Inspired by Richard Buckminster Fuller’s 1960 design for a giant geodesic dome that would encase Midtown Manhattan in a controlled climate, MAD Architects have created a museum like no other for the new Chinese city of Ordos.

The Art and City Museum project was first envisioned in 2005 in the then desert wilderness of Inner Mongolia when the municipal government of Ordos commissioned MAD to design a museum for the then un-built metropolis. Driven by a booming economy, the municipal government of Ordos had decided to create a new city, dozens of kilometres away from the current city, on a site that until recently was nothing but the Gobi Desert.

In the architects’ view, the urban masterplan drew a symbolic but empty image of “the Ever Rising Sun on the Grassland”: a rigid and precise series of urban landscapes radiating from a central plaza and symbolizing the sun.

“This ordered plan fulfilled the wishes of the government, but shows no real consideration for the people who live in the city,” the architects said in a statement.

Amidst the controversy surrounding the planned city, it became evident that the museum for Ordos must navigate the many contradictions that emerge when local culture meets with visions of the future city.

Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s “Manhattan Dome”, MAD conceived of a futuristic shell to protect the cultural history of the region and refute the rational new city outside.

Encapsulated by a sinuous façade, the 41,227m² museum sits on top of a sloping hill – a gesture to the recent desert past and now a favourite gathering place for local children and families.

The structure is wrapped in polished metal louvers to reflect and dissolve the planned surroundings. This shell encloses a new interior, totally separate from the urban reality.

Upon entering the atrium, a brighter, more complex world unfolds. A canyon-like corridor connects the east and west entrances, allowing the space to become an open extension of the outer urban space. Visitors meander through the space as if in the future – yet eternal– Gobi desert.

The interior is divided into several exhibition halls, defined by continuous curvilinear walls, all opening onto the shared public space that runs through the museum. The glazed roof draws light into this environment, which is then channelled through the building by the luminescent walls, whilst the louvers allow natural ventilation.

This new space creates a bright, tranquil and fluid environment, providing visitors with a totally different feeling to that which they experience in the city outside. “In this vital space where the past and the contemporary are joined, people can meet with art and with each other, giving new spirit to this young community,” the architects said.