©Ye Jianyuan
Designed by BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with ARTS Group and Front Inc., the new Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) is taking shape as an immersive landscape of 12 interconnected pavilions wrapped in glass and reflective steel.
Located on the eastern bank of Jinji Lake, the museum is scheduled to open in 2026, bringing a new architectural icon to the city of Suzhou, China.
A cultural village inspired by Suzhou’s classical gardens
The project reinterprets the traditional Chinese ‘lang’ 廊—the covered walkway found in Suzhou’s historic gardens—and weaves it into a sequence of courtyards, plazas, and passageways. The 12 pavilion-like structures are connected by a meandering roof, forming a pattern inspired by a Chinese knot, guiding visitors through a spatial experience that unfolds between nature, light, and reflection.©Ye Jianyuan
The museum integrates above-ground and sunken levels, creating a labyrinthine promenade across garden courtyards and elevated walkways, culminating in a lakeside path.
“Suzhou is the cradle of the Chinese garden. Our design for the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art is conceived as a garden of pavilions and courtyards. Individual pavilions are woven together by glazed galleries and porticoes, creating a Chinese knot of interconnected sculpture courtyards and exhibition spaces. […] The result is a manmade maze of plants and artworks to get lost within. Its nodular logic only becomes distinctly discernible when seen from the gondolas above” says Bjarke Ingels.©StudioSZ Photo / Justin Szeremeta
©Ye Jianyuan
Translucent volumes and sculpted roofs
The architecture merges curved glass facades with warm-toned stainless steel roofs, softly reflecting the sky, vegetation, and water. From above, the conical roofscape composes a shimmering fifth façade. Inside, skylights and clerestories diffuse natural light, modulating the rhythm of the exhibition spaces.
The MoCA Suzhou is designed to achieve GBEL 2-Star certification and incorporates passive shading, natural ventilation, and local materials to reduce its environmental impact. The complex includes four primary gallery wings, in addition to spaces for events, a café, a theater, and a monumental entrance hall.©Ye Jianyuan
Materialism: an exhibition on matter and making
Anticipating the museum’s full opening, the space will soon host the exhibition Materialism, curated by BIG. Originally developed as part of Bjarke Ingels’ editorial direction for Domus magazine, the show explores how architecture emerges from material experimentation.
The exhibition features full-scale mock-ups of 20 BIG projects—such as the BIG HQ in Copenhagen, the Danish Maritime Museum, and Google Bay View—each accompanied by seating and panels made from the same materials used in the designs. From stone to glass, from rammed earth to bio-plastic, the show offers an immersive, tactile, and narrative journey into the matter of architecture.
With its fluid spatial language and reverence for Suzhou’s garden tradition, the new MoCA invites visitors to wander, reflect, and experience art through the lenses of light, form, and material.
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