The Harmonious Art Museum (HEM) is located in Shunde, Guangdong, and is a non-profit private art museum established by a family and designed by Tadao Ando. With an area of approximately 16,000 square meters, the exhibition area of HEM spans about 8,000 square meters. Tadao Ando, the architect, has incorporated natural elements such as light, water, and wind into the museum using fair-faced concrete, reflecting the Lingnan architectural culture.
Regarding the architectural design of HEM, it blends opposing characteristics into a simple circular and square form. The central circle shifts its weight and scale with height, creating a gradual diffusion effect from the inside out, from the building to the city. This is an inheritance of the ancient Chinese architectural concept of ’round heaven and square earth,’ and it symbolizes the intersection of pure geometric shapes to create a building landscape with Lingnan architectural characteristics, celebrating the play of light and shadow.
The double helix fair-faced concrete staircase, from its details to its overall composition, including landscape design, unfolds like ripples on water. At the center is a cylindrical void space spanning five floors. The double helix staircase spirals down, forming the central circular space. The double helix staircase, resembling the DNA structure, is a breathtaking highlight of HEM’s architecture and a testament to the leap in Chinese architectural technology.
The movement in the riverside garden implies a secluded and winding path. The curved fair-faced concrete walls are orderly distributed and encircle the garden, complemented by a variety of carefully selected pink flowering trees, allowing visitors to feel as if they are strolling through a peach blossom forest. In this outdoor space, the landscape design is primarily water features, with pools echoing the ‘circle,’ serving as a water installation to alleviate the heat of the subtropical summer. When the building is reflected on the water, it becomes a distinctive base for the architecture.
Opening Hours: 10:00-18:00 all year round
Preferential Policies: Elderly: Seniors aged 60 (inclusive) – 70 (exclusive) with valid identification documents, special ticket; Seniors aged 70 (inclusive) with valid identification documents, free; Children: Height between 1.2m (exclusive) – 1.5m (inclusive), special ticket; Height below 1.2m (inclusive), free; Students: Full-time undergraduate and below students with valid student ID, special ticket; Disabled, teachers, journalists, tour guides, medical staff: With corresponding valid identification documents, special ticket; Shunde residents: Residents with Shunde household registration or living within the administrative area of Shunde, with Shunde district household ID, temporary residence permit, and residence permit for on-site verification, enjoy local preferential policies on-site ticket purchase, special ticket; Martyr’s families: With corresponding valid proof documents, free; Military personnel, military dependents, and preferential treatment recipients receiving regular financial assistance: With corresponding valid proof documents, free.
