Inheritance and Innovation of Culture in Suzhou Museum Design

I think an excellent building is always regarded as a monument of traditional culture and aesthetic achievement. A city or a nation will not have status without its own representative buildings. In such a environment of globalization, many Chinese contemporary buildings have been being influenced by the Western architectural styles. The architectural style of most contemporary buildings is showing a tendency to Western architectural style such as some skyscrapers. As a consequence, people cannot point out any element or factor of Chinese contemporary architectural styles have local cultural characteristic.

From my point of view, buildings are always playing crucial role in the environment of a whole city, and one of the most important principles is to consider the relation between local historical culture and surrounding environment. However a building not only has to reflect traditional culture but also supported by new technologies. Italian structural engineer architect Pier Luigi Nervi's thesis is that "a good architecture is a synthesis of technology and art."1 The city buildings should have the attribute of technology and culture. The development of science and technology is achieved by discovery or invention, that is to say, new technologies are updated all the time, people can abandon outdated technologies without thinking. However, the progress of culture and art should depend on the accumulation, it is a gradual change. And the most significant is to balance inheritance and innovation.Therefore, facing the challenge of Western culture, how can a building has local traditional culture and keep step with the contemporary society of China? I think the new Suzhou Museum is a good example to answer the question.

Suzhou is renowned as a center of art and culture in China. It is an ancient city has 2700-year history. "Many graceful epithets have been applied to Suzhou--'Venice of China' (Fig.1), 'city of garden' (Fig.2)--for its bridges and gardens were as renowned as its pagodas and temples. During the Ming dynasty (1368－1644) the city was a gathering place for the nation's leading poets and painters, which may account for the number of outstandingly beautiful gardens which brought the city fame. More than a hundred such gardens in and around Suzhou, were recorded in the city's history."2

All the Suzhou traditional gardens are private gardens. The existing private gardens were built as 1 Pier Luigi Nervi, Aesthetics and Technology in Building

2 Johnston, Scholar Gardens of China, 94

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