Grand Canal Museum Complex

The Grand Canal Museum Complex rises on the banks of the Grand Canal in Hangzhou's Gongshu District, at the junction where the canal meets the Hanggang River, leaving the site surrounded by water on three sides. Herzog & de Meuron won the international design competition for the scheme. The main museum volume is lifted 13.15 metres clear of the ground, freeing a sheltered public realm beneath it, while a cultural exchange centre rises to 70 metres alongside. A curved facade of concave glass elements catches and returns the reflections of the surrounding water, and a park-like urban plaza stitches the complex back into the city. At roughly 175,600 square metres of floor area, it is conceived as a cultural anchor for northern Hangzhou and a museum dedicated to the world's longest artificial waterway.