New World’s Largest Astronomy Museum Connects Visitors To The Universe Intelligent Living – Intelligent Living

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum by Ennead Architects opened its doors to the public on July 18, 2021, after being under development since 2014. It serves as the astronomical branch of Perkins + Wills Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, which is also relatively new, completed back in 2015.

At 420,000 square feet (39,000 sqm), the Shanghai Astronomy Museum is the worlds largest museum solely dedicated to astronomy. Its a monumental structure set within an expansive green zone and designed without straight lines or right angles to echo the geometry of the universe and the dynamic energy of celestial movement.

The breathtaking new museum creates an immersive experience, placing visitors in direct engagement with real astronomical phenomena.

The website reads:

The international competition-winning design celebrates the continuum of time and space: it is modern and forward-looking while at the same time presents a link to the past, mirroring both the rich history of Chinese astronomy and the future ambitions of Chinas space exploration program.

In linking the new Museum to both scientific purposes and the celestial references of buildings throughout history, the exhibits and architecture will communicate more than scientific content: they will illuminate what it means to be human in a vast and largely unknown universe.

The building heightens visitors awareness of our fundamental relationship to the earths orbital motion and the sun through form, scale, and manipulation of light. Ennead drew from the classic three-body problem in physics for its design, looking to the intricate choreographies made by the gravitational attraction of multiple bodies within solar systems.

Thomas J. Wong, a Design Partner at Ennead Architects, said:

In making this building, we wanted to create a place where the institutional mission is fully entangled with an architecture that itself is teaching and finds form in some of the fundamental principles that shape our universe. So the big idea of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum was to infuse a visceral experience of the subject matter into the design and deliver that before you even enter the building. And at the end of your visit, there is this culminating moment directly with the sky, which is framed and supported by the architecture.

The building consists of three principal architectural components: The Sphere, The Oculus, and the Inverted Dome. They function as astronomical instruments, tracking the sun, stars, and moon.

The Sphere, half-submerged in the building, dipping into the museum proper, houses the planetarium theater. It evokes an illusion of weightlessness, floating, or anti-gravity with visible supports kept to a minimum. Its spherical form references the primordial shapes in our universe.

The Oculus, suspended over the main entry, functions as a sundial, marking the passage of time by tracking a circle of sunlight across the ground of the entry plaza and its reflecting pool. During the summer solstice at noon, a full circle aligns with a circular platform in the entry plaza.

The Inverted Dome is a giant inverted glass structure. It rests on top of the central atrium and can be reached by a 720-degree spiraling ramp from where visitors get an unimpeded view of the sky. This is the final experience for the visitor, an actual encounter with the universe.

The museum includes permanent and temporary exhibits, a 78-foot solar telescope, and several smaller surrounding buildings housing an observatory, an optical Planetarium, a Digital Sky Theater, and an Education and Research Center.

Read more from the original source:

New World's Largest Astronomy Museum Connects Visitors To The Universe Intelligent Living - Intelligent Living