Case Study

Shen Weizhen
1754200

Glass in Concrete
The Blend of Old and New in Shanghai Museum of Glass

Project: Shanghai Museum of Glass

Program: Museum Creative Park
Total Floor Area: 5500 M2
Architect/Atelier: Coordinated Asia
Design/completion Date:
2011/2012
Structure: Reinforced concrete
frame structure, Steel structure
Material: Concrete, U shape Glass
 fig. 1
The sequence of new
and old buildings

fig. 2
2 People watch videos in
the tall atrium with
hexagon glass floor

fig. 3 fig. 4
Concrete buildings Golden fire bridge
connected by glass interior
boxes
‘Next stop is the Three Converters, please get ready to exit.’

Taking a bus to the north, from downtown to urban-rural fringe, large industrial estate
gradually takes the place of small-scale streets, and heavy trucks roar past West
Changjiang Road. Some workers in safety helmets and working uniform rode past me
on faded bicycles. ‘The Three Converter Station’ refer to the machines inside Shanghai
No.1 Glass Instrument Factory, which is the predecessor of Shanghai Museum of Glass.
It is located in the middle of a triangle block, which covered a total of 40414sqm,
consisting of 31 buildings including many small-sized temporary structures. The oldest
one dates from 1958, while the newest was finished in 1993. [1] In 2011, the factory
shrinks to the east and gives place to the museum.

Zhang Lin, the founder of the museum, used to major in glass manufacturing and his
career reflects the stages of development of Chinese industry. Graduated in the 1990s,
he started to work in Shanghai No.1 glass instrument factory and encountered with the
boom of China's manufacturing industry. Ten years later, he joined import and export
trade which gained increasing popularity in China. In 2005, Shanghai government
conceived of building 100 museums in the city, and Shanghai Museum of Glass was
one of them. So he began to engage in cultural and creative industry and invited
Coordinated Asia to design this museum. [2] Zhang hopes to create a large cultural and
creative park with rich functions to attract visitors to stay here for half a day or a whole
day. The income will be used to improve public life, and to maintain its own positive
circulation. [3] 3

The chief architect of Coordinated Asia called Tilman Thuermer has 15 years of museum
planning experience in Germany, and this is the first museum designed for China after
he moved to Shanghai two years ago.[4] The whole pavilion can be divided into five
parts, from south to north the L- shaped entrance, old warehouse, glass box, old glass
bottle kiln workshop, and glass processing exhibition hall. The two original architecture
were built with concrete, while the three new buildings inserted to them consist of
glass.

Initially, the architect demolished two low-level workshops in front of the main building,
thus opened up a 40-meter-deep entrance square. Now that the building is distant
from the main street, he added a new L-shaped entrance and move 12.5m towards the
street. 1200 U-shape glass modules cover the south façade and imply the theme of
museum. Ten nations’ characters related to the glass are printed on the back of the
glass, they read ‘reflection’, ‘limestone’, ‘strehlend’, ‘smooth’, etc. These carefully chosen
words are backed by LED lights that glow at night, making the museum a dazzling
display, a veritable landmark in the surrounding industrial environment.

In order to distinguish the new from the old, the interiors of all historical buildings are
painted black while the new ones are white with a bright view. The L-shaped building
and old warehouse are used together as a foyer, while the second floor are used for
exhibitions. The story height of the new building is the same as the warehouse, at 6.6m
 high. The foyer contains some auxiliary functions, where all the machine rooms, water
pipes and electrical wirelines are centrally arranged, reducing the burden of
transforming old wirelines.

After passing a glass corridor, I am now at the entrance of main exhibition hall--the kiln
workshop. It is made up of west and east part with two symmetrical pitch roofs, and the
exhibition route constantly goes back and forth between the two parts. Access to the
kiln workshop from the east entrance and go through a long black passage to the west,
the showcases and floors are all made of black lacquered glass, and keep a distance
from old columns. These cases form irregular polygon with triangular ends, which is
metaphor of glass crystal. [5]

Follow the exhibition route, I suddenly come across a tall atrium with a steel roof truss
and the total height of 20.2m, and a large hexagon glass covers the floor under my feet.
Then I realize that it is the east atrium, but why didn’t I feel the west atrium before? The
answer is that a small white exhibition room is hung up in the west atriums, and lowered
the height of the hall. The two parts are separated by showcases, so visitors have to
wound pass a newly built exhibition hall to get into the west atrium. Here is another
hexagon symmetrical to the east one, but sunk into the ground about 20cm deep. Here
you can take a sit and watch the video, or can go upstairs to the second floor and visit
the white house.

4 Apart from the color difference, each one of the buildings are separated by glass façade
to form clear boundries, including transparent glass and sandblasted glass. The beam
and structure of L-shaped entrance is connected to that of the warehouse, but there is
a narrow strip of glass on the façade and on the top, so natural light illuminates the hall
and presents a welcoming attitude towards visitors. In order to increase the exhibition
area, a bright glass box connects the glass kiln workshop with the warehouse in the
middle. This not only brings the two interior spaces together, but also opens up a new
space for social events and temporary exhibition between them. The same situation
appears between kiln workshop and glass processing exhibition area, a glass strip
stands on the facade, corresponding to a safety exit and an indoor ramp. Sandblasted
glass is used only on the surface of new building, such as the entrance hall and
processing exhibition hall, while the concrete buildings have been wiped by cement.

This museum theme park has grown continuously since it was first created. In 2017, a
new exhibition hall called design hall was built to the east of main pavilion. Compared
with the dark main pavilion, the design hall’s interior is painted white. Instead of steel
frame windows, it applies large frameless windows to embrace the sunlight. The second
floor of the warehouse leads to the new design hall by a colorful 'Golden Fire Bridge',
which brings tourists various visiting experience. [6]

Leaving the museum and walking to the east, a two-meter high wall of red brick
extends along West Changjiang Road. Baosteel Group’s factory buildings stand straight
in the sunset behind the wall. Production and manufacturing still dominate the
industries near the site, and some factories nearby have been transformed into
industrial parks. The streets are wide, but you can hardly meet people wandering about,
and catering and other supporting facilities are not well developed. So, to what extent
can the museum of Glass bring vitality to the old industrial areas?

Shanghai museum of glass appeals to people of all ages and classes, such as parents
with children, teachers with students, and businessmen with their clients. The blend of
concrete and glass forms a rich experience of space and color, and the interior design
of glass floors and walls enable people to appreciate the work as a whole. These will
enhance the impression of Baoshan District in people's minds. The museum not only
desires to become a landmark and the center of Baoshan district, but also devotes in
blending with the industrial atmosphere rather than creating a dramatic contrast. It has
an exquisitely designed facade, welcoming guests from afar day and night, but rather
than a lofty posture, the architectural design rebuilds and expands the existing
structure to better serve the function of museum.

Bibliography

[1] Frances Arnold(UK). Shanghai Museum of Glass [M]. Shenyang, Liaoning Science and
Technology Press, 2014.
[2] Zhu Jianni. Design in Museum -- Interview with Zhang Lin, Founder of Shanghai Museum of
Glass [J]. Advertising China, 2019(7).
[3] Lin Lin. Annealing -- Looking at the Activated Old Industrial Zone of Shanghai Museum of
Glass [J]. Shanghai Art Review,2020(02):26-28.
[4] Shanghai Museum of Glass [J]. Architectural Technology,2012(03):238-239.
[5] Liu Yindan, Jin Jiefang. Emotional Expression in Contemporary Museum Design -- A Case
Study of Shanghai Museum of Glass [J]. Fashion Design and Engineering, 2018(05):9-15.
[6] Lin Ying. Shanghai Museum of Glass: A Dialogue with Zhang Lin, Curator of Shanghai
Museum of Glass [J]. Advertising in China,2018(01):25-30.