The Baietan Greater Bay Area Art Center project, which began in October 2020, is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2023. Its curtain walls construction and the interior decoration  are nearing completion.

Photo provided to GDToday

The art center is located in Baietan by the Pearl River in the Liwan District of Guangzhou. The construction includes the Guangdong Museum of Art (including the Guangdong Museum of Contemporary Art), the Guangdong Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Center, and the Guangdong Museum of Literature.

The building was designed by He Jingtang, a renowned architect and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. There are two floors underground and 11 floors above the ground, with the tallest section being 78.2 meters.

The project received the Gold Award for Construction Engineering Steel Structure, the highest honor in China.

The glass ceiling in the Guangdong Museum of Art is in a fashionable and simple style. (Photo provided to GDToday)

The hall on the third floor of the Guangdong Museum of Art has a view of the Pearl River. (Photo provided to GDToday)

According to the contractor China Construction Third Engineering Bureau, the wall of the building is made from French wood grain stone, so controlling its flatness and color difference is essential. Some walls have several exhaust vents, requiring high precision of the space between each wind tunnel. A hidden light track is located on top of the ceiling, which has a large span of more than 30 meters.

The curtain wall is a highlight of the art center. The total area of the curtain wall is 80,000 square meters, including 11 curtain wall systems and 22 sub-systems. It is formed by a large number of white ceramic plates and ceramic sticks, which not only create a sparkling visual effect under the sunlight but also show the Chinese ceramic culture to the world. 

Massive use of ceramic plates (Photo provided to GDToday)

The whole building is like a ceramic "giant ship" setting by the Pearl River (Photo: gzliwanfb)

There are very few examples of using ceramic plate curtain walls in building facades, and this building used more than 10,000 ceramic plates, the first case with such a massive use of ceramic plates in Guangzhou. The main facade, an oversized double-curved deformation curtain wall, used more than 4,600 ice crack glazed ceramic plates, with great difficulty in installation.