JOIN USLocated at the heart of the Beijing, Futura City scheme is the new Air and Space Museum. This vast mixed-use development on the outskirts of Beijing features high-density residences, cultural attractions and retail outlets, plus myriad entertainment and food and beverage venues.
The architecture and design firm Hetzel Design wanted to break away from the standard city grid formation and introduce meandering boulevards leading to a large central park. This park provides an urban living room for the residents and even indoor gardens during the cold winter months.
The Air and Space Museum is a 43,000 square metre facility within the Futura City development, housing 18 interactive exhibits, three theatres and a children’s astronaut training centre. The museum is centrally located and at the same time, it is detached from the central park and its many amenities. The obvious solution was to create a footbridge to link the two, but Hetzel Design had other ideas — what if the building itself could
become a bridge? The project started with some rough sketches to establish the footprint in the available space, and this rapidly evolved into a design that featured a continuous form that wraps around itself.
Inside, the large central lobby houses a pair of escalators that transport visitors up through the local LED sphere on a journey of discovery. Visitors can then meander down cantilevered ramps exploring the exhibits. Externally, the LED sphere acts as an environmental lighting sculpture, while internally it is one large immersive projection environment. Also included in the building are two levels of flexible exhibition space and an enormous, soaring ride attraction, within another projection dome, offering visitors the opportunity to experience the wonder of flight and space travel.