Times Museum

Times Museum is an adaptive reuse project occupying 4 documentary blocks used to house factory workers in 1980’s Guangzhou, Southern China.

Having been unoccupied and gone to neglect, the project is to convert the buildings into a museum for Contemporary Art on the first 2 levels, with an adjoining bookshop and café, and 4 levels above that into studio workshops for designers.

Using a sustainable approach to the project, the use of natural ventilation is maximized be creating a large canopy on top to shelter the four buildings, and open glass and metal bridges to connect them to newly installed elevators.

Existing open walkways are enclosed with metal mesh to retain natural air flow. As a result, no air conditioning system is installed for the entire public area. The studio workshops retain existing openable windows and doors onto balconies. Air conditioning system is only used in selective areas as needed, like the café and the galleries where climate control is essential.

Keeping use of new wall finishes to a minimum, the interior spaces has a raw look contrasting the metal and glass bridge connections and the mesh enclosures. 3 large clusters of bamboo planting add a sense of green nature, and dramatic diffused lighting gives an Asian tranquility to the long internal avenue, terminating in a stepped stadium seating area which can also be used for art display.