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Design

Balloon-Like Comic and Animation Museum To Land In China

Huangzhou’s soon-to-be built hub for comics and animation will include both ancient cartoons and modern digital manga.

Looking for authentic Chinese-made animation? Kung Fu Panda or Mulan could be a good start, but these are not the ones you should really dig into. Instead, we suggest watching the classic Chinese-made animation The Monkey King or Princess Iron Fan.

China has a rich history in the field of animation and comics. The first elementary zoetrop was invented by Ting Huan around 180 AD, and modern animated films started to bloom in the early 30s. In order to preserve ancient comics as well as school audiences in contemporary Chinese animation, Huangzhou will break ground on the China Comic and Animation Museum (CCAM) beginning early next year.

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Dutch architecture company MVRDV won the open call to design the museum with an appropriate dream-like proposal consisting of eight cartoon speech balloons. Each of the eight balloons will be interconnected, allowing for a circular tour of the entire space.

The museum has already acquired the full work and drawings from the classic animations Monkey King and Afanti, marking the beginning of a thrilling collection. Alongside permanent archives of the most revered cult classics, the museum will also play host to temporary modern digital animation exhibitions.

A huge visual projection will be displayed in the center lobby, and the public will be even able to actively experiment with all sorts of animation techniques including blue screen, stop motion, drawing, etc. The core attraction of this space will be a gigantic 3D zoetrope, but the museum will also accomodate three movie theaters and an enormous library.

The Library

Interactive Outdoor Lighting

The museum is only part of MVRDV’s initial vision. Eventually the museum will be incased within an entire park including office buildings, hotels, a conference center and public spaces.