Suzhou MoCA by BIG: A Contemporary Vision on Jinji Lake

Set to open in 2026, the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (Suzhou MoCA) by BIG reimagines the city’s centuries-old garden traditions through a modern architectural lens.

Located along the scenic Jinji Lake waterfront, the 60,000-square-meter museum unfolds as a village of twelve interlinked pavilions unified beneath a flowing, ribbon-like roof. Its undulating stainless-steel surfaces and curved glass façades reflect the surrounding sky and water, blurring the line between built form and landscape.

Bjarke Ingels describes the design as “a garden of pavilions and courtyards” — a network of interconnected galleries and glazed corridors that weave between courtyards, trees and pools, echoing the rhythm of Suzhou’s classical gardens.

The museum will debut next year with Materialism, an exhibition curated by BIG that explores the role of materials in architecture through large-scale models and tactile displays of twenty BIG projects worldwide.

You can learn more about the project and see more from BIG on their website.

Photos: Ye Jianyuan and Justin Szeremeta.

More architecture inspiration via Bjarke Ingels Group