Dafen village lies in Buji Township of the Longgang District in Shenzhen. The town is best known for its oil painting replica workships and manufactures; yearly exports to places around Asia, Europe and the Americas bring billions of RMB to the area.
Our concept focuses on reinterpreting these urban and cultural implications of Dafen Village, which have long been considered as a strange mix of popular art, vulgar taste and commercialism. A typical art museum would be considered out of place in the context of Dafen’s peculiar urban culture. The question remains whether the town can be a breeding ground for contemporary art and also take on the more challenging role of blending its museum with the surrounding urban fabric in terms of spatial connections, art activities and everyday life. Therefore, our stategy is to create a hybridized mix of different programs, such as art museums, art galleries and shops, commercial spaces, workshops and studios under one roof. This will also achieve a maximum interaction among visitors by creating several pathways through the building’s public spaces.
The museum is sandwiched by commercial interests an other public programs that intentionally allow for visual and spatial interactions between the spaces’ different functions. Exhibitions, trade, painting and residential space can exist simultaneously and be dispersed among each other, intertwining to create a whole new urban mechanism.

Project Name: Dafen Art museum in Dafen Village
Location: Shenzhen
Chief Architects: Meng Yan, Liu Xiaodu
Project Architect: Fu Zhuoheng, Chen Yaoguang
Collaborator: Xie Xiaoying (Beijing Urban Planning Institute)
Site Area: 11,243.5 sqm
Structural Quality: concrete structure
Design Period: 2005.5-2006.4
Construction Period: 2006.5-2007.5

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