Yellow River Art Gallery

“The Yellow River water streaming down from heaven” is the description of the mother river of China by Libai, the famous Tang dynasty poet, and from which the inspiration for the project design is drawn. The water falling from heaven was taken as the building shape of the project. In the original design concept, transparent glass was an attempt to express the water drops from heaven. The water-drop-shaped building is located on a landscape platform along the side of the Yellow River. Beneath the building is a half-underground discoid structure which was integrated with the river through a cascading design. The discoid structure is a cultural art gallery inlaid at the bank of the Yellow River. Its acrylic window provides us a special view to observe the river water. This project covers a total floor area of about 7000 sqm, with the overall building height up to 36.9 m. The water-drop shape and the engineering of the Yellow River dam construction formed the difficulties involved in the project, but also in the attractions. The project has been completed, but the proposed water-drop-shaped building has been transformed into a blue tensile membrane structure by the client, which has had a great effect on the personality of the building design.