The project Three Museums One Square offers an opportunity to express the city of Guangzhou’sculture, background and innovation by creating a state-of-the art cultural cluster in a park-like setting. The site is strategically situated to serve the core functions of Guangzhou and to manifest the features of regional Lingnan culture, while simultaneously enhancing modern living functions. In BAM's design, zones within the large area were first characterized in order to structure a user friendly environment. Multiple path scenarios were introduced to link all activities across the site. Under this framework, the landscape was sculpted and numerous sunken courtyards were incorporated, reflecting the figure-ground concept common to Lingnan architecture.

The framework of designing Lingnan square landscape can be approached through three facets of ideas. Within the vast area we first introduced characterized zones to fragment structures to a human friendly scale. In the following step, multiple path scenarios were created to facilitate all types of visitors. Landscape is then being formed and sculpted with many sunken courtyards in between, similar to the figure ground concept found in Lingnan architecture.

The landscape is comprised of various elements which connect the major north-south axis of the central park to the variety of urban condition which surround the site. Natural elements such as the Pearl River and the canal are connected to modern and historic cultural heritage sites, such as the Pagoda, preserved regions of the TIT zone, and museums through a network of courtyard spaces and allees, which take on different functions depending on their proximity to different urban programs. The northern portion of the park, with its commercial focus is also charged with integrating the existing natural conditions of the river and canal with the base of the iconic Canton Tower. The canal, which is already a popular recreational site for locals, acts as the central focus for the entry into the park, with a series of water plazas and a small wetland basin, marking the entry into the park.

Landscape: Ballistic Architecture Machine: Jake Walker, Dan Gass, Zhang Yuan, Guan Jingwen

UNStudio Amsterdam: Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos, Astrid Piber with Juergen Heinzel, Mo Ching Ying Lai and Marc Salemink, Tom Minderhoud, Luke Tan, Soungmin Yu, Thomas van Bekhoven, Philipp Meise, Yi-Ju Tseng, Di Wu

UNStudio Shanghai : Hannes Pfau with Emma Wang, Yeojoon Yoon, Kai Liao

CSADI : 高思, 汤鹏,曾真

Bartenbach (lighting design)

Arup (traffic, sustainability , structure)