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"Inheritance? Innovation? Integration"

Inheritance? Innovation? Integration

——Talk about the new Suzhou Museum Architecture and display design

Zhang Xin? Lu Xuemei? Xie Xiaoting

Source: "Decoration" Issue 03, 2009

English title Inheritance,?Innovation?and?Integration ?—Construction?and?Exhibition?Design?of?New?Suzhou?Museum

About the authors Zhang Xin, Lu Xuemei, Xie Xiaoting, Suzhou Museum

Summary of content Mr. I.M. Pei designed Suzhou The concept of the new museum is: "Chinese and new, Su and new". It inherits and innovates tradition, pursues a harmonious scale, "not high, not big, not outstanding", and strives for excellence to make it an existing Suzhou traditional garden. It is a modern comprehensive museum with architectural features and modern architectural art, and reflects rich humanistic connotations in every detail. It is from this concept that this article briefly analyzes the architecture and display design of the new Suzhou Museum.

Key words: Suzhou Museum new building: inheritance, innovation, integration

1. Panoramic view of Suzhou Museum

What today’s museums bring to people It is a kind of spirit, a kind of historical culture. It is no longer a simple reproduction of historical traces, but the inheritance of a cultural spirit. On October 6, 2006, the new Suzhou Museum was completed and officially opened to the public. Its designer, Mr. Ieoh Ming Pei, used the richest emotions and wisdom to complete his dream journey in five years: "I tried to explore a new path: embodying Chinese national architecture in a modern building. The essence of art.” Indeed, the new Suzhou Museum has completed the integration of Suzhou’s traditional culture and modern architectural concepts in the process of inheritance and innovation. At the same time, this brand-new building is also integrated with the tailor-made display design. In 2007, the basic display of the new Suzhou Museum won the Jiangsu Provincial Museum Outstanding Display and Exhibition Award. In 2008, the new Suzhou Museum won the Luban Award, the highest domestic construction engineering award. The "New York Times" on July 4, 2008 published an article written by the famous art critic Mr. Holland Court on the front page, saying that "The New Submarine Museum is a world-class museum. Among the many Chinese museums that are either too traditional or too modern, this museum with a garden is a rare 'exception'" (Figure 1).

Inheritance

Looking at the development of museums at home and abroad, any successful museum depends on two basic factors. One of them is whether this museum is loved by the majority of visitors who come to visit it day after day because of its unique cultural connotation. The answer from the statistics of the past three years is yes. The new Suzhou Museum, both in its architecture and its display design, has well inherited the essence of Suzhou's traditional culture and reflected the unique cultural connotation of the Suzhou Museum.

1.? The use of traditional architectural elements

White walls and black tiles are an iconic symbol of Suzhou architectural characteristics. The color tone of the new museum adopts this traditional architectural element.

The triangle on the roof of the new museum is taken from the proportion of the roof of the old house in Suzhou. The vertical side is 1 and the horizontal side is 2. This is the module of the tile-roofed wooden roof truss in the Jiangnan water town. The Chinese-style door frame at the entrance, the left and right corridors on the main axis, the bright windows on the top of the hall, and the pavilions in the courtyard are all 1:2 triangles. The traditional proportions and scales are extracted, and the geometric figures and space are perfectly combined.

The ups and downs and unevenness of the architectural landscape are a major feature of the ancient city of Suzhou, and the architectural style of the new building, which is “not high, not large, not prominent”, perfectly adapts to the overall style of Suzhou City and is in harmony with the surrounding areas. The historical and cultural district and the Humble Administrator's Garden, a world cultural heritage, are integrated.

2.? Exploration of classical garden-style architectural art

The new building consists of a main courtyard and several small inner courtyards. The internal and external spaces are connected in series, allowing nature to blend into the building. The main courtyard located in the north of the central hall perfectly draws on the art of classical garden architecture. It is composed of a pond covered with pebbles, a rockery, a small straight bridge, an octagonal pavilion, a bamboo forest, etc. Its north side is separated from the Humble Administrator's Garden by a wall. The clever use of the "borrowed scenery" technique in classical garden architecture makes the main courtyard reach a state where it looks like the sky is open even though it was created by humans. There are multiple doorways leading to the main courtyard, and visitors can see the modern version of the Jiangnan garden waterscape from all angles. Several other small inner courtyards are also very unique, such as the wisteria garden inside the teahouse. One of the wisterias is grafted with branches pruned from an old vine hand-planted by Wen Zhengming 400 years ago. Now it is surrounded by dragons and entangled branches. It continues the ancient blood of Suzhou culture.

3. The re-assertion of Suzhou’s humanistic spirit

Suzhou, located in the center of Wudi, can be called a metropolis in Chinese history, especially during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Major areas such as population, wealth, industrial and agricultural production, domestic and foreign trade, as well as culture, education, academics, and art all ranked first in the country during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The sprouts of China's early capitalism were nurtured here, which made Wu culture particularly rich in connotation, more distinctive in characteristics, and very powerful in vitality, radiating across the country and even many overseas countries and regions. Therefore, Suzhou at that time was a place with a strong atmosphere of literati, and it was also the place where many literati lived in seclusion. The elegant charm pursued by literati was well continued in the display design of the new Suzhou Museum. Whether it is the preface in the exhibition room or the explanatory board of the exhibits, the text expressions are both relevant and elegant, with the temperament of literati culture and the charm of Wu culture with Suzhou's local characteristics. The writing is classic and gorgeous, the words are concise and concise, the scriptures are quoted, and the literary talent is high-spirited. Without saying a single thing, it is full of romance. It is intended to reveal the hidden signs of Suzhou's politics, economy, and culture behind the cultural relics, and to stop them, making people think. Wang Luxiang, a famous program host on Hong Kong Phoenix TV, also said with emotion after visiting the new museum: "After reading the preface and seeing the exhibition, I felt the living conditions of Suzhou literati and the breadth and depth of Suzhou culture."

2. A new interpretation of traditional architectural elements 3. The wonderful use of light 4. Michael's landscape painting

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Innovation

Suzhou Museum New Building , whether from the overall planning or the details; from the traditional "function, technology, image" perspective of the museum, or from the perspective of innovation, it all reflects Mr. Pei's unique design concept and spirit of forging ahead and challenging himself. .

1. Use modern architectural methods to interpret traditional architectural elements

The spirit is inherited, but the expression method is brand new. In order to better interpret the Suzhou architectural symbol of white walls and black tiles, the roof and the lower wall trim are made of a kind of granite stone called "Chinese Black", which is produced from Shanxi to Inner Mongolia. It is black with gray in it. It is black when exposed to rain. When exposed to the sun, the color becomes lighter and becomes dark gray. Its sturdiness, craftsmanship and flatness are all very good. After the stone chips are processed into diamond shapes, they are laid flatly on the roof one after another, creating a strong three-dimensional effect (Figure 2).

Suzhou’s traditional buildings are of wooden beam structure. Pei completely adopted steel structure in the structural design of the new building, and then used high-quality wood to edge and package the steel structure. It not only retains traditional cultural information, but also ensures that the entire building will never deform or be infested by insects.

2. "Let light do the design"

It must be said that the use of light in Suzhou gardens has reached a superb level. This can be fully felt from the scene of "ancient trees intersecting in the Liuyuan Garden" which is about 4,000 meters away from the Suzhou Museum. The use of light by the skylights in the opposite corners of the corridor can really be said to be "light dancing".

“Let the light do the design” is Pei Lao’s famous saying. In the structure of the new museum, he made full and specific use of light, and produced an artistic effect beyond imagination: in terms of lighting, the glass and steel structure can borrow a large amount of skylight indoors; the design of the roof shape also broke through The "big roof" of traditional Chinese architecture restricts lighting; the glass roof allows natural light to enter the museum's activity areas and exhibition areas through the light and shadow intertwined with metal shading strips with a strong wooden feel; the large and bright hexagonal shape, or The large floor-to-ceiling square windows are much simpler than the classical decorative flower windows in Suzhou, and are more conducive to the visual experience. The perfect introduction of natural light overcomes a series of disadvantages caused by artificial lighting in the museum. Visually, the glass roof and the stone roof complement each other, which is pleasing to the eye; the light changes in levels caused by the adjustment and filtering of the soft-toned shading strips, as well as the contrast of light and dark in different spaces, seem to make the surrounding lines flow. , it is poetic and picturesque, wonderful; the combination of light and space uses simple geometric lines to create changes in light and shadow, making the space changeable, allowing the scenery to change with the footsteps, the perspective, and the mood, making people feel... As you move from scene to scene, you can use the flickering of light to create different visions and feelings. Mr. Pei expressed these changes in a very concise, convenient and superb architectural language (Figure 3).

3. The building itself is also an "exhibit"

The main courtyard of the new museum is a carefully crafted creative landscape garden. Under the north wall of the landscape garden is Bei Lao's original stone rockery. This unique landscape landscape of "using the wall as paper and the stone as painting" presents a clear outline and silhouette effect, which looks like the Humble Administrator's Garden next to it. Connected, the old and new landscapes are connected and cleverly integrated. The rockery does not use the traditional Taihu stone, but slices the thick big stone and uses a gun to grill it, so that the color of the cut surface of the stone slices is close to the old stone skin. When placed front and back, it also makes people feel that the color is from deep to shallow, high and low, and is natural. The orderliness, especially in the hazy mist and rain in the south of the Yangtze River, creates the artistic conception of the ink and wash freehand landscape painting of the Song Dynasty's "Mishi Landscape" (Figure 4).

5. Song Dynasty Painting Studio 6. "Treasures of Taoism" Exhibition Hall

7. "Wu Men Calligraphy and Painting" Exhibition Hall 8. Picturesque Suzhou Museum

The Song Painting Studio with thatched roof is a restored residential hall of the Song Dynasty. It is the only permanent exhibition in the new museum that is entirely built using traditional crafts. The building materials are mostly traditional building materials, such as bluestone, woven bamboo and clay. Walls, catalpa trees, thatch, etc. give people the feeling of "simple, simple and natural" beauty.

At the same time, some Song Dynasty furniture, imitation Song Dynasty furniture, calligraphy and paintings are placed indoors, allowing the audience to feel what the internal scene of a Song Dynasty studio was like. This Song Dynasty-style thatched cottage reflects Mr. Bei's design concept of "reflecting the essence of Chinese national architectural art in a modern building." The house itself has become an "exhibit", displaying traditional Chinese architecture. Architectural art (Figure 5).

After entering the main western exhibition hall area through the skylight corridor on the west side of the central hall, the first thing you see is a unique indoor water curtain wall and lotus pond. Water occupies an important position in Suzhou culture and is usually a symbol of aura and culture. The lotus also represents holiness. This large-scale water curtain wall with overlapping waterfalls is a cleverly designed indoor artificial "waterfall" based on the principle of natural decomposition of water molecules by air. According to the principle of running water tension, the water flow is stretched horizontally along the black stone wall that protrudes horizontally or diagonally. Strips of white water splashes with geometric shapes roll out and dance happily into the lotus pond, like pearls rolling on the lotus leaves. The water curtain landscape full of dynamic and geometric lines brings pleasing visual enjoyment and the beauty of nature's sound. It can not only adjust the indoor air humidity and achieve the effect of purifying the air, but it is also an important indoor landscape for appreciation.

4. Respect for visitors

Pleasant scale is very important in architectural design. Ieoh Ming Pei once emphasized: "Architecture is designed for people. It is for this reason that I prefer to design public buildings. Public buildings can be used by more people, feel the space, and be influenced by it." "Under the premise of considering people's use, I.M. Pei made a bold attempt to reduce the architectural proportions of the new museum, so that people can focus on the art instead of being in a quiet environment like a small private residence. Disturbed by architecture.

“The treatment of the gate is very important. It must be grand and have the feeling of inviting people in. Many of the so-called deep houses in my memory, including the lion forest where I played as a child, were mostly surrounded by high walls. , the gate is closed. The museum is a public building, and I want to use some new design techniques to make the museum more open and attractive," said Mr. Bei. Therefore, he gave up the usual architectural style of geometric figures and straight lines, and adopted a glass double eaves two-sided sloped metal beam frame structure.

The design of the exhibition hall is also quite ingenious, because it must be taken into consideration with the architecture. The designer abandoned the usual large bays, but tailored them according to the characteristics of the exhibits in the collection, cleverly divided them, and made them small, exquisite and exquisite. The display cabinet adopts a module of 1.35? meters, which brings flexibility to the size of the exhibition hall and different display function requirements. In this regard, Ieoh Ming Pei thinks this way: "If you put the small things in the big cabinet, it will look like a friendship store. It is full of them, which is wrong. So, I made very small ones and gave them to everyone. The treasure has a cabinet with its lighting, which is new and does not exist in the United States or Europe. Their collection is different from ours and is suitable for Suzhou's own collection. "Yes, Suzhou's "Duobaoge" from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. "The characteristic of the display cabinet is that it uses horizontal and vertical boards to cleverly divide small independent storage spaces according to the shape of the items on display. The overall shape is exquisite, clear and well-proportioned. It is loved by literati and placed In the hall and study room, the rare treasures collected and played by the owner are placed, creating a leisurely and elegant atmosphere. It is on the basis of the ancients that I.M. Pei transformed and innovated it, making it more concise, clear, and full of modern flavor (Figure 6). The calligraphy and painting exhibition hall is two symmetrical octagonal spaces, cleverly using a nine-square grid, and running through the middle. The interior of the exhibition hall is simple and transparent, with a glass ceiling on top and wooden and metal light-shielding strips to disperse and soften the natural light. The tall wall is very conducive to the expression of banner-style scrolls of calligraphy and painting. "This design is for the audience. As soon as you walk in, I feel like it should be like this, because it respects the habit of appreciating Chinese art. Ancient Chinese paintings and calligraphy are hung in the hall or study room." (Picture 7)

In terms of content design, the display in the new museum departs from the traditional display mode of local general history exhibitions. One room is divided into categories of cultural relics, one room is used for the purpose of cultural relics, or one room is used to restore scenes. Different themes integrate exhibits to create the best artistic aesthetic effect.

Integration

Integration means the spirit of the place in the design. It can be understood in a literal sense as two levels, fusion: that is, blending; and fusion, that is, harmony. The new Suzhou Museum perfectly blends Suzhou's traditional culture and modern architectural features in the process of inheritance and innovation, thus achieving a harmonious and unified effect.

1.? The harmonious unity of architecture and display

A modern museum, or a successful museum, must have a highly perfect combination of architectural shape and internal functional requirements. Harmonious and unified. As the German Neo-Expressionist master Markus Lüpertz said: "A good museum architecture must have such characteristics: it accommodates artworks within it, rather than driving away art through the performance of the building itself."

The display design of the new museum has received great attention from Mr. Pei from beginning to end. He has repeatedly emphasized: "For the museum, the display of collections and exhibits is more important than the building itself." Therefore, the display design plan has always been closely related to Mr. Pei's ideas. Architectural design is synchronized or even preceded, maintaining interaction at all times. The interior design part of the new building of the Suzhou Museum, including the display exhibitions, was almost entirely designed by Mr. Pei himself to ensure the harmony and unity of the interior and exterior styles and all functions.

At the same time, he also hired display experts from the Metropolitan Museum of America, structural engineers who built the World Trade Center (Twin Towers), construction noise experts from the Louvre, and experts in ancient Chinese architecture and cultural relics as his consultants? They are all world-class and nationally-leading experts in the industry.

In terms of display design, the style and architecture of each exhibition hall are unified. Each exhibition hall is made exquisitely and concisely, and is compatible with Suzhou gardens and the architecture of the new museum. The layout is also ingenious and unique, highlighting the characteristics of Suzhou gardens such as "moving scenes", "framing" and "borrowing scenes". It has a sense of sequence and rhythm. It feels like a melon on a vine, with clear layers, well-proportioned, seemingly divided and combined. .

In addition to the permanent exhibition hall, the new museum also has a modern art exhibition hall. Mr. Bei believes: "The art of calligraphy and painting has a profound foundation in Suzhou. It allows visitors to see ancient things and then look at modern ones, making people feel that Suzhou's calligraphy and painting art is continuous and developing." Since the opening of the museum, The works of the famous painting master Zao Wou-ki, modern artists Cai Guoqiang and Xu Bing were later exhibited, and later exhibited works such as Xu Beihong, Pan Yuliang, Lu Fengzi, etc. Each exhibition attracted many visitors.

2.? The harmonious unity of the building and the surrounding environment

The new Suzhou Museum is located in the ancient city of Suzhou, with the Humble Administrator’s Garden, a world cultural heritage, to the north known for its “plain, spacious, distant and bright” "The Ming Dynasty garden style can be called "the best garden in Suzhou" and has become a "World Cultural Heritage" and is famous all over the world. To the east is Zhongwang Mansion, a national key cultural relic protection unit, and to the south is Northeast Street, the starting point of Suzhou's "Cultural Corridor" , connected to the urban trunk road Qimen Road to the west, and surrounded by the cultural essence of the ancient city of Suzhou such as the Lion Grove, the Folklore Museum, the Garden Museum, and the Arts and Crafts Museum. The classical pattern of "parallel waterways and adjacent rivers and streets" here is very typical. The completion of the new museum will make the Northeast Street historical district more cultural and leisurely. It will become a modern continuation of the famous Humble Administrator's Garden, embodying the idea of ??preserving and developing an overall culture.

The new Suzhou Museum is located next to the old museum, Prince Zhong’s Mansion. The old museum is an important historical building and a witness to history. The design of the new museum not only pays attention to the combination of new and old buildings, but also puts the new museum in the second place. It's an important position, without the slightest hint of publicity. The new museum and the old museum complement each other. This "double-sided embroidery" design concept integrates the two into an ecological unity. It is not only conducive to saving investment, but also conducive to the full play of the functions of the museum itself. ?It is more helpful to express the harmonious beauty of the connection and development of cultural heritage between history and reality. The new Suzhou Museum has set a good example for future designers on how to coordinate new and old buildings in modern urban construction.

3.? Harmony between display methods and collections of cultural relics

Museums serve exhibits, so the display design must be consistent with the exhibits to enhance their own artistic value. The new museum has more than 1,160 wonderful exhibits, ranging in size, with a display area of ??about 3,600 square meters. When designing the content, we fully considered the characteristics of Suzhou Wu culture and the characteristics of the cultural relics in the collection, inherited and innovated the traditional literati cultural concepts, deliberately selected topics to understand their own functions and positioning, combined with reality, and exploited strengths and avoided weaknesses. The permanent theme exhibitions fully take into account the characteristics of Wu culture and are named starting with the character "Wu". At the same time, during the selection process of the exhibits, the exhibits were divided into four major themes according to the characteristics of the cultural relics in the collection, and then summarized into four themed exhibition rooms in chronological order. In this way, Suzhou's long local history has been highly condensed.

The "Wu Di Heritage" exhibition hall displays local unearthed cultural relics in Suzhou, which is a true portrayal of the long history of the Suzhou area. The design did not adopt a general history display in the traditional sense, but intercepted Suzhou Four highlights of history and its most iconic tombs. In form, it is characterized by simplicity and solemnity, with profound connotation and approachability. Because the exhibition is displaying unearthed cultural relics, the color tone of the exhibition hall did not continue to be white, but a special khaki color that is close to the color of earth was used. However, the four rooms are different in color and atmosphere, and each has its own unique style.

The "Wu Pagoda National Treasure" consists of two exhibition halls, displaying precious Buddhist cultural relics discovered in the Yunyan Temple Pagoda and Ruiguang Temple Pagoda in Huqiu, Suzhou. Because the secret-color porcelain lotus bowl unearthed from Huqiu Pagoda, the "Pearl Relic Building" in Ruiguang Pagoda and the inner wooden letter with the four heavenly kings are all national treasures, they are also the treasures of the Suzhou Museum and are placed separately. It is placed in the center of these two exhibition halls to show its holiness and nobility. Among them, the "Pearl Relic Building" of the Northern Song Dynasty is also an unearthed cultural relic, so it is in the same spatial sequence as the four exhibition halls of "Wu Di Heritage", so that it can be connected together or displayed independently, just like a peacock spreading its tail. It is also like the stars holding the moon. The northeastern exhibition hall displays secret-color porcelain lotus bowls from the Yue Kiln of the Five Dynasties, which is consistent with the actual geographical location of the two towers. Formally, the two exhibition halls are designed as octagonal imitation brick tower structures, echoing the octagonal plane of the tower body. This clear distinction of priorities makes it clear for visitors to walk from the west corridor to the north and south at a glance. The color tone also continues the yellow series of Wu Di’s legacy, which is full of holy religious sentiments.

Based on academic research, the "Wumen Painting and Calligraphy" exhibition hall displays thematically the "Wumen Painting School", Wumen calligraphers and their inherited calligraphy and painting works since the mid-Ming Dynasty. This is the essence and purpose of the paintings and calligraphy collected in the museum.

The "Four Calligraphers and Painters of the Ming Dynasty", represented by Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, were not only artistic masters who led the trend of their generation, but also iconic figures embodying the cultural spirit of Suzhou. They inherited the literati painting tradition of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, established and embodied the painting style of the Ming dynasty literati's ideological concepts and aesthetic tastes, guided later generations, and spread far and wide, with far-reaching influence.

The "Wu Zhongya" exhibition hall mainly displays craft cultural relics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially the craft treasures that Suzhou is unique in. In the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai called it "Wuzhong's unique skill", and Shen Defule referred to it as a "timely play" that enabled literati to enjoy leisurely and elegant lives. Because in the collective memory of Ming and Qing literati , in the impression of many elegant scholars at that time, Suzhou had an irreplaceable historical and cultural position. Therefore, this theme can be said to be the most distinctive and outstanding among the cultural relics in the Suzhou Museum, and it is also the most attractive to the audience. It is the biggest difference from other museums. Therefore, according to the characteristics of these handicrafts, this theme is divided into nine exhibition halls of different sizes, with areas ranging from 60 to 100 square meters, aiming to highlight the most influential aspects of the ancient city of Suzhou more truly and intuitively. The most humanistic urban civilization and literati culture.

Conclusion

How to build a building heading into the 21st century in such a rich historical and cultural atmosphere is a worldwide problem. But Mr. Pei did it. After the completion of the new building, this modern building embodies a strong Chinese flavor everywhere. Grasping the Chinese spirit, truly understanding traditional culture, and using modern technology to convey China’s historical and cultural spirit are the foundation of China’s modern museum architecture and display design. In the new Suzhou Museum, people, architecture, displays, and the environment are integrated to a very high level. When you are in the museum, you feel like you are in a painting (Figure 8).

Note:

[1] Quoted from Suzhou Daily, July 11, 2008.

[2] According to statistics, the number of visitors to the new Suzhou Museum since its opening has been nearly 1.6 million.

[3]? Ruan Yisan: "Harmonious dialogue between modern architecture and traditional cities - my view of the new Suzhou Museum", "Architect", 2008.2.

[4] Huang Yuqiong: "Taking I.M. Pei Suzhou Museum as an example to discuss modern architectural design in China", "Shanxi Architecture", 2008.9, Volume 34, Issue 27.

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