Liangzhu Culture Museum

The museum holds archaeological finds from a Neolithic jade culture of around 3000 BC and forms the northern point of a new park town. Set on a lake and reached by bridges, its sculptural ensemble reveals itself gradually as visitors approach through the park.

The British design team composed it of four bar-shaped volumes in travertine, all 18 metres wide but of different heights. Each contains a courtyard that links the exhibition halls and invites visitors to pause, and despite the linear halls they allow many routes through the museum. An island to the south, reached by a bridge, holds a further exhibition area.

The entrance hall is reached through a courtyard, centred on a reception desk of ipe wood lit from above. The materials, travertine and ipe, are solid and age well, chosen to suit a museum of ancient objects.