Ceramic Art Museum In Park

This project is located in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, covering an area of approximately 1,000 square meters. Situated in the heart of Xiangcheng District’s political center, it borders Xutugang Park to the north, serving as a leisure green space for nearby office workers and residents. Before renovation, the site was dilapidated and underutilized—an idle, inefficient space within the park.
As part of a park renewal initiative, this project redefines underutilized spaces into a public domain where nature and art symbiotically coexist. Grounded in the Eastern philosophy of "The highest virtue flows like water" and the ethnoscape of Jiangnan, it hybridizes traditional craftsmanship with contemporary architecture, reinterpreted through inclusive living experiences.
Three Architectural Innovations by BES:
1. Process Democratization Blurring design-construction boundaries through participatory methods, we developed an innovative "ceramic façade system"—crushing discarded pottery onsite and embedding fragments into prefabricated brass mesh. Collaborating with ceramic artists, we recreated "kiln variation" effects on wall surfaces, achieving architectural equilibrium between control and serendipity.
2. Spiritual Space Sequence Four semantic courtyards connect indoor-outdoor interfaces via "Eastern spatial breathing." Strategic negative space and minimal architectural vocabulary express the scalelessness of "mountain-water" landscapes, offering visitors a topographic journey.
3. Architectural Disappearance Suppressing designer ego, we foregrounded vernacular craftsmanship and local materials. A material dialogue between rammed earth and ceramic intentionally dilutes physical presence, transforming the site into a "landscape museum" where historical layers and contemporary programs form temporal hybrids.
This approach transcends mere intervention, creating a "living heritage" that embodies cultural sustainability.