View from the Imperial Kiln Relic to the museum
Photo © Studio Zhu-Pei
South-west view
Photo © schranimage
Entrance
Photo © schranimage
View to auditorium and sunken courtyard
Photo © schranimage
The water garden in front of tea room
© schranimage
View to tea room
Photo © Studio Zhu-Pei
Foyer
Photo © schranimage
Foyer with porcelain installations
Photo © schranimage
Foyer
Photo © schranimage
View to the foyer of auditorium
Photo © schranimage
Auditorium
Photo © schranimage
View from the amphitheater to Ming porcelain relics
Photo © schranimage
Ming porcelain relics
Photo © schranimage
View to open vaults
Photo © schranimage
View in between open vaults
Photo © schranimage
View to open vaults
Photo © schranimage
Open vault exhibition sapce
Photo © schranimage
View from the exhibition hall to amphitheater
Photo © Tian Fangfang
Sunken Courtyard
Photo © Zhang Qinquan
Vault, brick, and light
Photo © schranimage
Vault, brick, and light
Photo © schranimage
View from foyer to the design store and tea&cafe
Photo © Studio Zhu-Pei
View to bookstore and cafe
Photo © schranimage
View to tea&cafe
Photo © schranimage
Exhibition hall
Photo © schranimage
Basement 1F exhibition hall
Photo © schranimage
Sunken courtyard
Photo © Zhang Qinquan
Sunken courtyard
Photo © schranimage
South-west view
Photo © schranimage

Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum

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Location
Jingdezhen
Year
2020
Client
Jingdezhen Culture Broadcast & Film & Television & News & Publication Administration, Jingdezhen Ceramic Culture Tourism Group
Team
Zhu Pei (Design Principal), Zhou Rong (Critic), Wang Mingxian (Art Consultant), Li Xiangning (Art Consultant), You Changchen, Han Mo, He Fan, Liu Ling, Wu Zhigang, Zhang Shun, Shuhei Nakamura, Yang Shengchen, Du Yang, Chen Yida, He Chenglong, Ding Xinyue
Architect
Studio Zhu-Pei
Cooperative Architect, Structural, MEP and Green Building Consultant
Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University
Landscape Design
Studio Zhu-Pei
Exhibition Design
Studio Zhu-Pei, Beijing Qingshang Architectural Ornamental Engineering CO., LTD., Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
Interior Design
Studio Zhu-Pei
Curtain Wall Consultant
Shenzhen Dadi Facade Technology CO., LTD.
Lighting Consultant
Ning Field Lighting Design CO., LTD.
Showcase
Sichuan Province Clicknetherfield Exhibition and Display Co., LTD.
General Contractor
China Construction First Group Corporation Limited, Huajiang Construction CO. of China Construction First Group

Located in the center of the historical area, the site of the Museum is adjacent to the Imperial Kiln ruins surrounding many ancient kiln complexes.

Jingdezhen is known as the "Porcelain Capital" in the world because it has been producing pottery for 1,700 years. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingdezhen exported a huge amount of porcelains to Europe.

Jingdezhen was growing naturally fitting in the valleys surrounding rivers, hills, and mountains because of the porcelain industry. The early settlements of the city developed around kiln complexes which included kiln, workshops, and housing. The street pattern was generated by nature and the porcelain industry. Most of the small alleys in between kiln complexes have always approached the Chang river in order to transport porcelain products to the river. The main streets have always been along with Chang river to bring all businesses and commerces together.

PUBLIC
Situated on a fairly restricted historical area adjacent to the east side of the Imperial Kiln ruins, the plan of the Imperial Kiln Museum was aligned with the north-south street grid of Jingdezhen. With its entry, water pools, and bridge facing west, embracing the open file of Imperial Kiln Ruins to welcome visitors from Imperial Kiln Relic Park. Public pedestrians can wander through the forest under the green canopy, going through the bridge, flowing into the foyer of the museum.

CONCEPT
The Imperial Kiln Museum comprises more than half a dozen brick vaults base on the traditional form of the kiln, each of the vaults is of a different size, curvature, and length. They were naturally applied to the site, carefully integrated with many existing ruins including a few ruins that were found after the construction.

The unparalleled, liner, and arched structures of the museum, like old kilns, reach below the level of the street to not only give the flexibility to adapt itself into the complicated site, but also to achieve the intimate scale of interior space. This strategy - in part also as a response to the height of surrounding historical buildings - leads to productive ambiguity in relation to the building’s horizontal datum. The “insertion” of the building into the ground of the site produces a series of public spaces at street level. More importantly, it allows for the design of a number of more intimate open vaults, and courtyards within the museum. Most of those public spaces are covered under shaded and are protected from the rain because it is hot and it rains a lot during summer in Jingdezhen. One of those open spaces, two open vaults sited in both ends, will also reveal the traces of the historic fabric on the site.

When one walks on the bridge, enters the foyer, and turns left, he will pass a series of arched exhibition spaces lightly varied in size and with contradicting openness (enclosed or open to the sky) to encounter a gentle stair, in the end, flowing down to the underground level with five sunken courtyards. Meanwhile, people can obtain a three-in-one (kilns-porcelains-people) museum experience when they see those porcelain, ruins, and sunken courtyards which create manifold layers' experiences with ancient bricks on the façade. As someone turns right at the foyer, he will respectively pass the bookstore, cafe, tea room, and finally reach a semi-outdoor area under the arch, witnessing a picturesque scene. When daytime surfaces, these arches reflect the waves of water while low horizontal gaps tempt people to sit down on the floor to see the long horizon of the Imperial kiln ruins. A similar surprise would be created when someone sees the Longzhu Pavilion of the Imperial kiln ruins through the vertical seams when he is on the way to the auditorium before accessing the foyer.

Five sunken courtyards varied in size have a different theme: gold, wood, water, fire, soil. Those five themes not only reflect old Chinese thinking about the earth but also associate with porcelain making techniques.

The overall experience of the museum tries to rediscover the roots of Jingdezhen, to recreate the past experience among kiln, porcelain, and human being.

STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS
The architect was fascinated by local ancient kiln tectonic and material. Looking in the past, craftsmen built the brick kiln without scaffolding in a very special way. Thin and light brick kiln achieved a maximum interior space with minimum materials, the brick kilns appeared in organic forms reflecting heat flow from one end to another.

The basic structure of the museum is an arch structure system, it is made up of concrete poured in between two layers of masonry brick walls. There is a small arch to be layout perpendicularly to connect two arches.

Using recycled kiln bricks to build houses and all kinds of buildings is a significant character in Jingdezhen because brick kilns have to be demolished every two or three years in order to keep a certain thermal performance of the kilns. The entire city was covered by recycled kiln bricks. Those bricks record warmth and are inseparable from the lifeblood of the city. In the past, the children would take a warm brick from the firing kilns to place in their schoolbags to keep themselves warm the whole day during freezing winter.

The materials of the museum are dominated by bricks, recycled old kiln bricks are mixed with new bricks to reflect the local culture of construction.

This interweaving of two different historical phases proposed by the combination of new and old bricks must arouse interest, curiosity, create new questions, and give new answers. These create interaction with people's minds who inevitably evoke memories and enjoy a unique experience. The past cannot be erased but can be rewritten by recounting a new awareness and maturity, a sort of contemporary archeology.

The visitors can have a 360-degree sensory experience through the repeated contact between exterior and interior that stimulates the touch, smell, hearing, and sight and transports them into a sort of trip between past, present, and nature.

NATURAL LIGHT
Even the light evokes active and tangible memories and is the proof of how ancient techniques can be reinterpreted and reread in a contemporary key.

The interior natural light is achieved by both skylight and sunken courtyard and is inspired by smoke holes of the ancient brick kiln. The skylight in the hollow cylinder shape is distributed on the top part of the arch to provide natural light during daytime and artificial light at night time.

[See also: Design]

Other Projects by Studio Zhu-Pei

Minsheng Museum of Modern Art
Beijing
Himalaya Center
Lhasa, Tibet
Dali Museum of Contemporary Art
Dali
Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum (Design)
Jingdezhen
Zijing International Conference Camp
Jingdezhen