MAD Architects has revealed the design for the Hainan Science and Technology Museum, located on Haikou’s west coast in Hainan province, shortly before the project is set to break ground at the end of August.
The 500,000-sf museum draws from the site’s dual urban and natural context, set against the backdrop of a tropical rainforest. The museum’s main pavilion is shaped like a cloud in dialogue with nature. From a distance, the building is designed to emerge from the city, while it will appear to visitors entering the museum area to be floating above the jungle.
About 299,000 sf of the museum’s total area is located above ground and includes permanent exhibition space, a planetarium, a giant-screen theater, and a flying theater. The museum’s interior structure comprises three floor-to-ceiling cores, curved trusses, spiral ramps, and a roof, that are all exposed to achieve harmony between the architectural forms and structural system. A skylight in the museum’s dome bathes the atrium in natural light while a sloping, spiraling exhibition space ascends from the central hall over five floors to connect visitors across the museum.
The exhibition experience begins on the fifth floor where the elevator opens to a 360-degree viewing platform with the sea and cityscape visible in the distance. Visitors on the top floor begin by exploring the technology and space galleries before proceeding down the ramp to the ocean and life science galleries on the fourth floor. The math and science galleries are on the third floor and the multimedia interactive experience area and the children’s playground are on the second floor. As visitors travel down the ramp, the can simultaneously enjoy the scenery and the exhibitions and a gallery running alongside the ramp extends the viewing experience.
The museum’s facade of fiber-reinforced plastic gives the building a distinctive silver, reflective exterior from both near and far. An undulating canopy extends from the main pavilion in all directions to create a space specifically conceived to accommodate the public in Haikou’s humid and rainy climate. The north side of the canopy also hosts the giant screen and flying theater. The southwest corner hosts the planetarium and observatory. Outdoor public spaces include a crater-like sunken plaza and a reflecting pool.
The Hainan Science and Technology Museum is slated for completion in 2024.
Related Stories
| Oct 13, 2010
Tower commemorates Lewis & Clark’s historic expedition
The $4.8 million Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower in Hartford, Ill., commemorates explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark at the point where their trek to the Pacific Ocean began—the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Cleveland, Ohio
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. The Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument was dedicated on the Fourth of July, 1894, to honor the memory of the more than 9,000 Cuyahoga County veterans of the Civil War.
| Aug 11, 2010
JE Dunn, Balfour Beatty among country's biggest institutional building contractors, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 50 Institutional Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, Arup, AECOM top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 75 largest international design firms
A ranking of the Top 75 International Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Walter P Moore wins top award for Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
With structural engineering from Walter P Moore, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art has won the New Buildings Under $30 Million project category in the 2009 Structural Engineers Association of Kansas & Missouri (SEAKM) Awards Program.
| Aug 11, 2010
Thom Mayne unveils 'floating cube' design for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas
Calling it a “living educational tool featuring architecture inspired by nature and science,” Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne and leaders from the Museum of Nature & Science unveiled the schematic designs and building model for the Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park. Groundbreaking on the approximately $185 million project will be held later this fall, and the Museum is expected to open by early 2013.
| Aug 11, 2010
Rafael Vinoly-designed East Wing opens at Cleveland Museum of Art
Rafael Vinoly Architects has designed the new East Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), Ohio, which opened to the public on June 27, 2009. Its completion marks the opening of the first of three planned wings.
| Aug 11, 2010
Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council Program Place Project
Houston, Texas
The Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council Program Place is the headquarters for the largest Girl Scout Council in the U.S., with 63,000 scouts. The building houses the council’s administrative offices, a Girl Scout museum, and activity space. When an adjacent two-story office building became available, the council jumped at the chance to expand its museum and program space.
