London-based architectural practice Office for Architectural Culture (OAC) recently completed the master plan and architectural concepts for a prestigious International Oceanic Fishing Cultural Center and Museums in China. The 650,000 m2 project in Tanmen, located on the southern island of Hainan, aims to create a realm where new architecture and spaces are profoundly rooted in the village’s culture and heritage is our principal design approach. More images and architects’ description after the break.
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The fishing village, called Tanmen, is renowned for the historic navigation manual developed and maintained by the village’s fishermen since the 14th century. It demonstrates the fishermen’s deep-oceanic fishing knowledge and maritime navigation skills. The fishermen from this South China Sea village and the port of Tanmen, have travelled the South China Sea, the Southeast Asian regions as far as the Indian Ocean since the late medieval ages. They are also one of the key protagonists of the South China Sea conflicts in the recent years.
The project site area is 650,000 sqm and includes an artificial island within the second phase of the project. The total building area is approximately 325,000 sqm. It consists of four museums, along with other uses as follows:
- Fishermen’s Culture Museum (11,500 m2) (including a new museum buildings and a number of historic village buildings)
- Old Fishing Vessel Museum (4,500 m2)
- Fishing Cultural Research Center / Sea Ceramic Museum (1,300 m2)
- Oceanic Fishing Cultural Museum / International Oceanic Fishing Culture Exchange & Conference Center (10,200 m2 floor area, adjacent to a Mazu Plaza and amphitheatre for performances)
Other uses in the project include:
- New fishing village
- 5-star Fishermen’s Boutique Hotel with 30 quest rooms
- Fishermen Theme Club Houses
- Sailors Resort
- Cultural commercial street (including shops, tea houses/bars, restaurants etc)
- Yacht Club
- Sea-fishing Club
- Residential (villas and tall residential buildings up to 100m)
- Staff dormitories
The Fishermen’s Culture Museum consists of a wave-shape new building and a number of existing historical village buildings, both of which are interlaced both architecturally and functionally. Alongside exhibitions of the local fishing history, fishermen’s stories, its cultural heritage and the navigation manual ‘Geng-lu-bu’, it offers visitors opportunities to witness and participate in the local fishing villagers’ daily life. The central cultural plaza is also part of this living museum, centered by the village’s three best-maintained historic courtyard buildings.
The Old Fishing Vessel Museum features a boat shape and vessel-inspired structures. With its façade finished by mixture of old boat timber and weathered timber, the museum has a main vessel exhibition hall, which can house a 60-tonnes fishing vessel and two small ones with its internal dry dock, surrounded by ‘gallery’ balconies, and is connected to a large antique fishing vessel, moored adjacent to the building, which also houses exhibition spaces. A renovated boat building/repair factory is also part of the museum.
The Fishing Culture Research Center / Sea Ceramics Museum provides research spaces and facilities on oceanic fishing, its history and cultures, as well as ‘sea ceramics’. The Sea Ceramics Museum in the building exhibits ceramic wares and artworks discovered in the deep water of the South China Sea and Southeast Asia that sank with trading ships travelling between China, Southeast Asia, India, the Gulf, and Europe from 15th century to 19th century. A sculptural park at the center of the cultural zone, tells the stories of generations of Tanmen fishermen and local fishing families through its wave-shape sculptural landforms, which reflects the seas local fishermen have sailed over centuries.
The organic-shape, metal strips-clad 10,200 m2 Oceanic Fishing Cultural Museum & International Oceanic Fishing Culture Exchange & Conference Center provides exhibition spaces and conference facilities for international and China-Taiwan fishing culture exchange events. Along with the approx. 4,000 m2 exhibition spaces, it houses a large 1200-seat auditorium/theatre (which can be used for conferences and multi-media meetings), two multi-media conference halls (120 seats each), four multi-media conference halls (60 seats each) and several small conference rooms (30 seats each). The amphitheatre adjacent to it, which can be extended to the Mazu Plaza, is suitable for small, medium and large performances as well as performances on water.
Acclaimed Germany-based Swiss artist Philippe Devaud is involved in advising the aesthetic principles, mist system, and conceptual story development of the engraving artworks of the sculptural park for the project. Office for Architectural Culture engaged London-based museum consultant Real Studios for the project’s interactive cultural museums strategies and conceptual programming. The engineering consultants Ramboll (London) also has been engaged to assist in setting out sustainable and structural strategies.
Architects: Office for Architectural Culture (OAC)
Location: Tanmen, China
Design Director: Charles Phu
Design Manager: Roger Whiteman
Design Team Members: Oliver Hempel, Giedre M Kristaponyte, Paul Browning, Amelia Payton, Ariadna Roca, Carlos Agelet De Saracibar, Jack Watson
.jpg?1414204701 "Tanmen Oceanic Fishing Cultural Center and Museum Proposal / Office for Architectural Culture")
