Porcelain capital of the world, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, China, is now home to the Imperial Kiln Museum. With more than 2,000 years of prize-winning porcelain history, architects from Studio Zhu-Pei have built an open-air vault-style museum to pay homage to the traditional porcelain production of the region.
Massive curved vaults with towering arches mimic the traditional kilns used to produce Jingdezhen's traditional porcelain. The site in which the museum is built sits around the existing ruins on the ground from the ancient practice. To preserve the historical remnants, the architects on the Imperial Kiln Museum project incorporate them within the new structures.
The Museum's brick vaults sit adjacent to the production sites used during the Ming and Qing dynasties and are made of both recycled and new bricks, to bring history and contemporary culture together.
Image Credit: Colossal
What Makes This Trend Stand Out
- Open-air Museums
- Opportunity for creating open-air museums and preserving ancient artifacts using contemporary architectural elements.
- Architectural Preservation
- Opportunity for architects to integrate ancient ruins into new contemporary architecture, preserving historical remnants.
- Sustainable Architecture
- Opportunities for creating sustainable architecture through the use of recycled materials in conjunction with new materials.
Sectors Adopting This
- Museums
- Museums can create a new open-air concept of displaying ancient artifacts using innovative architectural designs.
- Architecture
- Architecture can focus on preserving ancient ruins integrating them into new architectural structures highlighting the historical aspects of a location.
- Sustainability
- Sustainable architecture can incorporate the use of recycled materials in conjunction with new building materials creating structures that are not only eco-friendly but rich in historical reference.
