Jinzhai Revolution Museum

A museum as a memory rock

This graduation design proposes a museum of local revolutionary history in Jinzhai, within the mountainous landscape of western Anhui. The brief brought together a commemorative role, public education, and the area’s cultural-tourism development.

My starting point was a spatial tension: how can a museum become a recognizable landmark while belonging to its hillside? The proposal develops a single, rock-like body, then cuts and opens it to form exhibition spaces, a central public square, and connections to the surrounding landscape.

The architectural idea is a memory rock: history is held within a solid mass, while people move through it in the present. The project is presented here as a design proposal through its site studies, form development, plans, and updated architectural visualizations.

Read the site: between an old town and a new center

The site lies in Meishan, Jinzhai County. The urban context places historic places and the old town to the west and southwest, while the newer county center lies to the north. That contrast became a starting point for thinking about history, the present, and the future through the building’s orientation.

Regional location diagrams moving from Anhui Province and Lu'an to the Jinzhai site — Locating the project within Jinzhai and the wider region.

Urban context map locating the site between the old center and newer areas of Meishan — The site sits between different layers of urban development.

Map connecting the museum site to nearby revolutionary-history attractions and the newer town center — Nearby heritage places give the museum a role within a wider cultural landscape.

Access and a changing ground

The surrounding urban roads connect the site to the town and regional transport. Within the park, routes follow a more irregular mountainous terrain: lower fields, rising terraces, and wooded slopes create different conditions for arrival and movement.

Site access analysis distinguishing urban roads, internal routes, and connections to the town and surrounding region — Access analysis: connect an identifiable arrival to the existing road and path network.

Original site panorama viewed from the Red Army Pavilion — Reading the wider landscape from the Red Army Pavilion.

Original site panorama viewed from the agricultural terraces — At ground level, terraces reveal the site's sequence of changing heights.

The decision was to work with the hillside rather than place the whole building on the flatter field. The terraces could then shape the approach, the subdivision of the volume, and the way the museum is seen from outside.

Form the concept: landmark, history, and geological layers

Two ideas guided the early studies. Landmark called for a unified, memorable body. Commemoration called for weight, solemnity, and a place to encounter history. Rock and geological strata offered a way to bring these together.

Six early sketches exploring unified geometric building masses — Testing a clear overall silhouette before developing the building's cuts.

Four sketches comparing how a building mass can meet a mountain — Comparing different relationships between the landmark and the mountain.

The time diagrams distinguish the long passage of history from the shorter span of a person’s visit. A museum gives a material setting to that encounter: what is present today will itself become a layer of history.

Concept diagram connecting history, the present, and the future through macro and micro timelines — Time as a conceptual thread through the museum experience.

Memory-rock concept sketch showing a layer of historical rock lifted from the mountain — The museum imagined as a layer of memory separated from the ground.

This metaphor became a form-making rule: retain a coherent outer body, but articulate its surface and internal spaces through cuts, folds, and openings.

Shape the building with the terrain

Site conditions translated the concept into a more specific arrangement. The southern approach connects to the flatter land, while the northern side responds to the newer town. Different height zones help separate the auditorium and exhibition areas, with shared public space connecting them.

Site constraint diagram showing program zones, north-south orientation, surrounding terrain, and the southern approach — Orientation, arrival, and changes in level become constraints for the building mass.

The volume develops through six operations: establish a contour-related boundary; extrude the main body; respond to the north and south; split spaces with the terraces; articulate a triangulated skin; and open an inner square.

Six-stage massing sequence from contour boundary and extrusion to terrace response, triangulated skin, and inner-square generation — From a solid landmark to a building organized by cuts and a public center.

Masterplan of the faceted museum, central openings, surrounding access loop, paths, and terraced hillside — The masterplan brings the museum, arrival space, landscape, and surrounding routes together.

The perimeter route provides access around the building. The public approach is considered alongside separate staff and service access, rather than asking every movement to share the main entrance.

Organize public space around a central square

The platform square is the organizing space between three main program groups: exhibition, auditorium and book gallery, and business and administration. It allows these parts to remain distinct while still belonging to one building.

Color-coded program zoning around the platform square, showing exhibition, auditorium and book gallery, business and administration, and lobbies — The central square connects the major program groups without merging all of their functions.

Two lobbies form secondary centers for their surrounding spaces. The resulting organization is multi-centered: the square connects the whole, while the lobbies make the different functional groups easier to enter and navigate.

Functional relationship diagram with the platform square as the main center and two lobbies connecting adjacent spaces — From room distribution to a hierarchy of shared and local centers.

Resolve the proposal through plans

The first-floor plan places the auditorium, book gallery, exhibition areas, and supporting functions around the platform square and courtyard. Their relationship to the slope is visible in the changing levels and approaches.

First-floor plan with the auditorium and book gallery to one side, exhibition spaces, platform square, courtyard, and northern support rooms — First floor: the primary public spaces and their supporting functions. Enlarge to inspect the drawing.

The upper-floor drawings develop additional support rooms and leisure uses, including a souvenir shop and coffee bar. These are connected to the main organization without repeating the entire first-floor program.

Second-floor plan showing meeting rooms, storage, equipment rooms, and supporting circulation — Second floor: supporting rooms and connections.

Third-floor plan showing a souvenir shop, coffee bar, restrooms, and circulation — Third floor: leisure and visitor amenities.

These are the original thesis drawings, displayed without a fixed on-screen scale.

Separate routes without separating the experience

Circulation studies distinguish the general visitor route, the proposed accessible route, and the professional visitor route. Each draws on the same spatial structure but reaches it through different entrances and connections.

General visitor route linking the main entrance, central square, auditorium and book gallery, and exhibition spaces — General visitors: arrival, orientation, and exhibition sequence.

Proposed accessible visitor route through the museum using a separate northern entrance and connected public spaces — Accessible route: a different approach to the shared public spaces.

Professional visitor route connecting the northern entrance with relevant museum spaces — Professional visitors: access related to their visit and activities.

Installation, administration, and service flows are considered separately from the public visit. The intention is to let the museum function operationally while preserving a clear visitor sequence.

Separate route diagrams for exhibition installation and administration — Exhibition installation and administration are organized alongside, rather than through, the main public sequence.

Route studies for leisure space, upper-floor leisure service, first-floor service, upper-floor administration, and business users — Additional route studies connect the upper-floor and back-of-house functions.

The building in the landscape

The updated visualizations revisit the design proposal: a low, faceted body within a terraced hillside, with cuts in the roof and an open center that give the mass an internal public life.

Low, folded museum facade set into a terraced hillside beneath an overcast sky — The museum's low profile follows the terraced hillside.

Museum arrival view showing the faceted stone body, glazed entrance, stepped landscape, and commemorative sculptures — From the arrival space, the folded building reads as part of the larger landform.

Close-up of the commemorative sculpture above broad courtyard steps, framed by folded stone walls and roof planes — At the scale of a visit: steps, sculpture, and folded stone planes frame the commemorative space.

The project connects a commemorative idea to architectural decisions at several scales: the museum’s relationship to the town, its position on the slope, the shaping of its body, and the organization of rooms and routes around a public center.

Drawings and design diagrams are adapted from my undergraduate graduation portfolio and project materials, accompanied by updated architectural visualizations. They document an unbuilt academic design proposal.