Long Museum West Bund

Founded by Chinese couple collectors, Mr. Liu Yiqian and his wife, Ms. Wang Wei, the Long Museum owns two huge places for exhibition and related functions: Long Museum Pudong and Long Museum West Bund.

Long Museum West Bund is located at the center of the West Bund Culture Corridor in Binjiang, Xuhui District. Designed by Liu Yichun, a Chinese architect of Atelier Deshaus, the building covers an area of 33,000 square meters with up to 16,000 square meters for exhibition.

The main part of the building is a unique umbrella-vaulted structure. There are four stories. The first and second floors above ground are devoted to contemporary art including paintings, sculptures, installations, and new media. The surface of the peculiar vault is built by faced concrete with a fine and smooth texture. Visually, it is in concert with the fashion space, “Hopper Corridor” (doulang), which was transformed from the former “Coal Hopper” (meiloudou) construction at Beipiao Port, thus creating a rational and tranquil sense of industry and primitivism as well as a sharp contrast between power and lightness. Meanwhile, it endows the Museum with an acute quality of contemporariness and creativity. The first basement is the permanent exhibition area for precious artifacts in ancient China and art works of the Republic of China. Resembling a “white box,” the rectangular exhibition hall highlights the historical continuance and intellectual profoundness of traditional Chinese art.

The Long Museum West Bund does not adopt the closed spatial pattern typical of ordinary museums but functionally embraces openness and public involvement. For instance, on the above-ground floors, there is a river-view restaurant, a public courtyard, a concert hall, a café, and an art shop; in the first basement, there is an exhibition hall for children, a library, rooms for artifact restoration, and an art bookshop; in the second basement, there is a parking lot available for over 300 cars. Thanks to all these, art is no longer far away from the public but is seamlessly integrated into people’s daily life and leisure. This is exactly the original intention and sincere wish of the couple founders, Mr. Liu Yiqian and Ms. Wang Wei, when they set up the Museum.