Shenzhen Opens South China’s Largest Natural History Museum

SHENZHEN, CHINA - The 105,300-square-metre Shenzhen Natural History Museum brings architecture, landscape and science together in a major new cultural landmark beside Yanzi Lake.

Shenzhen has officially opened the Shenzhen Natural History Museum, unveiling the largest natural history museum in South China and one of the world’s largest newly built institutions of its kind.

Opened on 28 July 2026, the 105,300-square-metre museum is located beside Yanzi Lake in Shenzhen’s Pingshan District and was designed by an international consortium comprising 3XN, B+H Architects and Zhubo Design.

Rather than approaching the museum as a conventional standalone building, the design integrates architecture with the surrounding river delta landscape. Its sweeping granite-clad roof rises from the site as a continuous sculpted landform, extending into publicly accessible terraces and plazas that can remain active beyond museum opening hours.

The project forms part of Shenzhen’s wider investment in cultural infrastructure and reflects the city's growing emphasis on science, education, innovation and design.

Architecture Shaped by the Landscape

The museum’s architectural language takes inspiration from the geology, waterways and hills surrounding the site.

Its flowing exterior is punctuated by carved openings revealing exhibition spaces within the structure, while five cone-shaped volumes organise the primary galleries. Inside, visitors move through cave-like passages, atriums, terraces and framed views of the surrounding landscape.

Kim Herforth Nielsen, Founder, Senior Partner, and Creative Director at 3XN, described the concept as an attempt to create a building that behaves more like a natural landscape.

“Nothing in nature is square. Nature is amorphous, dynamic, and always in formation. From the beginning, the ambition was to create not a building but a piece of landscape that had always been there, shaped by local geology, water and time,” Nielsen said.

The original competition-winning concept has subsequently evolved into what Nielsen described as “a place where the story of our planet is experienced as a physical journey through terrain, light and space.”

Eight Galleries Trace 4.6 Billion Years of History

The architectural journey continues inside the museum, where eight themed exhibition halls explore approximately 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history.

The exhibitions begin with the origins of the universe before moving through the emergence of life, dinosaurs, human evolution and the ecological systems of South China.

Animal, plant, mineral and fossil collections are combined with immersive digital media and large-scale installations, connecting global natural history with the landscapes and ecosystems of Shenzhen and the surrounding region.

Exhibition designers Atelier Brückner and Museum Studio worked alongside the architectural team to integrate the exhibitions into the museum's curved interiors and vertical cone-shaped spaces, creating a closer relationship between architecture and scenography.

A Museum That Extends Into Public Space

One of the project's defining elements is its publicly accessible rooftop landscape.

Rather than ending at the museum's exterior walls, the surrounding terrain effectively continues across the building, creating an elevated public space that allows residents and visitors to experience the architecture independently of the exhibitions.

The approach positions the museum as both a cultural institution and part of Shenzhen's wider civic landscape.

David Stavros, Senior Design Principal and former Executive Vice President, Asia, at B+H Architects, said: “Transforming this ambition into a world-class natural history museum demanded far more than delivering a building of exceptional scale and complexity.”

“The result demonstrates what multidisciplinary collaboration can achieve when design ambition, delivery expertise and technical rigor come together,” he added.

International Collaboration Behind the Museum

The project brought together design, engineering and construction expertise from several international and Chinese practices.

Copenhagen-based 3XN led the concept design, while B+H Architects served as lead consultant and executive architect, with responsibility for executive architecture, landscape architecture and project delivery. Zhubo Design managed structural and MEP engineering as well as local technical compliance in Shenzhen.

B+H Architects was also responsible for the project's landscape and interior design.

The client is the Shenzhen Government/Bureau of Public Works of Shenzhen Municipality, while the tenant is the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism, and Sports. Construction began in March 2022, with the project completed in July 2026.

Museum Director Nan Zhaoxu said: “Shenzhen Natural History Museum is designed to interpret the laws of natural evolution and present the geographies of Shenzhen in a global ecological perspective.”

He described the completed museum as “a living educational landscape” where visitors experience “science, nature and place as one continuous journey.”

With its combination of exhibition space, landscape architecture and publicly accessible outdoor areas, Shenzhen Natural History Museum introduces a cultural landmark designed not only to house natural history, but to make the building itself part of the visitor's exploration of the natural world.