LingQu Exhibition Centre of XingAn China

Xingan Lingqu Canal Museum is located in Xingan, where there is Lingqu Canal, which is the most ancient canal in the world and is titled “The Corridor That Connects Hunan and Yunnan”. As the intersection of Han culture in Central Plains and Baiyue culture in Lingnan region as well as a node in Marine Silk Road in Southeast Asia, it boasts a long history and splendid culture, which are spread farther with the help of modern technologies. For the design theme, Xingan county blends together the unique and regional Lingnan culture and Han culture, which makes the historical significance of Lingqu canal self-evident. With vivid images, it can make it easier for people to sense the overlap and flow of historical and modern spaces. Lingqu Canal to Xingan is more than an open landmark but is also of international and historical significance in strengthening the city’s role as a cultural destination.
The base is located in the east side of Xingan county, adjacent to Shuangling Road and across from the entrance to Lingqu Park. To the east there are residences and across from the road to the north there is a hotel. There are mostly mountains here. Within the available lands, the highest place is 15 meters higher than the road, which necessitates the control of the scale and height of the buildings without affecting the space and sight in the historical sites so as to protect the environment of the historical sites visually. What’s more, in order to alleviate the influence of the high residences to the west on the base and make the museum a landmark in the city, we take advantage of the complicated spatial conditions to create pleasing spaces for cultural relic exhibitions and citizens’ cultural activities. Making full use of the winding mountainous terrain, we exquisitely combine the mountainous landscape with the scenes of Lingqu Canal.
What makes the museum modern is that it is more than education. As far as we are concerned, a museum is also closely connected with social life and culture in many ways, other than collecting cultural relics, conducting scientific researches, holding exhibitions and spreading historical, scientific and cultural knowledge. In other words, the education in museum is in essence a meaning constructing activity that leads viewers take the initiative to participate and experience while gaining knowledge and being touched, which makes the presence of humanized experiencing spaces very important. Only when a versatile museum is“community-based, humanized and diverse” can it attract citizens and travelers of different ages and with different demands to interact with culture and inherit culture. Taking the convenience and smoothness of the routes into consideration, we try our best to prevent them from turning back and overlapping, set the entrances and exits of each hall independently and connect these entrances and exits with other areas effectively.
As more and more people have become aware of the environment in which humans live in and the concept of sustainable development is widely accepted, designers are paying more attention to blending the museum with the environment and the harmonious co-existence between the building and nature. It is noteworthy that the reason why Lingqu Canal stands for thousands of years is that it is designed using the wisdom of “fish scale dam”: Ancient people made stone sticks crisscross and filled the gaps using the silts and stones brought by the river flows throughout years. The longer they stand and the more torrential the water flow is, the tighter the dam will be after the stone sticks pressing against each other, a true demonstration of “everlastingly new.” With respect for the diligence and wisdom of ancient Xingan people, Lingqu Canal Museum uses “fish scale stones”to decorate the walls so as to enable the conversation between the past and the present.

Project location XingAn, GuiLin , GuangXi
Gross Built Area (square meters) 11438
Photo credits QingShan Wu

Leader designer & Team Chunyu Du,Lingjun Jin,Jianyun Huang,Jiangxi Shuang

LingQu Exhibition Centre of XingAn China by sitong jin in China won the WA Award Cycle 34. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.