Dutch Architects MVRDV have won the international design competition for the China Comic and Animation Museum in Hangzhou, a metropolis with 6.4 million inhabitants 180 km southwest of Shanghai.

They have created a design referring to the speech balloon: a series of eight speech balloon shaped volumes create an internally complex museum experience of in total 32.000m2. Part of the project is also a series of parks on islands, a public plaza and a 13.000m2 expo centre.

Most of the 13.7 ha site is occupied by a new park on a series of islands. A separate expo building of 25.000m2 will house large fairs and the annual China International Comic and Animation Festival (CICAF).

MVRDV was set up in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. MVRDV engages globally in providing solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues.The results are exemplary and outspoken buildings, urban plans, studies and objects, which enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future.

Current projects include various housing projects in the Netherlands, Spain, China, France, the United Kingdom, USA, India, Korea and other countries, a bank headquarter in Oslo, Norway, a public library for Spijkenisse , Netherlands, a central market hall for Rotterdam, a culture plaza in Nanjing, China, large scale urban plans include a plan for an eco-city in Logroño, Spain, an urban vision for the doubling in size of Almere, Netherlands and Grand Paris, the vision of a post-Kyoto Greater Paris region.

The Low Countries Yearbook traditionally devotes a lot of attention to architecture. Renowned author Hans Ibelings wrote two articles about MVRDV in TLC. Find them here and here.