The Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (Suzhou MoCA), designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, is nearing completion alongside the Jinji Lake waterfront in Suzhou, China. Conceived as a cluster of twelve pavilions beneath a steady, ribbon-like roof, the 60,000-square-meter advanced reinterprets the standard backyard structure that has lengthy outlined Suzhou’s city and cultural id. Commissioned by the Suzhou Harmony Development Group and developed in collaboration with ARTS Group and Front Inc., the undertaking is anticipated to open formally in 2026. The museum will debut with “Materialism,” an exhibition curated by BIG that traces a cloth journey from stone to recyclate.
The design attracts inspiration from Suzhou’s panorama heritage, integrating water, vegetation, and constructed kind right into a steady sequence of galleries and courtyards. Rooted within the idea of the lang (gallery)a lined hall present in classical Chinese gardens, the museum organizes its areas as ten interconnected pavilions unified by undulating rooflines that recall conventional tiled eaves. Two extra pavilions extending over Jinji Lake are deliberate for completion subsequent yr, linked to the primary construction by way of lined walkways.
Clad in curved glass and warm-toned chrome steel, the facades mirror the encircling surroundings, merging the construction with the sky and lake. Above and beneath floor, bridges and tunnels join the galleries, permitting versatile circulation all through the constructing. The museum’s arrival plaza opens towards Jinji Lake, making a public house that transitions naturally between city, backyard, and waterfront circumstances.
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Inside, pure mild filters by means of skylights and clerestories, animating the inside with shifting patterns of shadow and reflection. The foremost program consists of 4 massive galleries complemented by a grand entrance, a multifunctional corridor, a theater, and a restaurant. The surrounding panorama is designed as a collection of interconnected gardens that transfer from paved plazas to planted areas, in the end mixing into the lakeshore. The museum targets China’s GBEL 2-Star Green Building certification, incorporating passive cooling, shading, and regionally sourced supplies.
Curated by BIG, Materialism expands upon Bjarke Ingels’ year-long editorial collection for Domus journal, wherein every concern targeted on a single materials. The exhibition options large-scale mock-ups and fashions of twenty BIG tasks, together with Google Bay View, The Plus, and the Danish Maritime Museum, exploring how numerous supplies inform architectural expression. Each gallery’s seating and signage are constructed from the supplies they signify, equivalent to rammed earth, terrazzo, and rust stone, emphasizing the tactile relationship between matter and design.
In different latest updates from BIG, the studio’s Gelephu Mindfulness City in Bhutan, an city plan integrating ecology, heritage, and wellbeing, is known as among the many winners of the 2025 Holcim Awards. In France, BIG revealed the design for The Sail, a brand new congress middle in Rouen that includes a sweeping timber roof impressed by the town’s connection to the Seine River. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the City Council has authorized the long-awaited 670 Mesquit mixed-use advanced within the Arts District, paving the way in which for phased building of BIG’s first undertaking within the metropolis.