Di Yuan Gallery

China is undergoing a massive ‘museum boom’ in which not only a large number of iconic museums is under construction, but also the scale of the typical museum is increasing massively. Di Yuan Gallery is a contemporary art museum, which opened in 2018. In size, positioning and design, it is the opposite of many of its ‘competitors’. Di Yuan is a small scale gallery, incorporated in a mixed use building and engaging with its community – both in its programming as well as its design.

The gallery is part of a mixed-use development on the fringe of the quickly urbanizing city of Jiaxing. The space is created by the developer of the complex as an initiative to include contemporary art as part of public life, with a particular aim to educate children in the field of contemporary art. To this end, the museum also houses an auditorium and workshop space.

MORE Architecture conceived the gallery as a staircase which runs from the basement to the third floor of the complex. As such, the gallery connects the various programs in the building. Consequently, the staircase becomes the exhibition space. This creates a myriad of spatial and creative possibilities, not only in the design, but particularly in the use of the space by the curators.

For the design of the exhibition space, the architects developed the idea to use both the outside wall, as well as the handrail as the place to display art works. Hence, they decided to adjust the height of the handrail between 110 and 180 cm, as to create a game of hide and seek for the (young) visitors. This creates a dynamic experience – the one moment you can look into the atrium; the next moment the handrail shows an art piece.

Once up, the visitors arrive in an auditorium of Di Yuan Gallery. The bamboo steps of the floor are double as seats, which can bring together the community for lectures on art, or film screenings. What was a piece of farmland only five years ago, is the now the place where local residents engage in contemporary art.