Qiantang River and the Central Water Axis, where the city's expanding downtown begins to open toward the water. Framed by this convergence, the 18,000-square-meter museum will serve as both civic anchor and threshold."

"Two wave-like forms define Snøhetta's Hangzhou Art Museum, rising and dipping across the site to link all public routes into a central gateway. From the ground plane, a series of paths meander upward, drawing the landscape into the architecture. Visitors can walk along shaded promenades or follow gentle ramps that ascend toward the rooftop terrace, where sweeping views extend from the cultural corridor to the river's wide expanse."

"This landscape approach by the architects transforms the museum into a civic terrain. The movement between indoors and outdoors blurs at key points, allowing light, sound, and breeze to filter into the experience. Each turn offers a new visual alignment - toward the water, the skyline, or the artworks inside - reminding visitors of their place between the two."

Snøhetta's design for the Qiantang Bay Art Museum in Hangzhou's Xiaoshan District creates an 18,000-square-meter cultural center at the meeting point of the Qiantang River and the Central Water Axis. The scheme interprets tides and layered river histories as spatial motifs, producing fluid volumes and open rooftop terraces that make the building feel embedded and in motion. Two wave-like forms rise and dip across the site to connect public routes into a central gateway. Paths meander upward from the ground, offering shaded promenades and gentle ramps to rooftop terraces with sweeping views of the river and cultural corridor. Interiors and exteriors interweave to allow light, sound, and breeze to shape the visitor experience.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine