Norwegian architecture practice Snøhetta, in collaboration with Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD), has won the competition to design the Beijing Art Museum in Tongzhou District, Beijing, China. 

After the highly regarded Beijing Library, which opened in 2023, this historic project will be Snøhetta's second significant cultural establishment in the Chinese capital.

The new art museum, which will cover more than 110,000 square meters, will display a wide variety of artistic mediums, from fashion design and contemporary art to fine arts and intangible cultural heritage. 

The art museum is positioned to become a new lighthouse for Beijing's flourishing art and culture scene by fusing historical customs with contemporary ingenuity. In addition to being a center of culture, the art museum will act as a catalyst for the area's new urban growth and a civic meeting space.

The design proposal embraces the idea of "vision," expressing the museum's dual goals of gathering and collecting as well as displaying and revealing. It is envisioned as a catalyst that elevates the act of looking into an artistic experience—turning observation into art—rather than just a custodian and connoisseur of culture and knowledge.

In order to connect artists with audiences, history with the future, architecture with landscape, people with communities, and cities with the world, this idea orchestrates a multifaceted discourse. The museum transforms into a dynamic hub where viewpoints and concepts meet, encouraging a range of creativity and interpretation.

Numerous visions coexist and thrive in the Beijing Art Museum, which is a furnace of pluralistic expression and perceptual diversity. Like an ocean collecting the tributaries of thinking and imagination, the concept of "vision" seeks to embrace this richness.

The museum serves as a transportation hub, connecting visitors to the art world, and is situated over a metro line. Its sculptural massing spreads outward from a central core, and its lens-like, rippling facades blur the lines between the landscape and the building, creating a vibrant public space that interacts with the neighborhood. 

The design ensures flexibility and inclusivity by balancing programmatic complexity with the variety of user experiences.

A kaleidoscopic atrium in the center of the museum draws different program parts inward like a gravitational pull. This circular area creates vertical connectedness and spatial consistency throughout the building with semi-open pockets for exhibitions and social interaction across several levels. 

The atrium is surrounded by galleries, storage, and support spaces that extend into petal-like volumes that provide expansive vistas of the surrounding environment, contrasting the feeling of being seen with the experience of looking out.

Conceived as an organic extension of the building's radiating architectural language, the landscape design opens up into expansive communal spaces that encourage outdoor interaction, sculptures, and conversations. It is a spatial continuum where architecture, landscape, and interior come together to form a single cultural tapestry rather than just an accessory. 

The Beijing Art Museum projects its presence and resonance into the urban fabric and beyond through this synergy, transcending its physical limitations. As it celebrates the continuum of time spanning the past, present, and future, it becomes a location of convergence, bringing people, ideas, and experiences together.

With solar panels on the roof and a resilient landscape design that combines water management techniques in line with sponge city principles, the Beijing Art Museum puts sustainability at its core, achieving a harmonious balance between architecture and environment.

Image © Snøhetta

It is expected that the Beijing Art Museum will open in 2029. Construction commenced on December 31, 2025.

Recently, Snøhetta unveiled design for a new opera house featuring a cave-like ground floor in Düsseldorf, Germany. In addition, the firm designed for a tropical masterplan to revitalize the port area of Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, the world’s third largest island. Moreover, the team won a new competition for the new city cable car stations in Koblenz, Germany. 

Project facts

Beijing Art Museum

Year: 2025 –

Status: ongoing

Location: Beijing

Size: 118,861m2

Client: Beijing Fine Art Academy

Construction Management: Beijing Investment Group Co.,Ltd.

Concept and Schematic Design: Snøhetta, BIAD

Construction Design: BIAD

Scope: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Interior Architecture

Typology: Museum & Gallery, Public Space, Destination, Education & Research

All images © Proloog unless otherwise stated.

> via Snøhetta 

BIAD concept cultural building museum project Snøhetta