Cream-white volumetric masses rise against an arid mountainous backdrop in and Studio's Tibetan Thangka Art Museum, presenting a striking compositional dialogue between geometric architectural forms a

and Studio's Tibetan Thangka Art Museum emerges from its mountainous valley context as a sculptural composition of pristine white geometric volumes orchestrated in a carefully calibrated asymmetrical

Pale limestone blocks articulate the facade of and Studio's Tibetan Thangka Art Museum through horizontal stratification and rectilinear apertures, establishing a compositional architecture governed b

and Studio's Tibetan Thangka Art Museum emerges through a soaring interior atrium where monumental scale meets intricate material articulation, establishing an architectural vocabulary that privileges

and Studio's Museum captures a monumental interior volume where deep oxblood walls rise toward a zenithal aperture, establishing a vertical shaft of space governed by strict bilateral symmetry along a

Silver Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2024

Tibetan Thangka Art Museum

by AND Studio

A' Design Award 2024 Silver Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
Awarded April 15, 2024
CLIENT: And Studio
Estimated Number of Design Views: 27,655
Verification code C5457510E5 · Verify this award

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About Tibetan Thangka Art Museum

Lhasa Thangka Museum is a museum for Thangka art set at the foothills of the mountains in Lhasa. The building is organized in the manner of a Tibetan monastery and creates a dialogue with the mountain and the sky. An external path climbs between the volumes and leads to a high square, while an interior path arranges the exhibition spaces. Traditional stone walls are reinterpreted as double ventilated concrete walls, which improve insulation and reduce energy use. Local materials and local labor were used. The museum promotes Thangka art and Tibetan culture.

The Tibetan Thangka Art Museum by and Studio represents a distinguished contribution to contemporary cultural architecture, one that thoughtfully mediates between modernist formal principles and the profound spiritual heritage of its regional context. The building's composition of interlocking geometric volumes suggests an engagement with the additive massing strategies found in traditional highland settlements, where structures accumulated organically over time to form cohesive architectural ensembles. The prominent tower element may evoke associations with historic watchtowers and ceremonial structures that have long punctuated the mountainous landscape, while its contemporary expression through clean planar surfaces and an open lattice crown speaks to a forward-looking institutional identity. The perforated screen walls demonstrate sophisticated environmental and aesthetic consideration, allowing controlled natural light to penetrate interior spaces while creating animated shadow patterns that change throughout the day. This interplay between solid and void, between protective enclosure and measured transparency, suggests the building's role as both guardian of precious cultural artifacts and welcoming threshold for public engagement. The restrained material palette of smooth rendered surfaces in warm ivory tones establishes visual harmony with the surrounding terrain while asserting the structure's presence as a significant cultural landmark. The horizontal banding articulating the facades introduces human scale to otherwise monumental volumes and creates rhythmic continuity across the building's varied masses. Positioned against the dramatic backdrop of barren mountains, the museum appears simultaneously rooted in its landscape and distinguished from it, a gesture of contemporary culture rising from ancient terrain. One might contemplate how the architecture itself becomes a meditation on the relationship between preservation and innovation, between the sacred traditions housed within and the contemporary means of their presentation.

Press Kit

Unique Properties: Set against the foothills of the mountains, the Lhasa Thangka Museum is organized in the manner of a Tibetan monastery, with an emphasis on dialogue with the mountain and the sky. The detail design respects the heritage of the local culture and reproduces the traditional artistic features with a modern architectural language.The museum aims to be a window for the dissemination of Thangka art, it will treasure and promote Thangka culture and Tibetan culture.
Dimensions & Packaging: The main tower is used as an exhibition space, as a vantage point to admire the landscape and at the same time acts as a "wind tower": it creates natural ventilation and cools the building during the very hot summers. The double wall structure guarantees the insulation of the building, the reduction energy consumption for heating and cooling by 30%, and the integration of the technical equipment.
Tags: museum, thangka art, concrete, brass, glass curtain wall
Production Technology: The project is organized in two paths: the external one, which takes up the path of the Tibetan monastery, a climb between the different volumes, which recalls the ascent of the mountain, to lead to the high square, where During the “Sho Dun” festival, you can admire a large Thangka suspended against the tower; the other interior, which organizes the exhibition spaces and the objects on display following the path of the believer in search of enlightenment. In order to get as close as possible to the zero carbon objective, quite a lot of work has been done on the search for local materials and producers and reducing CO2 production and energy consumption. We convinced our Client not to import materials from elsewhere, avoiding long supply transportation, favoring local manpower and materials. To protect the environment, quarries are now banned in the region. We therefore chose to reinterpret the traditional stone walls with double ventilated concrete walls. We used pressed clay, a local ancestral technique, to create the floor of the exhibition spaces.
Design Challenge: At first we wanted to use the local stone, following the vernacular architecture. However quarrying is now prohibited in this region in order to protect the environment. We have therefore chosen to reinterpret the traditional stone walls with double walls in concrete.
We chose concrete instead of steel and metal cladding in order to avoid any importation of materials.
Project Duration: The project started in February 2019 and finished in May 2022 in Lhasa, China
Operation Flow: We designed this museum to promote learning and meditation. The light work and scenography are designed to sublimate the centuries-old paintings, which will serve as inspiration and testimony for future generations.
The museum itinerary was designed in collaboration with the curator and a local monk. The use of natural light as an architectural component has guided the design of the spaces. Zenithal light, claustra and fissures occasionally pierce the walls and roofs of the exhibition halls.
Research: At the genesis of this project, a great collector contacted us to promote and exhibit this art from the Buddhist religion; a cultural and secular approach unprecedented in Tibet. Exploring Lhasa guided by a monk and by the client allowed us to immerse ourselves in this ancestral culture. For us, it was a question here of conceiving a poetic, spiritual project, intimately linked to this context. Through our architect's eyes, we have transcribed our learning of Buddhist culture to create a museum deeply rooted in the local reality; a secular place where the boundaries between art and spirituality merge.
Inspiration: Two years ago we were approached by the largest holder of Thangka art collection in the world to study for a museum project in Tibet. We have the ambition to reconcile modernity and tradition. For this we took an initiatory journey to learn Thangka art, local culture, in its expressions of volumetric and architectural composition. The progression through the Potala Palace inspires the journey around the volumes of our project.
Image Credits: Photo and Video by: Arch-Exist Photography
Patents: Design: AND Studio
Consultant: CSCEC AECOM Consultants Co., LTD

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