The Douban Museum: An Architectural Design Integrating Local Heritage, Natural Environment, and Social Interaction

Site Location and Environmental Context

The Douban Museum is located in Ande Town, within the core irrigation area of Dujiangyan. The site represents a meeting point between traditional agricultural culture and modern food industries, reflecting the organic texture of the local Linpan landscape in Western Sichuan.

Surrounding Environment and Its Influence on the Design

The museum is surrounded by dense woodlands and bamboo groves, interspersed with scattered rural dwellings. This environmental composition provides a strong ecological foundation for the project and directly influences both the building’s design approach and its functional organization.

Project Guiding Principles

Preserving the natural ecosystem was the primary principle guiding the architects throughout the project’s development. The design emphasizes seamless integration between the building and its surroundings, while respecting the region’s natural and cultural fabric.

Preserving Natural Elements

During the initial phase of the project, trees with trunk diameters exceeding 20 cm, along with bamboo clusters, were carefully identified to ensure their preservation. This step was essential for understanding the relationship between the building and its natural surroundings, guiding the design in a way that respects the existing ecological fabric.

Design Integrated with Nature

The building mass was woven around the trees and bamboo, forming an integrated spatial composition referred to as a “House Among the Bamboo.” This strategy aims to create a visual and functional balance between architecture and the surrounding landscape, reinforcing harmony between the built form and nature.

Reducing Visual Impact and Design Flexibility

To minimize the building’s visual impact, the primary functional spaces were placed below ground level, while only about one-third of the total building volume remains above ground, accommodating the lobby and exhibition halls. This approach is based on the principle of breaking down large volumes into smaller units, giving the design a more fluid and less monumental character.

Adapting to the Surrounding Environment

The building height was also carefully controlled so as not to exceed 15 meters, allowing the surrounding metasequoia trees to crown the roof. This results in a visually harmonious presence within the vegetated context and reduces the building’s overall impact on the natural landscape. For more examples of nature-integrated projects, see our Projects section.

Reinterpreting Traditional Roof Forms

The museum reinterprets the light and elegant sloped roofs of Chengdu Plain dwellings, characterized by “deep overhangs and slender eaves.” This approach highlights the lightness and flexibility of local architecture and reflects a deep understanding of the architectural heritage of Western Sichuan.

Responding to Topography

In response to the site’s north-to-south sloping terrain, the main roof adopts a curved, bean-like oval form. A smaller roof rises above ground level on the northern side, while the southern roof sinks into a sunken courtyard. These three interwoven levels together express architectural lightness and a fluid adaptation to the natural topography.

Material and Color Innovation

The traditional gray roof tiles were replaced with innovative elements referred to as “colored pepper,” inspired by the color transformation of chili peppers as they dry, from green to red and finally black. After six months of experimentation and prototyping, four primary roof colors were selected and distributed in a randomized pattern:

• Red (30%)
• Dark Red (36%)
• Dark Green (14%)
• Dark Gray (20%)

This chromatic diversity allows the roof to blend seamlessly with the surrounding environment while maintaining a distinctive architectural identity that responds sensitively to the natural landscape. For further details on building materials, see our dedicated section.

Structural Innovation

From a structural perspective, glued laminated timber (glulam) beams were used as an alternative to the traditional timber framework known as Chuandou. This choice achieves a balance between sustainability and structural flexibility, while preserving the traditional spirit of local architecture.

Integration of Traditional and Modern Materials

Bamboo strips and timber elements were used to clad the roof and eaves, reflecting local architectural traditions while simultaneously adhering to contemporary structural standards. This integration strengthens the harmony between aesthetic expression and the building’s structural performance.

Enhancing Structural Performance

Double-curved steel rings, supported by steel columns, carry the timber roof, enabling the creation of large, column-free interior spaces. This system also optimizes the mechanical properties of wood, such as flexibility and load-bearing capacity, supporting a lightweight design that remains well integrated with its surrounding environment.

Courtyards as the Core of Daily Life

In Western Sichuan Linpan dwellings, courtyards and skywells extend beyond their ritualistic architectural role known as “Si Shui Gui Tang” (Four Waters Returning to the Hall). The surrounding eaves, corridors, and halls function as vibrant spaces for everyday life. This use reflects the close relationship between architecture and local lifestyles, where courtyards become centers for social interaction and daily activity.

The Central Courtyard and Its Role in Internal Circulation

The central part of the museum continues the Linpan courtyard typology. Enclosed on the sides yet open to the sky, it breaks horizontal boundaries and introduces a vertical dimension. This space serves as the core of internal circulation: visitors arrive here first, proceed to the lobby, return after viewing the exhibitions, and then move onward toward the surrounding fields.

Reinterpreting Traditional Social Interaction

The gathering around the central water feature evokes the scene known as “Bai Longmen Zhen”, a form of social chatting that characterizes Sichuan courtyards. This approach demonstrates how architecture can support social interaction and revive deeply rooted communal traditions within a contemporary, multifunctional context.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

The Douban Museum can be viewed as a model that bridges local architectural traditions with environmental responsiveness, demonstrating a clear integration between the building and its surrounding landscape, as well as a strong emphasis on interior spaces and courtyards as tools for enhancing social interaction. Nevertheless, several aspects merit attention within a broader architectural context.

First, the project’s strong focus on visual harmony with the natural environment reduces the prominence of a distinctive architectural landmark, which may make this approach difficult to replicate in different settings or on a larger scale. Second, reliance on materials such as bamboo and glued laminated timber offers structural flexibility and adaptability, yet it also introduces constraints in terms of maintenance and long-term durability when compared to more robust, long-lasting materials. Third, while courtyards and internal circulation spaces effectively reflect local culture, replicating this spatial model in denser urban environments may prove challenging due to spatial limitations and functional performance requirements.

Despite these considerations, the project offers valuable lessons for future architectural practice. The integration of buildings with their natural surroundings, the use of chromatic variation to blend architecture into its context, and the rethinking of interior spaces as catalysts for movement and social interaction are all concepts that can be adapted and reinterpreted across diverse architectural scenarios.