Jean Nouve l VF X The realm of ‘Light’, Museum of Art Pudong officially opened

A beam of light, a master, and a territory

© Museum of  Art Pudong

As a brand-new art landmark in Shanghai, ‘Museum of Art Pudong’ was officially opened to the public on July 8 this year after three years of construction. 
The project adopts the design concept of "territory" and was designed by The Pritzker Architecture Prize winner- architect Jean Nouvel.Located in a "poetic location", the art museum uses multiple "poetic dimensions" to create a white square box like a sculpture, standing quietly on the front line of the Lujiazui Riverside.

Jean Nouvel believes: ‘The poetic dimension is particularly important in the expression of Museum of Art Pudong. Architecture and art live forever in dialogue. Art and poetry continue to polish each other's meaning in architecture.’VF is honored to provide customized lighting solutions for this new cultural landmark on the east bank of the Pujiang River.We aim to use light to improve the visual quality and spatial experience of the art gallery.

Feel the soft weaving inside and outside the building

Mirror Hall of Museum of  Art Pudong

The design concept of the Mirrors Hall on the west side of Museum of  Art Pudong is taken from the "fourth dimension" proposed by the artist Du Shang in his work "Big Glass".The large screen in the "Hall of Mirrors" is also an architectural element that Jean Nouvel is good at.

The different sizes glass dotted in it communicates the space inside and outside the art gallery. Walking in the Hall of Mirrors, the superimposed mirror surface reflects the scene of the Bund on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River and the activities of the people in the exhibition hall. When night falls, the overlapping and interaction of light and shadow adds another joy of experience.

In the Pudong Art Museum designed by Jean Nouvel, light is an important styling element. The polished white hemp granite gives different textures to the building facade and ground, and the diffusely reflected light creates a sense of harmony and unity between the building and the surrounding landscape.

The "Supremacy" runs through the interior space of the gallery . The white walls and pure black geometric shapes are combined and arranged by the arrangement of points, lines and surfaces under the background of lights, so that the space achieves an abstract beauty.

Malevich’s ‘Suprematist Painting’

The interior lighting design of the art gallery uses a combination of natural light and artificial light. The arrangement of artificial light sources is inspired by Malevich's classic geometric lines, an outstanding representative of modern art, which meets the needs of lighting design and lighting and has the beauty of geometric arrays.

Starting from the entrance hall, rows of VF FOLLO series track lights (28W/52D/4000K) are installed on the ceiling to provide basic lighting support. The unique experience created by the use of light and shadow and the sense of spatial hierarchy reflects the interweaving characteristics of the refinement and complex state of contemporary art.

The french sash introduce natural light and cooperate with the artificial light of 4000K color temperature to create a natural and fresh light environment. The change of 0.1%-100% dimming over time makes the light and space have unlimited possibilities, which also creates depth and visual boundaries for the space.

When people are in the exhibition hall, thinking or communicating in front of artworks, light seems to flow inadvertently with time. The indoor light extends the public space upwards, and the scattered light meets the light unexpectedly. FOLLO's precise and comfortable light is perfectly integrated with the architecture, adding a little bit of agility and publicity to the space.

In addition to the 13 regular exhibition halls, the Museum of  Art Pudong has a 4-storey X exhibition hall in the building center. Inside the building, due to the rich interlacing of spaces, it is often fun to "peek" from a certain angle, and the warm light from a distance dyes the whole walkway into a gorgeous and warm atmosphere. When people stand or walk along the flow line of the exhibition, following the guidance of the light, they will be captured by careful viewers in another space and become a clever or silent image decoration.

When people walk in the exhibition hall, all they feel are mottled light spots that flow naturally. There is no direct light here, all of them are diffuse reflections of "several twists and turns". VF FOLLO (65W/52D/4000K) uses light and shadow to reveal out of the complexity and diversity of the space and creates a poetic flowing narrative. The viewer will unconsciously slow down in an environment filled with natural light and appreciate each piece of work without anxiety or in a hurry,or lean in a corner and meditate quietly.

The public lighting area of Museum of  Art Pudong has a technical difficulty. It is the constantly changing daylight enters from the outside.
 In order to avoid the effect of the pure white wall with high reflectivity on the light spot effect and to ensure the reasonable and uniform light effect of the structure. The project have passed the customize FOLLO series track lights to achieve high-efficiency lighting solutions.


VF’s lighting design is people-oriented and start from the audience’s point of view. Through strict light source selection and innovative optical design, the lamp has realized a lighting scheme with high luminous efficiency, large angle (52D), and low glare (UGR<13). At the same time, after repeated precision simulations and demonstrations, customized dimming (0.1%-100%) and angle adjustment (30°) ,it have brought great flexibility to the art gallery lighting. FOLLO makes the the light can blend with the pure white space so that the venue get the best lighting effect award. 


The public area of the building is an empty floor, which has very strict requirements for lighting installation, safety management and anti-glare treatment in each area. The VF team worked with the designers to solve the above-mentioned problems step by step after many site surveys, product sampling, and effect adjustments for the special structure of the building.


In terms of lighting installation, we can customize FOLLO series track lights suitable for HALFEN slot installation to achieve fast and reliable installation and  a unified effect with architectural decoration.


In terms of glare control, FOLLO uses honeycomb mesh anti-glare accessories. The outstanding anti-glare performance can not only ensure the brightness requirements of large-scale spaces, but also greatly enhance the visual comfort.

The custom-made VF FOLLO series track lights widely used in this project have a simple design that perfectly blends with the modern art atmosphere of the Pudong Art Museum.

VF always pursues high-quality light and cooperates with designers to create a visual feast. At the same time, the design of industrial aesthetics is pursued, so that the indoor lamps and lanterns of architectural lighting can also become scenery and decorate life with charm.

Project information
Project name: Museum of  Art Pudong
Address: 2777 Binjiang Avenue, Pudong New Area, Shanghai City China.
Architectural Design: Jean Nouvel Architects/Tongji University Architectural Design and Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd.
Lighting design: Tongji University Architectural Design and Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd.
Lamp series: customized FOLLO
Photo Copyright: Museum of  Art Pudong
Photographer: Chen Hao