Shanghai-based studio Lacime Architects has completed The Wave gallery on the coast of Tianjin, China, which is clad in thousands of aluminium tiles and resembles a giant surge of water.
The Wave encompasses 3563 square metres and was designed by Lacime Architects for Shimao as a cultural hub within the Binhai New Area district.
Its form was developed as a nod to its setting beside the Bohai Sea, evoking a wave crashing onto the shore, while its scale-like cladding is intended to glisten like ripples of water.
The Wave's setting in Binhai New Area, Tianjin. Top photo: the gallery's exterior
"The whole building resembles the wave to create a dialogue between the building and nature, and the building has become a symbolic existence where the sea and the earth converge," explained the Shanghai-based architecture studio. "In this space, people, sea, air and the sunshine establish a closer connection."
A gallery's reflection in the surrounding shallow pool
The Wave's distinctive form is created from its Y-shaped second floor, which projects out from a two-storey plinth that is surrounded by a shallow pool of water.
To achieve this while keeping the building column-free, its structure comprises a central concrete core enveloped by a complex network of steel trusses. This was developed by Lacime Architects using parametric design technologies.
Visitors below a second-floor cantilever
The museum's cladding is made up of 13,000 pieces of aluminium tiles and desig...