The project is located in the southern part of Xintiandi Complex in Gongshu District, Hangzhou City. The surrounding buildings are relatively dense, mainly consisting of offices, commercial establishments, and residences, with diverse functions. In such a site closely linked to urban life, the design aims to establish a friendly dialogue and interactive relationship between the new building and the surrounding environment, thereby creating an art museum brimming with urban vitality.

The site is irregularly elongated, with a width of about 60 meters from east to west and a length of about 240 meters from north to south. High-rise office buildings flank its west and north sides, while a kindergarten occupies the south end. The southwest corner is designated as a city park. Considering this, the design proposes positioning the main bulk of the building towards the northern side to create spatial coherence with the surrounding clusters of high-rise buildings. Simultaneously, the building height is reduced towards the south to diminish its volume. Combined with an open courtyard layout along the street and the functions of a community service center, a street-side daily activity space is created with a pleasant scale, fostering good interaction with the kindergarten at the south end and the adjacent city park.

The exhibition spaces in the upper area of the art museum adopt a double-layered breathing curtain wall. The outer layer is composed of fritted Low-E glass, while the inner layer uses U profile glass. A 1200mm-wide ventilation cavity is installed between the two glass layers. This design leverages the principle of hot air rising: hot air within the cavity is dissipated in large quantities through the top ventilation grilles. Even during hot summer months, the surface temperature of the U profile glass indoors remains significantly lower than the outdoor temperature. This effectively reduces the load on air conditioning systems and achieves excellent energy-saving results.

U profile glass boasts superior light transmittance, allowing natural light to enter the interior evenly. It provides a soft and stable lighting environment for the exhibition spaces. Moreover, its unique shape and material properties create distinctive light and shadow effects indoors, enriching the spatial layering and artistic atmosphere, and offering visitors a unique visual experience. For instance, in the west gallery, the light introduced by the U profile glass interacts with the internal spatial structure of the building, creating a serene and artistic ambiance.

The use of U profile glass endows the art museum’s exterior facade with a transparent and lightweight texture, which aligns with the overall modern style of the building. From an external perspective, when sunlight shines on the curtain wall in the upper area, the U profile glass and the outer fritted Low-E glass complement each other, producing a crystal-clear visual effect. This makes the art museum resemble a glittering scroll suspended above the city, enhancing the building’s iconic status and recognizability.

The application of U profile glass also helps enhance the openness and transparency of the building’s interior spaces. In the design of the art museum, as the inner layer of the double-layered curtain wall, it works in conjunction with the ventilation cavity and the outer glass layer to create an open spatial experience. This facilitates better interaction and communication between indoor and outdoor spaces, enabling visitors inside the museum to feel connected to the external environment.