flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Design of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum unveiled

Museums

Design of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum unveiled

Reed Hilderbrand and Trahan Architects designed the project.


By David Malone, Associate Editor | November 16, 2020
National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U.S. Arboretum

Renderings: Design Distill for Reed Hilderbrand/Trahan Architects

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has approved a new concept design for the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum.

Located within the U.S. National Arboretum’s Core, the museum is conceived as an immersive and cohesive garden experience. The design organizes the Museum’s program around a central court that orients the visitor to a network of paths that lead to the four exhibitions, an expanded classroom, and administrative services. The exhibitions are conceived not as buildings, but as gardens, and blur the boundaries with the larger, surrounding garden.

 

National Bonsai and Penjing Museum exhibit

 

The design also establishes a pervasive grove of understory trees as the principal image and identity of the Museum. Mixed species surround and frame the various exhibitions and the central court. Garden walls organize a path through the display while charred wood posts and trellises rise above the exhibitions to filter light and shape a sense of enclosure.

The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum is the first project in Reed Hilderbrand’s Master Plan Update for the U.S. National Arboretum’s core.

Tags

Related Stories

Museums | Aug 24, 2021

MAD Architects unveils design for Hainan Science and Technology Museum

The project is slated to break ground in late August.

Resiliency | Aug 19, 2021

White paper outlines cost-effective flood protection approaches for building owners

A new white paper from Walter P Moore offers an in-depth review of the flood protection process and proven approaches.

Museums | Aug 17, 2021

The Rubin Museum of Art’s Mandala Lab set to open

The new space occupies the museum’s third floor.

Museums | Jul 20, 2021

ANOHA — The Children’s World of the Jewish Museum Berlin opens

Olson Kundig designed the project.

Museums | Jul 12, 2021

The world’s largest astronomy museum completes in Shanghai

Ennead Architects designed the project.

Museums | Jul 1, 2021

New-York Historical Society Museum & Library expands Central Park West location

Robert A.M. Stern Architects designed the project.

Resiliency | Jun 24, 2021

Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]

New on HorizonTV, oceanographer John Englander discusses his latest book, which warns that, regardless of resilience efforts, sea levels will rise by meters in the coming decades. Adaptation, he says, is the key to future building design and construction.

Museums | Jun 22, 2021

Cleveland’s Natural History museum to break ground on new Exhibit Hall

The added space will organize its artifacts and specimens to show humanity’s connection to science, the planet, and the universe.

Digital Twin | May 24, 2021

Digital twin’s value propositions for the built environment, explained

Ernst & Young’s white paper makes its cases for the technology’s myriad benefits.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Museums

Connecticut’s Bruce Museum more than doubles its size with a 42,000-sf, three-floor addition

In Greenwich, Conn., the Bruce Museum, a multidisciplinary institution highlighting art, science, and history, has undergone a campus revitalization and expansion that more than doubles the museum’s size. Designed by EskewDumezRipple and built by Turner Construction, the project includes a 42,000-sf, three-floor addition as well as a comprehensive renovation of the 32,500-sf museum, which was originally built as a private home in the mid-19th century and expanded in the early 1990s. 




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021