Hangzhou Qiantang Bay Art Museum

Snøhetta's design for the Hangzhou riverfront art museum takes the form of two wave-like volumes that rise and dip across the site like shifting tides on the Qiantang River, their crests and troughs choreographing the public routes that converge on a central gateway. The undulating roofscape doubles as accessible public terrain, folding landscape and building into a single continuous surface at the water's edge. Interior galleries are shaped by the same tidal geometry, giving the compact institution a fluid, sculptural character rather than a conventional boxy museum footprint. Positioned in Hangzhou's fast-rising Qianjiang Century City district, it is conceived as a cultural gateway on the riverfront, drawing pedestrians up and over its terraced surfaces toward the water.