The Hohhot museum which was the former Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Museum was built in 1957. It was the important landmark in Hohhot and its front-square was looked as City gate. With the development of the city and the completion of the new Inner Mongolia Museum, this Museum will be converted to Hohhot city museum. Now the area is facing the opportunity of inner city transiting development as the government departments are moving out of the inner city. The building considered as a city landmark, it is supposed to set a protection principle for its façade renovation. The façade’s form and color fully comply with the original design, and the lintel stone carving and other good-quality constructions are preserved. The external wall cover materials are replaced with the light-colored granite for a better long-term protection and maintenance of the building.
According to the analysis of the site, the main problems focus on: [1] the museum as a landmark is not obvious, as being the core of the inner city facing to Xinhua Street, the sight of the museum has been blocked by trees, unable to become an urban visual focus; [2] the square in front of the museum being surrounded by urban main roads cannot play the role of a square for pedestrians but becomes a traffic roundabout; it lacks open space in front of the main entrance to the museum, parking places for the surrounding high-rise buildings, proper functions for city life, that makes the area’s lack of attraction, traffic congestion, and ultimately the city gate becoming into the city cecum.
Face the problem, and solution alignment: [1] The open square in front of the museum’s attention: from the traffic circle to restore the public square; [2] to ease traffic: by increasing the central city parking lot, the construction of the underground of the contact the museum and the surrounding walking trails channel, isolated cities in the cecum re-change the heart of the city; [3] to increase the urban function: isolation of the urban freeway will be the public square, about B1 level, B1 can be understood as a ground for Sunken Plaza. B1 is the main entrance of the museum; it is also contact surrounding the hub of space and underground parking, set in a large number of urban living space features, such as: food and beverage, entertainment, leisure, city tourism information services.
Roof plaza’s design makes the ground plaza and underground function space is closely linked with unprecedented spatial experience and freedom. A porous interface, as the square ground is sinking the roof of the space. These holes become: Vertical transport tube; open garden; Master glass closed sun winter garden; underground skylights. Here will be the destination of the city’s clubs, public life and consumption. The new design will become the pacemaker of the inner city, not only to lay a decisive basis for developing the region into an urban cultural center, at the same time promote and enhance the holistic transformation of the surrounding area.
