Shanghai Pudong Art Museum
Pudong Art Museum is located on the first line of the riverside in Lujiazui, next to the Oriental Pearl Tower and the
International Conference Center. Construction of the museum started in September 2017 and is scheduled to be
completed by the end of 2020 and opened in mid-2021.
Pudong Art Museum was designed by the famous French architect Jean Nouvel. The project covers an area of
13,000 square meters, with a total construction area of 40,590 square meters. The building is 30 meters high,
with 4 floors above ground and 2 floors underground.
The appearance of the Pudong Art Museum is both beautiful and practical, modern and full of traditional Chinese
cultural characteristics. The overall shape of the building is simple and square, and the surface is mainly covered
by white granite. The same “raindrop”-shaped traces are carved on the heavy stone surface, which symbolizes the
gift of God, agile spirit, and innate wisdom in traditional Chinese culture.
When designing this museum, Jean Nouvel was inspired by Duchamp’s work “The Big Glass”, and used the fourth
dimension of time to meet all these requirements. The facade of the museum facing the Huangpu River will be two
The “big glass” is 5 meters deep, 55 meters wide, and 12 and 6 meters high.
This piece of glass faces the entire Huangpu River, and when there is no artwork behind it or no lights are displayed,
it will reflect the buildings on the Bund on the opposite bank. The large piece of glass is able to present different
landscapes over time, both to faithfully show the historic building opposite and to be a stage for artists. These
two “big glass” exhibition halls are also unique in the world, and will definitely be the symbol of Pudong Art
Museum among the world art museums.
Pudong Art Museum is a major cultural engineering project in Pudong New Area. The construction goal is “a new
landmark of Shanghai’s international cultural venues” and “an important platform for international cultural and
art exchanges”. It is the first exhibition-type art museum in China to display excellent foreign artworks.
