Xinanying City Gate Arch

The Xinanying City Gate Arch is a mini museum.

Located in the historic district of old Nantong, this site once housed a city gate opening, though its exact location is no longer verifiable due to historical changes over time. The current Minguo-retro-style building on the site is a reconstruction based on an original structure, but its materials and proportions differ significantly.

Given these site conditions, our design introduces an entirely new structure in a firm and grounded manner, serving as a footnote to the site's layered history. The gate arch simulates the traditional height and curvature proportions of an old city gate but extends the depth to 9 meters to enhance a sense of spatial depth. At the same time, the thickness of the passage walls gradually increases from both ends toward the center, creating an appearance of an alien object—something otherworldly. As a result, we encounter a landscape that is both unfamiliar and familiar: the exterior form stands apart from the surrounding retro commercial buildings, while the interior experience evokes something recognizable and traditional, pointing directly to the city’s ancient past.

The gate structure is made entirely of stainless steel framing and panels, with a black fluorocarbon coating. Different surface textures are used to display museum introduction/statement texts. The thickest part of the tapered walls houses observation windows on both sides, positioned at eye level. These windows offer views into small exhibition spaces set in the adjacent side rooms of the existing building, where rotating displays of images or physical objects are presented.