Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Completed in 2014 by Chinese Architecture firm Atelier Deshaus The West Bund Long Museum is located at the bank of Huangpu River in a site that was used as the wharf for coal transportation.

Long Museum West Bund Technical Information

The new design adopts the cantilever structure featuring “vault-umbrella” with independent walls while the shear walls with free layout are embedded into the original basement so as to be concreted with the original framework structure.

– Atelier Deshaus Architects

Long Museum West Bund Photographs
Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Su Shengliang

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

Model by the architects

Text by the Architects

Long Museum West Bund is located at the bank of Huangpu River, Xuhui District, Shanghai Municipality, which was used as the wharf for coal transportation. Before the commencement of the design, a Coal-Hopper-Unloading-Bridge of about 110m in length, 10m in width, and 8m in height, constructed in the 1950s, remains with two-story underground parking completed as early as two years ago.

With the shear walls, the first underground floor of the original parking has been transformed into an exhibition space with the overground space highlighting multiple orientations because of the relative connection of the “vault-umbrella” in different directions; besides, the electrical & mechanical system has been integrated into the “vault-umbrella” structure.

As to the overground space covered by the “vault-umbrella,” the walls and the ceiling feature as-cast-finish concrete surface so that their geometrical dividing line seems faint. Such a structure cannot only shield the human body in conformation but visually echoes with the Coal-Hopper-Unloading-Bridge at the wharf. Moreover, the building’s internal space can also represent a primordial and timeless charm. Simultaneously, the spatial dimension, large or small, and the as-cast-finish concrete surface with the seam among molding boards and the bolt holes bring a sense of reality. The directness and simplicity resulting from this “literal” structure, material, and space plus the sense of force or lightness because of large-scale overhanging style enable the overall building’s continuation of the original site’s industrial property only in time but in space.

The flowing exhibition space under the overground as-cast-finish concrete “vault-umbrella” and the “white box” exhibition space on the first underground floor are connected with spiral ladders downward. The parallel tensility highlighting the space, primordial but realistic, and the art exhibition from the ancient, modern, and contemporary periods, has displayed an exhibition space featuring temporality.

Long Museum West Bund Plans
Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Atelier Deshaus

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Atelier Deshaus

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus

© Atelier Deshaus

Long Museum West Bund Image Gallery
  1. Design Group: Liu Yichun, Chen Yifeng, Wang Longhai, Wang Weishi, Wu Zhenghui, Wang Xuepei, Chen Kun
  2. Structure, Electrical & Mechanical Engineer: Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co, Ltd. (TJAD)
  3. Structure, Electrical & Mechanical Design Team: Chao Si, Zhang Zhun, Shao Xiaojian, Shao Zhe, Zhang Ying, Shi You, Li Weijiang, Kuang Xingyu, Zhou Zhili
  4. Lighting Design: Shanghai Guangyu Lighting Design Co., Ltd.

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