Steven Holl Completes Green-Roofed Nanjing Museum of Art & Architecture

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/interview-exclusive-7-questions-with-architect-steven-holl/">Steven Holl</a> has nearly completed construction on his much anticipated <a href="http://stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=museums&amp;id=56&amp;page=0" target="_blank">Museum of Art &amp; Architecture</a> in Nanjing. Now that just site work and landscaping is left to finish, the museum rises as a series of elevated linear volumes set above a field of grass and black-stained concrete volumes. The museum celebrates Chinese art and architecture and is based on the Chinese theory of 'parallel perspectives' -- it explores shifting viewpoints and layers in space, while taking advantage atmospheric mists and surrounding water. Green design, recycled materials and energy-efficient geothermal heating and cooling play a large role in the museum's design.

As Western painters developed vanishing points from a fixed perspective after the 13th Century, Chinese painters rejected the single-point vanishing method.

Instead of focusing on single point, Chinese painters chose to acknowledge 'parallel perspectives', which allowed viewers to travel within the painting.

This theory of Chinese painting inspired Holl when he designed the Nanjing Museum of Art & Architecture - a series of shifting viewpoints, layers, passages, and paths that morph and change.

The museum serves as a field with multiple parallel views that encourage the eyes and eventually the body to flow through the space.

The project is located on a rural site at the gateway to the Contemporary International Practical Exhibition of Architecture in the lush green landscape of the Pearl Spring near Nanjing, China.

The foundation for the<a href="http://inhabitat.com/burchfield-penney-new-york-states-first-leed-certified-art-museum/"> museum</a> is a green field with diagonal paths.

Views are directed by concrete walls, and straight passages on the ground floor ascend into winding passages elevate the linear volume above the floor plane.

This upper gallery unwinds in a counterclockwise direction, leading to views of the city of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/masterplan-for-nanjing-china-could-be-largest-green-development-in-the-world/">Nanjing</a> in the distance.

Recycled Old Hutong bricks from the destroyed courtyards in the center of Nanjing are used to pave the new courtyard of the museum.

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/bamboo">Bamboo</a>, which previously grew on the site, was used to make forms for the black-stained concrete.

Additionally, the museum utilizes <a href="http://inhabitat.com/iceland-harnesses-geothermal-sources-able-to-power-over-1-2-million-homes/">geothermal</a> heating and cooling as well as recycled storm water.

he museum's palette was limited to black and white to help show off the texture and color of the art exhibited within.

One of the first exhibits at the museum will feature the architecture of Steven Holl in China, including the design and construction of the Museum as well as the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/steven-holls-linked-hybrid-complete/">Linked Hybrid</a> in Beijing.