Occupying three levels of the podium floors within the existing HOW Art Hotel building, The Museum entry hall at the west side of the hotel building is a new addition. To echo with the existing glass curtain wall, this new addition takes on a simple architecture form. The new addition hall way is a transitional space between the exterior sculpture park and the interior Gallery space as well as a link between the Art Hotel and the Museum.
The translucent U Channel glass brings light softly into the reception area during the day and illuminates during the night. In contracts with the light and air translucent glass channel, white enamel metal panel wraps the roof and façade as one stroke. Visually it anchors the form down to the ground. The white enamel metal panels extend into the interior of the reception area to form a coherent pure white space.
After passing through this long and pure entry hall way, you are in an eight-meter-high vertical space which creates a sense of readiness before start viewing the exhibited art pieces. By entering a formal "white box" adjacent to this vertical space, it demarks a starting point.
In order to maximize the ceiling height for the gallery space as well as giving flexibility to art exhibition, an open grid ceiling is introduced. Hardened concrete flooring material is used for the Ground floor exhibition space and laminated wood flooring is used for the 2nd and 3rd The design of the museum interior takes a minimal approach. It allows all art pieces and products to be fully expressed in this space which also encourages an acute dialogue between art piece and viewers as much as possible. The 3rd-floor level houses HOW Art center which includes HOW store, HOW library and a small Gallery space. Another "White box" insets at the exit point of the HOW Store which marks the end point of the viewing journey.
Photographer：Dirk Weiblen
