A new and striking astronomy museum has recently opened in Shanghai. Its design, by Ennead Architects, has no straight lines or right angles and is inspired by the cosmos. Its sections act as an oversized sundial indicating the passage of time.
Shanghai Astronomy Museum
The Shanghai Astronomy Museum is about 40,000 square metres and houses temporary and permanent exhibitions. Besides the main building, there are several smaller buildings, solar telescope, observatory, education and research centre, theatre, planetarium and several vantage points. The remarkable shape of the main building has three main elements: a sphere, an inverted dome and an oculus, a circular eye in the dome.
Three elements
The oculus is situated above the main entrance and ensures that a circle of sunlight shines onto the ground across the entrance plaza and the reflective pond. During the summer solstice, a complete circle is formed, which then aligns with a circular platform on the entrance plaza at midday. Inside the museum is the sphere. To visitors, it appears to float because minimal visible support is used. The interior of the sphere houses the planetarium theatre. Finally, the inverted dome is a large, inverted glass structure resting atop the building’s central atrium. The dome is accessible via a ramp that spirals 720 degrees. From here, visitors have an unobstructed view of the sky.
With the museum, Ennead realised a design that - without straight lines or right angles - symbolises the geometry of the universe. The Shanghai Astronomy Museum opened to visitors on 18 July.
