"Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The design of the Shanghai MOCA was so not much about establishing a new manifesto, but instead to exploit the notion of duality, mediating between an existing form and new intentions. The original structure was an un-utilized but structurally in-tack glass and concrete building. A series of geometric glass volumes were introduced to replace the main entrance and to extend part of the third floor, dissolving the predictable form of the original glass pavilion. The diagonally-laid “Mongolian Black” stone cladding over the existing concrete building gives a much subdued yet differentiated expression, highlighted by the deep-recessed stainless steel window frames that are intentionally mis-aligned. The resulting work could neither be defined as a new building, nor a mere addition. 

The new program mediates between the requirements for art exhibition—the need for a generic white box, and the desire for an appropriate architectural expression—one which celebrates the intrinsic quality of architecture, be it tectonic, spatial, structural, or material. The design of the ramp is one such example. Thanks to an elegantly resolved structural model, the ramp connects the two principal exhibition floors at a maximum span with a minimum usage of steel (just under 3 tons), producing a sweeping curvature that “dances” through the existing reinforced concrete columns in different tangential relationships, and allows for a circumscribed and ascending viewing of large-scale installations placed in the center of the main exhibition space