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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →The Chengdu Science Fiction Museum in Chengdu, China, was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects as an expanding nebula cloud with a star at its center. Completed and opened in 2023, the 59,000-square-metre building brings exhibition and event spaces together with a lakeside landscape and reported water- and energy-saving features.
Where the museum is and how it meets the landscape
The museum stands beside Jingrong Lake in Chengdu’s Science & Innovation New City, in Pidu District. Its setting is part of the visitor approach: pedestrian routes run from the city through surrounding parkland toward the building, while indoor and outdoor plazas connect its galleries, educational facilities, cafes and other amenities.
Zaha Hadid Architects described the design as integrating with the lakeshore landscape and linking activity nodes through a journey between plazas at multiple levels. The architectural concept is not simply a cloud-shaped object set beside the water; it also organizes movement between the surrounding park and the building’s public spaces.
What the nebula concept means in the architecture
The project’s stated concept is an amorphous, expanding nebula cloud with a star at its center. It is a design idea rather than a measurable property of the building. Curved forms and lighting continue the futuristic, science-fiction atmosphere inside.
The interior includes a spacious central atrium illuminated by a large skylight. Glazing frames views outward, including a large window facing a nearby mountain, bringing the landscape into the experience of the building.
What is inside the 59,000-square-metre museum
New Atlas reported in 2023 that the museum has 59,000 square metres of interior area, or roughly 635,000 square feet. The reported program includes exhibition spaces, conference halls, event areas, galleries and theaters.
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This mix supports both museum visits and larger gatherings. The atrium and linked indoor and outdoor plazas provide shared circulation and gathering spaces between the individual functions.
Reported environmental features
New Atlas reported that the building uses natural ventilation and has a large rooftop solar-panel array intended to reduce the electricity it draws from the grid. These are reported design features; the article does not provide performance figures or measured energy savings.
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- Great extension activities for science and biology
- Correlated to standards
- Comprehensive biology vocabulary study
- Fascinating true-to-life illustrations
Jingrong Lake also serves as a rainwater collection and storage resource. The water is filtered for reuse inside the building, but the architect did not specify the applications. Irrigation or toilet flushing should therefore not be treated as confirmed uses.
Opening and WorldCon milestone
The museum opened in 2023. In an article published October 25 of that year, New Atlas reported that it had officially opened in the preceding days and had hosted WorldCon and the Hugo Award event around its opening. The article described this as the first time those events had been held in China; that is a historical account of the 2023 occasion, not a statement about current programming.
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New Atlas, “Futuristic sci-fi museum forms a nebulous star cloud in China,” October 25, 2023. The article attributes the project description to Zaha Hadid Architects.
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