Vanke Museum

Location: Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China

Year: 2016

Collaboration: DPD Consultant

Vanke Museum is located at Vanke Headquarter building designed by American architect Steven Holl.

The museum starts to plan from Sept 2012, with area of 1700 sqm. It officially opens at 2014 with 30th Anniversary of Vanke. According to Mr. Wang Shi, ‘ The concept of Vanke Museum is about the story of architecture, it should focus on Vanke people. The museum should glorify the ex-staff who worked with Vanke and also the current staff who are working for the brighter future of Vanke.

After two years of opening, our studio is invited at the third time renovation, to reorganise the space and content. Chief curator Li Degeng name the museum as Documenta Vanke, from the name we know it emphasises on story and people. The project also involved graphic designer Hou Ying, artist Zhou Wendou and lighting designer Tian Huan。

The whole museum is divided into four parts: History, Archive, Vanke Plus and Vanke Future. Each part design corresponds to the content of exhibits.

Vanke history is a long roll exhibition from the born of Vanke,  development to important events. The space is subdivided by year intervals, with text and collections. On top of the display wall, we created a loop of LED display, the Vanke slogans are circulating through out the space.

Artist  Zhou Wendou creates a art work of plastic bubbles with Vanke historical collections inside.

Archive is the space where the publications and awards are displayed. It is like a library and people can search information here.

Vanke plus consists of multiple themes, mainly focus on achievements of Vanke in different fields: construction technology, charity and innovative design etc.  For the technology part, original exhibits are mounted at wall, we rearrange them into three horizontal shelves where people may treat them as art works.  The design part is four recent projects by Vanke, we created four mountains to for model stand also functions as panel display. The black room is for the charity and communal service of Vanke, and one cinema is created with thin vertical threads.

Vanke museum is unique and different from other corporation gallery, we put high focus on the people and the story happened at Vanke instead of showcase achievements only. We don't treat the display as dead objects, they could be more interactive with visitors for understanding the past and future of Vanke.