Art Museum on Bohai Bay
- Barbara Zettel
With a view of the sea: The UCCA Dune Art Museum lies, almost completely hidden, underneath a sand dune on Bohai Bay. This unusual building stands on the fringe of Aranya Beach holiday resort, about 300 kilometres to the east of Peking. Many of the dunes sculpted over the course of time by the strong winds that blow along the coast have been levelled to make way for hotels and apartment buildings. But in their building for the resort museum Open Architects took a different approach: not only did they preserve the impressive topography of the bay and the sensitive ecological system of the dunes, but they actually made them into part of their underground gallery. The organic structure of connected vaults has a primordial and timeless quality that is reminiscent of the caves and grottos that formed the shelters of the first human beings, while also evoking their art. Using working models and computer simulations the architects made a gradual approach to an ideal form that can withstand the heavy pressure of the mountain of sand that rests above it.
