Brick vaults define the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum
Known as “the capital of porcelain”, The Chinese city of Jingdezhe, in the province of Jiangxi, has been linked to the ceramics industry for 1,700 years.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingdezhen exported a large number of porcelains to Europe and the best pottery for the Chinese imperial family came out of their kilns.
Precisely, next to the ruins of the imperial ovens, in the historic center of Jingdezhen, we find the Imperial Furnace Museum, the new project by Studio Zhu-Pei, whose design pays homage to the city's artisan history.
Jingdezhen, "the capital of porcelain"
A WALK BETWEEN VAULTS AND REFLECTIONS
The Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum is made up of a series of brick vaults (of different sizes, curvature and length) reminiscent of the traditional shape of ovens.
The vaults are perfectly integrated into the site, along with the ruins of the imperial ovens and many others. ancient ovens, some discovered during the construction of the museum.
“By walking through the multiple sunken kilns and courtyards, people can get a kind of familiar and strange spatial experience at the same time”, they explain from Studio Zhu-Pei.
The museum is designed to evoke traditional brick kilns
The arched and clad structures of the museum reach below ground with a double objective: give flexibility to adapt to the place and achieve an intimate scale of the interior space.
The insertion of the building in the soil of the site gives rise to a set of public spaces at street level and allows the design of a series of open vaults and more intimate courtyards within the museum.
Most of these public spaces are covered with shade and protected from the rain and heat, typical of the summer months in Jingdezhen.
During the day, the arches reflect the ripples of the water
AT GROUND LEVEL
The museum has two levels: underground and the ground level, where the lobby is located. This design contributes to the feeling of familiarity and the similarity in terms of scale between its volume and the constructions that surround it as we approach the building.
After walking over the bridge, the visitor enters the museum through the lobby. Turning left, we discover a series of exhibition spaces of various sizes, slightly arched and with a contradictory opening (closed or open to the sky) to later run into a staircase that leads to the underground level.
If we turn right in the lobby, we will find the bookstore, the cafeteria, the tea room and finally, a semi-open area under the arch, with a most picturesque scene: during the day, the arches reflect the ripples of the water while the horizontal openings invite you to sit on the ground and contemplate the ruins of the imperial oven.
The museum is located next to the ruins of the old imperial ovens
IN THE DEEP
below street level, the five underground patios each offer a different theme: gold, wood, water, fire and earth; that refer to porcelain manufacturing techniques.
“The visit is a three-in-one museum experience (kilns-porcelain-people), looking at porcelain, ruins, and sunken courtyards, which together create multi-layered experiences with ancient bricks on the façade."
The various galleries and exhibition halls are located below ground level
The permanent exhibition has a closed circulation that passes through the two floors, while two temporary exhibition halls can be added to that circulation.
The two rooms can become part of the fixed exhibition or remain independent. Another feature of the museum is that the process of recovering old porcelain will be open to the public, becoming an essential section of the exhibition.
Inside, the spaces are all illuminated with natural light as far as possible, with the ends of each arch open or glazed. There are also cylindrical skylights that pierce the vault ceilings, evoking smoke shafts from ancient brick kilns.
There are also public spaces at street level
THE IMPERIAL PAST, ALWAYS PRESENT
“Jingdezhen was born from a kiln and achieved economic prosperity thanks to the quality of its ceramic pieces” , they comment from Studio Zhu-Pei.
"Kilns, made with bricks, are not only the origin of the city of Jingdezhen, but also constitute public and social spaces for the daily life of citizens” they continue.
Jingdezhen bricks record a warmth inseparable from the city's roots: “In the past, the children of Jingdezhen would take a hot brick from the firing kilns to put it in their school bags, to keep warm and face the harsh winter.”
"Jingdezhen was born from a furnace"
As part of the everlasting memories that have been passed down from generation to generation, the old ovens inspire the design of the museum: “the unique shape of the kilns, the prototype of the oriental arch, plus the passage of time and memories, shaped the isomorphic relationships of kilns, porcelain and people” , say from the Beijing-based architecture studio.
Brick kilns need to be demolished every two to three years to maintain thermal performance so the entire city is covered in recycled kiln bricks. The materials used in the construction of the ovens are also present in the building.
After a certain period in which a kiln brick can no longer store heat, it is removed from the kiln and used in the construction of residential structures. "Therefore, it is logical that the furnace be used as the leitmotif of the Imperial Furnace Museum", they sentence from Studio Zhu-Pei.
The Imperial Furnace Museum is already a more than obligatory stop in Jingdezhen
THE CITY OF JINGDEZHEN
Since its birth, the city of Jingdezhen grew naturally, surrounded by rivers, hills and mountains and the first settlements developed around complexes of ovens, workshops and dwellings.
The street pattern was sculpted by nature and the porcelain industry. Most of the streets and small alleys that passed between the kilns led to the Chang River, the route through which porcelain products were transported to other cities.
The ceramic and porcelain industry deserved a worthy tribute and that is where the role of the Imperial Kiln Museum comes in, which has already become an essential stop in the city of Jingdezhen.
The museum is divided into two levels