What China’s best new cultural spaces have in common: the light touch
On a hillside in Anji, in Zhejiang province, a cluster of umbrella-like canopies steps gently down the slope, following the rows of tea bushes. There is no grand entrance, no plinth, no monumental block of stone. On October 22, at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, this project, Anji Hood by RoarcRenew Architects, was named Cultural Space of the Year at the Frame Awards 2026, chosen from more than 1,000 submissions by 100 jurors across 10 panels.
I served on the Frame Awards 2026 grand jury for the “institutions” categories. Three of the five projects shortlisted for the “cultural space” award were in mainland China: My Museum Beijing, Anji Hood and the Huishan Ancestral Hall Museum in Wuxi. China had 7,046 registered museums at the end of 2024, welcoming 1.49 billion visits that year.
Once a nation has built cultural venues on that scale, the question shifts from how many to what kind. The answers now emerging are quieter, lighter and more deeply rooted than the icons of recent decades.
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