Suzhou Museum

Chinese architect I.M. Pei with Pei Partnership Architects recently designed the Suzhou Museum in the city’s historic district 100 miles northwest of Shanghai. The building adjoins the 19th century Zhong Wang Fu complex and the UNESCO-listed 16th century Garden of the Administrator.

Architecture and landscape become interrelated as a series of gardens and courtyards flow in and from the building itself. While a high wall visually separates the museum’s main garden from the adjacent ancient garden, a stream of water connected by a footbridge joins the two properties together. The gardens, however, are not modeled after their ancient counterpart. Pei yearns to establish a contemporary form of Chinese landscape design.

The interior space unfolds into a series of spaces made up of varying heights and geometric shapes. The collection consists of a mix of ancient and modern art – relics from Ming and Qing dynasties as well as contemporary exhibitions. 

Pei deliberately built a modern structure while capturing the subtle yet expressive Chinese spirit. The building’s exterior, with its white walls and gray tiled roof not only respects the traditional color-scheme used throughout the city of Suzhou, but also provides a backdrop further emphasizing the importance of the gardens.  In his museum, Pei hopes to foster and inspire a new generation of thinking about Chinese-specific modern architecture and design. By Andrew J Wierner. (Pics: Kerun Ip)

苏州博物馆

中国建筑师贝聿铭以及其他建筑师最近在距离上海西北处100英里的古城区——苏州，设计了苏州博物馆。博物馆与19世纪的苏州太平天国忠王府以及被联合国教科文组织列入“世界文化遗产”的苏州园林毗邻。

建筑和环境融为一体就像房子与其内外的庭院一样。高墙在视觉上将博物馆的主题花园与毗邻的古典花园区隔开来，同时一条涓流将行人天桥与两个花园链接起来。但是，这些花园的设计并没有模仿古时同类的设计。因为贝聿铭渴望用当代的形式来设计表现中国的景观。

博物馆的内部空间由一系列不同高度和几何图形的空间展开组成。整个博物馆展览了古典与现代的艺术文物——从明清到当代的艺术展览。

贝聿铭在建造这座现代建筑的同时，有意识的通过博物馆设计将中国民族精神细微的表现出来。在整个博物馆的外部，白墙灰顶不仅仅被视为苏州城市建设使用的传统色系，而且暗示强调了园林的重要程度。贝聿铭希望他设计的博物馆能够促进和激励新一代的有关于中国特有的现代建筑设计思潮。

作者：Andrew J Wierner     图片：Kerun Ip