Invented Ruin, Concrete Memory: The Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum by Atelier Deshaus and the Shamen Grain Depot Cultural and Creative Park

The Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum, designed by Atelier Deshaus, stands as an abandoned concrete ruin in the midst of the little-known Shamen Grain Depot Cultural and Creative Park, one of the n-fold Chinese former productive sites regenerated as cultural, creative and commercial parks. Forgotten, because it is unused and lacking any specific cultural programme at the time of writing; a ruin, because of Deshaus' unapologetic brutalism, or brutality. The building displays a sophisticated formality resulting from a strong volumetric character, the consistent use of reinforced concrete vaulting for vertical and horizontal enclosures and a subtle relationship with the context. The present essay examines this project in a multi-scalar fashion. First, it briefly delves into Taizhou and Jiaojiang's district urban development; then, it links the district's transformation to the conversion of the Shamen Grain Depot into a cultural and creative park. Finally, it considers how the museum relates to the surroundings, its architectural meaning, how it sits in Atelier Deshaus' body of works and its meaning as a new (empty) ruin for the urban memory of Taizhou.