Four peaks clad in weathering steel cover the underground galleries at the Datong Art Museum, which British architecture studio Foster + Partners has completed in northern China.
The 32,000-square-metre art museum, which is now open in Datong, is designed by Foster + Partners as an "urban living room" with facilities for both artists and the public.
Top image: Foster + Partners has completed the Datong Art Museum in China. Above: it is distinguished by a pyramidal roofscape
It forms part of a new cultural quarter in the city, where there are three other major buildings designed as a creative hub for the region.
Foster + Partners first revealed the design in 2012, with its completion originally slated for 2013, and again in 2020.
The roofscape covers subterranean galleries "The museum is conceived as a social hub for people ? an 'urban living room' for Datong ? that brings people, art and artists together in a space where they can interact," explained Luke Fox, head of studio at Foster + Partners.
"Designed for the future, we hope the museum will become the centre of the city's cultural life ? a dynamic public destination."
The pyramidal forms are clad in weathering steel
Datong Art Museum is designed a series of four interconnected pyramids that are partly embedded in the ground, intended to evoke rocky peaks emerging upwards.
The pyramids are surrounded by landscaped plazas, which incorporate diagonal paths to the museum's entrance and ramps ...