Pioneering facades that perform under pressure

Yinchuan Art Museum

Yinchuan, China

Yinchuan is currently developing a fantastic new arts district, the Yellow River Art Centre, 20 km outside the city. This museum is the first project in the complex to be completed, and offers expansive exhibition galleries of three storeys in height, as well as classrooms, a library and a theatre auditorium to support cultural and educational events.

Almost every panel in the complex facade is unique in size and shape, ranging in size from 8sq.m to 40sq.m

Our engineers developed an innovative design using glass reinforced concrete to realise the architect’s vision for this building

The ribbon-like facade of the museum was designed to mimic the movement of the nearby Yellow River

Challenge

The highly complex facade geometry required to realise the architect’s vision for the museum posed a number of big challenges, including use of appropriate building materials and supporting system design, fabrication and installation. Buro Happold was appointed to provide the expert engineering input required to deliver this project.

Solution

Our facade design team analysed a variety of options before settling on the use of glass reinforced concrete (GRC) to render the facade, whose design necessitated panels as large as 40m² to be used, something hitherto unseen in China. Our specialist engineers then undertook a comprehensive market and technology analysis with major GRC suppliers in the region to fully understand the possibilities and constraints of the material and develop a robust strategy to guide the construction of the envelope using these vast panels.

We went on to rigorously test this strategy in tandem with the supporting steel frame we devised, using BIM computer modelling, to both ensure the system was viable and illustrate its efficiency to our client and the wider design team.

Value

Our facade design experts demonstrated their impressive engineering credentials through the innovative and highly successful use of GRC to render the sweeping lines of the museums magnificent facade. This knowledge delivered a building that was true to the architects graceful design and met our clients expectations, setting a high bar for subsequent properties in the new arts district to reach.