The Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum, dedicated to the history and research of fossils, is placed in Xiamen, a port city in Southeast China located in the Fujian Province. The exhibition centre was founded by a stone manufacturing company which, after collecting a series of fossils through excavations over the years, decided to exhibit them and set up a museum dedicated to these discoveries.
A fossil museum in China inspired by the geometry of crystals
Designed by Atelier Alter, the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum is part of a company's headquarters: cuts, facets and mineral-like volumes define the space, developed around a central atrium.
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- Francesca Grillo
- 19 November 2020
- Fujian, China
- Atelier Alter Architects
- 2,600 sqm
- Museum
- 2020
Developed around a central void, the building comprises five floors, two at the lower level for the museum and the remaining three for the company’s private functions and offices. The project by Chinese studio Atelier Alter is inspired by the principle of stone dissection: the space, like the stone during extraction, is cut and fragmented into several parts.
To bring light from the roof to the ground floor, three intersecting volumes have been inserted in the central atrium, recalling the shape and nature of crystals: at the entrance, luminous pyramidal cavities lead into a science fiction setting, while the first floor and the offices are enlightened by the remaining portion of the roof skylight.
The concept of crystal geometry can also be found in the rest of the space, where a horizontally developed crystal lattice facets the walls and creates triangular shaped areas. The studio uses concrete for all surfaces, giving the feeling of entering a stone quarry.
- Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum
- Fujian, China
- Museum
- Atelier Alter Architects
- Jiyuan Zhang, Xiaojun Bu
- Zhenwei Li, Jiahe Zhang, Lairong Zheng, Bo Huang, Leilei Ma
- Yingliang Stone Group
- 1,325,965 $
- 2,600 sqm
- 2020
Site plan.
Ground floor and first floor plans.
Section A-A.
Details.
First floor wall parts.
Axonometry.
Axonometry.
Crystal concept.
New and old.
Sketch.
Sketch.