Of course he wants it to be one: he’s an architect. But the project announced by Jean Nouvel last week, plans for a National Art Museum of China, won’t just be innovative in design; it seems–from the announcement and resulting press coverage–that the Chinese, with Nouvel’s help, will be out to establish new practices in museums, or at least to confirm what other museums have been trying, as standards.
NAMOC, as it has been dubbed, seems to be aiming for upending the museum world a bit. Aside from gallery spaces, a research and education center, an auditorium, NAMOC will have many public spaces plus an interior garden. All told, it will be 1.4 million square feet. By comparison, the Louvre has 652,300 square feet; the Metropolitan Museum of Art has 2 million square feet. NAMOC’s collection will extend from the Ming era in the 14th century to the present, and it seems they will be mixed together.
From the Nouvel press release (a bit jargon-y, but I wouldn’t dare “translate”):
…The museums should become lively places, resonating with invention where exhibits prove that sensations and emotions triggered by art are amplified by time, by the complicit juxtaposition of works from various times, and all the eras of invention. The most sincere inventors of our time must absolutely find in these moments a place for expression. It is our responsibility to invite the creators into a place where they can dream, in which they can be recognized, and offer the artists the means to express themselves better than ever, to reveal themselves more clearly and intensely than anywhere else.
The NAMOC represents an incredible opportunity for the most ambitious materialization of a place for expression, of communication and attraction, a place that witnesses the vitality of a civilization, the civilization of the greatest people on earth. Our proposal is the result of one year of catalysis, of immersions, of dialogs and explorations to translate, synthetize, symbolize and materialize the spirit of the Chinese civilization… our goal is to protect the miracles created with ink throughout the centuries, to reveal the force of a living art… to welcome the artist of tomorrow. The museum is a milestone that now establishes architecture as a civilizational medium, as the memorial symbiosis of nature and human expression. These exceptional conditions are able to elicit this rising attitude, this symbiotic response, and goes beyond being just a traditional competition of established styles. Today, the role of architecture is to catalyze, to precipitate the spirit of a situation should it be individual, plural or civilizational.
 A few pictures might help; from them, it seems somewhat attractive. I like the perforated facade, and the internal garden, especially in fall–as shown above.Â
Here is a longitudinal.
The Summer  Hall, with its gold ceiling:
The Grand Terrace:
Notice anything odd? I did. Why no pictures of the galleries? Where the, um, art goes. There wasn’t a one in the press release. It seems, alas, that this is another example of a starchitect museum that will be far more about the building than about the art inside.
The Beijing Institute of Architectural Design is collaborating with Nouvel on this 21st Century museum; neither a cost nor a timeline for completion was disclosed.Â
Photo Credits: © Ateliers Jean Nouvel