American architect designs ‘floating’ art museum for Chinese lake

A "floating" art museum designed by New York practise OLI Architecture has opened in Wuzhen, in the northern Chinese province of Zhejiang.

The 6,700 square metre facility is dedicated to the abstract landscape painting of local artist and writer Mu Xin.

The structure’s cast concrete blocks are elevated over a lake. Two storeys are above water and one below, which gives the appearance that the it is floating.

OLI Architecture notes that the building was "inspired by the complexity of the artist’s work and also his writing, which was shaped by his lifelong existence between cultures, both in his native and adoptive countries".

The museum houses eight galleries for permanent and special exhibitions, as well as offices, a cafe, library and bookshop.

Mu left China for the US in 1982 and passed away in 2011.

Read more about the project here.

Images via OLI Architecture