Shanghai Museum of Glass

Back in March, CreativeHunt met up with logon, the award-winning German architects commissioned to renovate the cluster of buildings that once housed a glass factory in far-flung Baoshan into a sleek, modern museum. As with so many things, though, it's what's on the inside that counts and after being opened for just a week, Tilman Thürmer, CEO of Coordination Asia, a Berlin and Shanghai-based design practice with a flair for museum planning shares some of the highlights, challenges and concept behind the latest addition to the city's cultural scene.



Covering some 5,000sqm, the museum is divided into five main sections: an introduction to the material itself; the history of glass in both China and the West; the many applications of glass in the worlds of science, architecture, astronomy and pharmaceuticals; a demonstration of carving and shaping glass; and finally a stunning selection of glass art by international artists, designers and brands – Dale Chihuly, Konstantin Grcic, Venini, they're all there. In a separate building, there's a hot glass performance space, and of course the requisite cafe and gift shop.

Museum planners Coordination Asia have been closely involved in all elements of the museum, from planning, concept design and interiors, right through to strategy and selection of exhibits. The company have some 15 years museum experience in Germany, with the Shanghai Museum of Glass being not only their first in China, but also their first dedicated to this particular medium. "I trained as an architect, so before I started this project I really just knew the usual stuff about glass. I really like it now, it's so interesting and I've learned to distinguish between the good and the better", enthuses Thürmer.



The museum is privately owned and is the brainchild of passionate glass collector and enthusiast, Mr. Zhang Lin. Local government is supportive of the project, financially so for certain educational programmes, and the collection comprises a mix of loans from private individuals and objects bought specifically for the display.

Thürmer's favourite section and a real strength of the museum is the collection of ancient Chinese glass objects – beads, burial objects, hairpins and the like – presented alongside just as striking but markedly fewer pieces from Europe. "The steps for a museum to build up a collection is first of all to have its own, which we're doing with Chinese glass. [In terms of inter-museum loans] It takes time – no museum would lend to a museum that they don't know, nor whether it operates professionally. We first of all have to work with what we have and show that everything is good here – then we move forward".

The Shanghai Museum of Glass has forged a cooperation with New York's Corning Museum, one of the largest and most influential institutions dedicated to the medium. In the future, Thürmer envisages object and exhibition exchanges, and the relationship has already proved fruitful in terms of advice, support and guidance for the fledgling China museum.



The dimly-lit lower gallery space guides visitors on a wending journey through history and across continents, all housed in waist height cases of glossy black glass, through to a lighter, more open area dedicated to the various and surprising applications of glass. "To arrange the objects is one thing but to play with the interests of the visitors, the sequence of impressions, the physical movement inside the space – that's why I love museums. At the beginning of a project, the client will present a story book with a list of ideas and exhibits they want to show, the story they want to tell. It gives us a rough idea of what might be interesting, what has a special visual qualities and you start to work through a virtual space picking out certain points where exhibits can work like lighthouses or magnets inside the space".



"The other idea behind the spacial arrangement is that museums nowadays needs to have two lives, one is 10am – 5pm, the regular museum and then after that it has a second life, which is as just as important: hosting cultural events, lectures and special exhibitions. For those events, the reception of the whole environment is different and we need the right spaces to work with."

Technology plays and important but not overpowering role in the presentation of exhibits, whilst interactive elements such as periscopes and lenses keep younger visitors entertained. Most striking, though, are huge vertical LED screens stretching the entire height of the building and displaying rolling text describing the achievements of the Shanghai Glass Company. The lights reflect beautifully in the upstairs display cases, infusing a bit of Shanghai into this otherwise very international museum.

Almost all of the interiors were sourced and built locally – the exception being magnificent stained glass panels on the upper level. Built without lead and comprising a dazzling array of colours, Coordination looked to America for importing the necessary materials.



Coordination Asia will work with the 20-strong staff on a long-term basis, and bring invaluable insight and experience of museums internationally. "Over the past 15 or 20 years, museums have taken steps to involve the visitor much more. There's still a lot of very static museums in China and of course modern museums need to be totally different – a museum shouldn't be like reading a three dimensional book; it's about collecting exhibits according to your own interests. A good museum shouldn't dictate what you see but instead encourage the visitors to make his or her own collage of impressions".

With the inside, outside and content of the museum set to impress, the only issue with the space is its location: the Baoshan suburb of Shanghai is some way from downtown, and neighbouring factories make for a less than ideal setting. According to an unfazed Thürmer, however, future plans include a metro station, and the area is already close to a Pudong tunnel. What's more, within the next two years, the surrounding factories will be relocated, and "everyone's extremely positive that the area will develop into a more urban space within the next five to ten years."

Despite the distance, Shanghai Museum of Glass is well worth a visit, and is big enough to wile away at least a good couple of hours. July's solo exhibition by American artist Steven Weinberg promises to be a spectacular showcase – the first of many, no doubt. To learn more, take a look at the museum's website here, and for more of Coordination Asia's projects, click here.