This project involves renovating an old building located on the south bank of Daming Lake in Jinan. It sits within a somewhat aged traditional neighborhood, facing the bright and open Daming Lake to the north.
Prior to renovation, the building served as the office for Luxin Culture Group and Jingya Hotel. The revamped space will open to the city as a vibrant art and cultural center, accommodating diverse functions including an art museum, theater, art bookstore, cultural creative experiences, art education, and specialty dining.
This multifunctional art space reconnects the natural landscape of Daming Lake with the historic cultural blocks along the lake, revitalizing the old city area with its minimalist yet distinctive architectural character, injecting new life into this culturally rich urban fabric.
The client envisions this building as a pioneer in Jinan’s cultural scene, fostering a fresh atmosphere and a more open approach. It aims to become a vibrant gathering place for urban culture and the arts.
To realize these goals and breathe new life into the otherwise gray, aged city area, the design process began by carefully examining the original building’s fundamental conditions.
The original structure consists of a uniform reinforced concrete frame with prestressed floor slabs. Each floor was largely disconnected from the others except via staircases. The resulting stagnant spaces and limited floor heights constrained the openness and flexibility that contemporary art spaces demand.
To address this, we reorganized and integrated the old building’s existing conditions with new functional requirements. Our inside-out approach aimed at unlocking freedom and necessary transformations in the interior, which in turn influenced the exterior façade and established a connection with the open Daming Lake view to the north.
We isolated functions unsuitable for openness into relatively enclosed, independent “boxes.” These boxes allowed us to remove the repetitive structural columns and break the horizontal floor constraints, enabling a free stacking, staggering, and compression within the six-story spatial framework.
The spaces between these boxes became open public areas, creating column-free, fluid, and continuously evolving communal spaces that span multiple floors. Vertically, these public areas connect upper and lower floors, integrating corridors and horizontal circulation into a unified whole. The original structural framework and floor slabs are visually concealed and liberated.
These core changes are clearly expressed on the building’s façade. The open spaces between the boxes serve as public areas that maximize the integration of the lake scenery to the north and sunlight from the south into the interior.
The compressed box forms create deeper, more penetrating interior spaces that enhance transparency and connection between inside and outside.
Functional zones within the building are not strictly separated by vertical floor slabs. Human use should flow freely across levels. Consequently, floor slabs partially removed or modified during the Jingya Hotel era were selectively taken down to minimize structural damage and facilitate vertical connectivity.
This also allowed us to establish new ceiling heights in public areas, breaking free from the original floor height limitations.
The architecture integrates an art museum, theater, art bookstore, cultural creative experiences, and art education into spaces with varying atmospheres and functions.
Key entities such as Xinshang Bookstore, Xinshang Art Museum, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts’ mass aesthetic education utilize these open areas, where art and commerce coexist without rigid physical boundaries.
Public staircases at floor openings link the museum, bookstore, and cultural spaces across multiple levels, maximizing shared access to art.
The newly created multi-level public space features an open circulation system with sculptural spiral staircases that connect platforms at different heights.
While retaining convenient vertical elevators, these open staircases move dynamically through the space, linking various functions and enriching the building experience by connecting each floor with the ground level.
To unify these stacked box spaces, the building’s exterior is clad in aluminum panels.
These panels are perforated with varying degrees of transparency, corresponding to the diverse interior spaces while allowing pedestrians to perceive the layered box volumes.
The panels’ corrugated design provides sufficient structural strength without additional supporting frameworks behind them.
The punched aluminum panels form independent window-like openings overlaying the facade’s public spaces, creating a staggered pattern of varying sizes.
This arrangement emphasizes openness in the public areas and defines a fresh new façade for the building.
At night, interior lighting shines through the perforations and openings, casting a warm, inviting glow that transforms the building into a luminous beacon.
The interior spaces, characterized by movement and continuity, become both distinct and interconnected, forming a three-dimensional, rich, and open artistic experience center.
The rooftop equipment has been removed and the space transformed into a semi-outdoor dining and activity area with shading.
From here, visitors can enjoy panoramic views of Daming Lake and fully appreciate the scenic beauty of Jinan’s historic cityscape.
(Note: Due to special circumstances, the interior vertical voids and open spiral staircases in the design will be implemented during a secondary construction phase. Structural reinforcements and condition preservation have been completed in the current construction.)
Project Drawings
△ Base schematic diagram
△ First floor plan
△ Second floor plan
△ Third floor plan
△ Fourth floor plan
△ Fifth floor plan
△ Sixth floor plan
△ Functional zoning diagram
△ Functional zoning diagram
△ Elevation drawing
△ Elevation drawing
△ Section diagram
△ Analysis chart
△ Analysis chart
△ Analysis chart
△ Analysis chart
△ Analysis chart
△ Section diagram
△ Detailed drawing
Project Information
Project Name: Minghu 100 Art and Culture Center (Central Academy of Fine Arts Shandong Art Education Center)
Project Type: Architecture, Interior, Landscape
Location: No. 100 Minghu Road, Jinan, Shandong
Design Firm: TAOA Tao Lei Architecture
Lead Architect: Tao Lei
Design Team: Tao Lei, Chen Zhen, Zhou Yumuling, Duan Zhenqiang, Li Gen, Xu Lili, Shi Tong, Sun Lang, Dai Yunyi, Li Jiming
Interns: Meng Xiangrui, Liu Zixin, Man Renfang
Owner: Shandong Culture and Tourism Group
Status: Completed (indoor void areas pending secondary decoration)
Design Period: 2017–2019
Construction Period: 2019–2022
Building Area: 5,805.85 square meters
Construction Drawing Coordination: China Construction Technology Group Co., Ltd
Interior Design: TAOA Tao Lei Architecture
Landscape Design: TAOA Tao Lei Architecture
Lighting Consultant: Jijing Lighting
Photography: Tao Lei
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