The city of Shanghai, China, has a new attraction: the new Astronomy Museum, which is considered to be the largest astronomy museum in the world, has opened its doors.. Surrounded by a huge green area, this 38,000 square meter facility has no lines or right angles, because the Ennead Architects, responsible for designing the project, let himself be inspired by the geometry of the universe and the dynamic energy of celestial motion.

According to the portal "Idealist", this is a modern building that looks to the future, but also has a connection to the past. In this way, the museum manages to reflect both the history of Chinese astronomy and the future ambitions of China's space exploration program. "By linking the new museum with scientific purpose and to the buildings' celestial references throughout history, the exhibits and architecture will convey more than scientific content: they will illuminate the significance of humans in a vast and largely unknown universe."

The museum design proposed by Ennead Architects went out to public competition and came out the winner. "Inspired by astronomical principles, the design strategy, which won an international competition, draws on the experience of the movement of orbits. Each of the three main forms of the building, the Oculus, the Inverted Dome and the Sphere, acts as an astronomical element, following the sun, moon and stars and reminding visitors that our conception of time originates from distant astronomical objects," they say on the architecture studio's website. The form, the program, and the spaces to circulate in the building allow visitors to experience these three central bodies in a particular way.

Suspended over the museum's main entrance, the Oculus shows the passage of time by tracing a circle of sunlight on the ground with the help of the entrance floor and reflecting pool. At noon during the summer solstice, a full circle is formed, which aligns with a circular platform inside the museum plaza.

The Sphere sits above the planetarium theater that is half submerged. This element creates the illusion of weightlessness or antigravity. Its purely spherical shape references the primordial forms of the universe and becomes an omnipresent reference point for the visitor, just like the sun and the moon. Embedded in the plane of the roof of the lower wing of the museum, the sphere emerges as you move around the building.

The third characteristic element is the inverted dome, a large glass structure that sits atop the building's central atrium. Located at the roof line, visitors are invited to focus only on the sky as the space itself cuts off the view at the skyline. The 720-degree spiral ramp inside the museum and under the inverted dome traces the path of visitors, in the shape of an orbit, leading them to the museum's various exhibits.