HISTORY WITHIN THE HILLS

A traditional Chinese musical instrument inspired the curving lines of this futuristic local history museum in Liyang City.

- MICHELE KOH MOROLLO

In the new Yan Lake Park urban district in Liyang City, in China’s Jiangsu Province, architecture firm CROX has completed Liyang Museum, an undulating, organically-shaped local history museum inspired by the jiaoweiqun – a traditional Chinese mandolin that is one of the region’s cultural symbols.

The brief from the project’s client, Suwan China Cooperation Demonstration Area Construction, was for a local history museum with contemporary architecture but Chinese cultural attributes.

“Liyang Museum is a multi-functional venue that showcases a collection of cultural relics, as well as urban planning and temporary exhibitions on the waterfront of the new urban park,” says CROX’s Director, C.R. Lin who designed the museum as a 19,000m 2 space with about two-thirds of its programme located above ground and the remainder underground.

Within the building are three main zones – a hall dedicated to artifacts from prehistoric Liyang, a hall that showcases displays related to Liyang’s more recent developments, and a third zone spread across the three floors that showcases Liyang cultural relics from different periods in Chinese history.

THE CHINESE MANDOLIN