Designed by the architectural practices 3XN, B+H Architects and Zhubo Design, the Shenzhen Natural History Museum spans over 100,000-square-metres and rises from the surrounding river-delta landscape beside Yanzi Lake as a continuous terrain of sloping roof, terraces and plazas.
From the city, the museum appears as a flowing geological form, with its granite façade and carved openings hinting at the exhibition spaces embedded within. Its flowing silhouette draws on the local river systems and surrounding hills, while internally, five cone-shaped volumes organise the museum’s principal exhibition halls and define its spatial character.
Shenzhen Natural History Museum by 3XN, B+H, Zhubo Design. Photograph by Adam Mørk.
"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. That idea has been carried all the way from the competition stage to the museum that opens today, a place where the story of our planet is experienced as a physical journey through terrain, light and space."
Kim Herforth Nielsen, Founder, Senior Partner, Creative Director at 3XN.
Inside, eight themed exhibition halls guide visitors through 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history, from the origins of the universe to the emergence of life, dinosaurs, human evolution and the ecological systems that shape Shenzhen and the wider world. The museum exhibits animal, plant, mineral and fossil specimens, alongside large‑scale installations and media environments that connect global natural history narratives with the specific mountains, rivers and seas of South China.
Shenzhen Natural History Museum by 3XN, B+H, Zhubo Design. Photograph by Adam Mørk.
"Shenzhen Natural History Museum is designed to interpret the laws of natural evolution and present the geographies of Shenzhen in a global ecological perspective. It brings together collections and research that trace 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history, but it is the architecture that makes this story tangible. By turning the museum into a living educational landscape – from the roof park to the cone‑shaped galleries – it allows visitors from Shenzhen and around the world to experience science, nature and place as one continuous journey that is specific to its place."
Nan Zhaoxu, Director of Shenzhen Natural History Museum.
The architects worked closely with exhibition designers Atelier Brückner and Museum Studio on the scenography for the main galleries. The curved walls, cone geometries and vertical volumes are used to create immersive, media‑rich environments that bring the exhibition narrative to life. Across the museum, specimens, large‑scale installations and cinematic media are interwoven with the architecture, transforming visitors from observers into active participants in the natural history story.
Shenzhen Natural History Museum by 3XN, B+H, Zhubo Design. Photograph by Adam Mørk.
"Transforming this ambition into a world-class natural history museum demanded far more than delivering a building of exceptional scale and complexity. It called for architecture, engineering, landscape, exhibition planning and construction expertise to work seamlessly together. Central to this is the roof park, which extends the museum into Shenzhen’s civic landscape, inviting visitors to experience it as part of the city itself. The result demonstrates what multidisciplinary collaboration can achieve when design ambition, delivery expertise and technical rigour come together."
David Stavros, Senior Design Principal, former Executive Vice President, Asia, at B+H Architects.
