With a length of almost one kilometre, spanning the diameter of the manmade lake it is situated within, Zaishui Art Museum is one of the world’s most impressive architectural structures opened just last month.

Located in north-west China is an up-and-coming urban development area that neighbours the Chaohe River, one major developer has been enlisting stellar architects to reimagine the region. Japanese architecture firm Junya Ishigami + Associates, known for their radical structures, was commissioned to create three projects — the first completed just last month with the following two still in construction — that features an art museum with public areas that defy conventional norms.

Throughout it’s 884-metre length, Zaishui Art Museum designed by Junya Ishigami + Associates is a vivid wonder — its parametric design creates an organic and curvaceous sloping yet slender roof that for guests inside, allows to frame the outside scenery. Inside the elongated structure, Ishigami designed a beach-like internal concrete pathway elevated by 10cm and surrounded by water that is filtered inside through small openings under each large glass walls. Ishigami’s aim was to bring ‘the outside, in’, creating a structure that is ultimately symbiotic with its environment.

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