Cultural mission
Architect David Chipperfield on his game-changing new West Bund Museum in Shanghai
David Chipperfield’s portfolio is quietly but quickly growing in China. The British architect’s representative office in Shanghai was established in 2005, when he was commissioned to design the Liangzhu Museum and Ninetree Village in Hangzhou. Its latest work, the West Bund Museum in Shanghai, will host the Pompidou Centre’s first Chinese outpost for the next five years.
Chipperfield has been involved in the debate about the city’s development for more than a decade. ‘The local government was concerned how the waterfront area could develop not just commercially but also socially and culturally,’ he says. The plan for the area, a former manufacturing district, aims for the 9.4 sq km site, set on an 11.4km shoreline, to become one of Asia’s leading cultural districts by the end of 2020.
Commissioned in 2013, the initial brief for the West Bund site left room for manoeuvre. ‘At that point, we didn’t know who would use the space. The idea of the three big volumes that make up the museum came from the possibility that there would be multiple users,’ says Chipperfield. In the ambitious scheme agreed by the museum and the Pompidou, and announced in 2017, a series of curated exhibitions by the Parisian institution will be brought to the space. ‘In Europe, you build a museum because you have a collection to house. Here, the content comes afterwards.’ It’s a challenge, admits the architect. ‘But it’s a natural result of a fast-growing economy and culture; you build a city and then you need public and cultural infrastructures.’
The unique economic and social environment in China certainly inspires new ways of thinking and designing: ‘China is a phenomenon. It’s difficult as an outsider to really understand China. But as an architect, the cultural questions are more to do with the dialogue with the client and the authorities,’ says Chipperfield. ‘On the other hand, architecture should try to find intuitive solutions to answer the needs of society.’
China’s urban development is currently being driven by the economy, but the country is entering a new phase. ‘In all societies, we’re having to try to promote and protect the non-commercial. The city, state and industry have to be supportive,’ says Chipperfield. The Shanghai project seems an indicative step to future developments. Read more about the architecture on Wallpaper.com, and see the China by Design digital hub from 20 December
‘Architecture should try to find intuitive solutions to answer the needs of society’