With the Longshan mountain range as its companion and the Futun Stream flowing through it, the Shunchang Museum weaves a connection between urban construction and natural landscape, and between traditional culture and the dynamism of the contemporary city. Serving alternately as a museum, urban planning exhibition center, offices, cultural relics repository, auditorium, book bar, and café, this majestic monument is the work of the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Zhejiang University (UAD). Clad in a skin of textured white granite, the massive, sculptural monolith is inserted like a spindle into this elongated plot of land between mountains and waterways. With its glass and mirrored stainless steel panels that create a play of reflections between water, mountain, and humankind, the Shunchang Museum is not simply an exhibition space; it is itself an object of exhibition. Our favorite feature? The central oculus brings light and ventilation into this urban living room where a centuries-old tree stands as a witness to the memory of the place.
