Long Museum, Shanghai, May 2018

The Long Museum is a private art museum, established by Chinese art collectors, Liu Yiqian and his wife, Wang Wei. It has 2 large exhibition centres in Shanghai, one in Pudong (opened 2012) and one in West Bund (opened 2014).

The one in West Bund is an impressive structure, designed by Liu Yichun, a Chinese architect from Atelier Deshaus. I don’t know the origin of the museum’s name, but for me “long” is associated with the size and shape of the West Bund building.

The museum has been built around a massive coal hopper bridge that was active in the 1950s on the coal transportation wharf here on the Huangpu River.  The old structure stretches 110 metres in length, 10 metres in width, and is 8 metres tall, and it has been artfully incorporated into the museum as a whole. Graceful vault umbrellas wrap around the old bridge, and that shape is echoed inside the museum. An architectural beauty.

Copyright Debbie Smyth, 14 May 2020

Posted as part of Cee’s B&W