Uno spazio solenne in un paesaggio urbano ibrido

This art museum designed by Tadao Ando in Foshan stands at a crucial point in the heart of the Greater Bay Area, in a highly industrialised region of China. The project was promoted by a patron who wished to create a new centre for promoting autochthonous culture and spreading art among the community. The museum is home to the modern and contemporary art collection of the He family, which ranges from painting to calligraphy, to photography and sculpture. In the Chinese language, the word He hasmultiple meanings, including peace, balance, harmony, and this strongly influenced the principles underlying the composition. The search for aulic space in a site bounded by a trafficburdened commercial district to the south and a public park to the north nonetheless requested the mitigation of the effects of its noisy surroundings. The connection with the city is emphasised by paths that radiate out from the main building, crossing a landscape that dialogues with the water and planted areas. At the same time, to the north and west, a number of self-supporting concrete piers protect the museum from nearby office buildings. The same scenographic backdrops also configure an entry sequence that offers unique views and oblique perspectives toward the museum. Outside, the “crescent garden” recalls the cosmological concepts that inspired the project and makes a strong contribution to the atmosphere of sacredness that pervades the project. Here, a reflecting pool surrounds the building, making it appear as if it floats above the ground. Chinese symbology also guided the formal composition of the museum: four overlapping cylinders expand upward, projecting out over the floors below in an eccentric manner. To the north-east, a large full-height parallelepiped intersects the main building balancing the dominant curved character with a rectilinear counterpart. Inside, circular rooms intersect others characterised by the square perimeter and their interaction generates a dynamic conflict through spatial differences. At the centre of the main volume, a large void defines the spatial nucleus that constitutes the hinge of the diverse levels of the gallery that slide past one another. Here, in the atrium flooded with overhead light from the large rooftop skylight, a strong sense of sacrality pervades visitors as they move along a double cast in situ concrete helical stair, structurally autonomous and the structural core of the building. At the same time, large “V”-shaped columns set along the perimeter of the gallery consent a notable flexibility in the use and layout of the exhibition spaces. Together with the search for continuity between internal and external space, the project focuses on the modulation of natural light from the skylight, filtered through dense brise soleil wrapping the glass perimeter. Numerous plays of shadow animate the exhibition spaces with effects that change throughout the course of the day. Even the materiality of exposed concrete easily reveals the identity of the building’s architect. Ando has always privileged the use of this material for its capacity to exalt the rigid homogeneity of surfaces, or their weight. The conception of the building, founded atop a typically Japanese spatiality, with the desire to evoke an interior world, nonetheless reveals a hybrid sensibility, mediated by the choice of construction technologies and a use of light that Ando himself refers to as “Western”.