Following an international competition, RTKL, the ARCADIS affiliate, was awarded the complex task of designing a new science and technology center for the city of Shanghai, China. Faced with the challenges of both embracing the culturally sensitive past and representing the future of a rapidly emerging high-tech city, the designers created an architectural statement that provides a civic and educational icon for tourists and residents.

Marked by a climbing roof structure that represents the city’s boundless ascent, the building is broken into tall, airy exhibit space on one side and enclosed auditoriums on the other. A large glass wall integrates the activity of an outdoor civic plaza seamlessly into the interior spaces, creating the impression of public access and fluid movement. A large, technologically sophisticated elliptical ball provides the entry area and represents—when combined with a decorative hanging sphere—an egg and its yolk, an important Chinese symbol. Other traditional materials are used in concert with modern, sustainable materials to show the relationship between history and future, science and man.