Inside The $100 Million Shanghai Astronomy Museum

China has unveiled an exotic astronomy museum in the heart of Shanghai and the architecture has attracted high praise from local and international observers. Based on data, this museum is the largest astronomy museum in the world. Besides the size, it has a very unique structure. First of all, it has no right angles or straight lines all through. Instead, it is designed with three overlapping arcs that resemble the structures found in orbit. As for the size, the museum is 420,000 square feet and will house different space artefacts and instruments. Moreover, it will have an exhibition room, a planetarium, an observatory and one more thing; a 78foot telescope. The design of the museum was conceived by a US firm called Ennead Architects. Ennead was not the only company interested in designing the museum but was the one that was picked after winning a 2014 International architectural design competition. The Museum, which finally opened to the public on July 18, 2021, will serve as one of the branches of Shanghai Science and Technology Museum solely dedicated to astronomical studies. The study of astronomy has been ongoing for centuries, and there are several centers dedicated to the study all over the globe. However, no entity or institution has a facility that is as big as this one in Shanghai. Also, many consider astronomy to be quite strange and uncharted water, which may be the reason behind the decision by Ennead Architects to design a museum that is as strange as the subject itself. The museum’s design is similar to the geometry of the universe and the energy movement of celestial bodies. Designers drew inspiration from the “three body problem” in physics which involves intricate choreography created by the unique gravitational attraction caused by several bodies in the solar system. One of the lead designers of the project, Thomas Wong said that the designers wanted the structure to be an embodiment of astronomical architecture. By using arc lines in place of straight walls, Wong and his team wanted to show visitors and onlookers how the world was always in constant motion and protected by multiple forces.