Shanghai to build world’s largest planetarium

The regional government of Chinese metropolis Shanghai has approved design plans for the Shanghai Planetarium, to be built in the city’s Pudong’s Nanhui area.

Construction on the US$95 million project is set to begin in the coming months and will be completed in 2018.

The design for the Planetarium, which will be operated by Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, features domes and curved lines suggesting the orbiting of the moon and earth.

The ‘three spheres’ plan was designed by USA-based Ennead Architects - one of 13 designs submitted by designers from China, the US, France, Britain and Germany.

Lin Qing, an official with the Shanghai Planetarium Construction Committee, told Wenhui Daily, “we narrowed down the choices from 13 to two - ‘three spheres’ and ‘crash’ which was submitted by a French agency.

“We showed the two designs to experts and citizens, and the majority of them preferred ‘three spheres’ as it is easy to make out that it is a planetarium.”

When complete, visitors will get a feeling that they are entering a valley when they stand under the inverted main dome. The design also includes a dome theatre.

Green belts around the main structure are shaped like curves to suggest spiral arms of the galaxy.

The Planetarium will have three themes - Home, Space and Journey. ‘Home’ will highlight the relation between Earth and the solar system; ‘Space’ will explain light, gravity, galaxy and the extragalactic system; while ‘Journey’ will talk about the start of life and the development of the human species.

The Planetarium will be the world’s largest covering 58,600 metre².

It will be the second planetarium in China after Beijing, which opened in 1957.

Click here for more information on the Ennead Architects' website.