The originality and uniqueness of Shanghai Museum of Glass lies in the fact that it breaks with exhibition patterns of traditional museums. Based on the concept of sharing, the museum shares with you the countless possibilities of glass ranging from witnessing the creations and inventions in the glass field to the self-creations in the glass art.
Shanghai Museum of Glass was initiated and funded by Shanghai Glass Co., Ltd., which had witnessed the development of the glass industry in Shanghai and attentively preserved and inherited a century-old history and its product culture. Zhang Lin, CEO of Shanghai Museum of Glass, notes the extraordinary historical charm of this ordinary glass factory. Hence the remarkable transformation from a melting workshop to an art space on the site of the glass factory once experiencing melting of fire and heat.
The main architecture of the contemporary museum is an old glass melting workshop. The design of the Museum integrates both new and existing structures, which keeps and highlights the features of the old workshop, and also gives the architecture new functionality and iconic status. As visitors travel through the museum, they will be brought in contact with the series of old and new spaces created by designs and experience extraordinary imaginations and infinite sharing interpreted by the ordinary glass in our life in an original and creative manner.
Shanghai Museum of Glass covers a building area of about 5,000 m2 of which 3,750 m2 is the main hall and also has a reception hall, permanent and temporary exhibition halls, collection rooms, an office area, museum shops, a library, a café, a hot glass demonstration hall and DIY workshop.
The contemporary museum displays numerous works and exhibits, ranging from architectural glass to sophisticated scientific instruments, to historical relics and to contemporary design works through a combination of multi-experience environment and interactions so as to lead visitors to go back to the history step by step, understand the glass in both ancient and modern times and have a more systematic and scientific understanding and higher-level artistic appreciation on glass – a common material deeply rooted in life. Images courtesy of Diephotodesigner.
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