Reimagining museums beyond the walls for tomorrow

He says that these features will be considered in the planning and building of the Natural History Museum of China's new pavilion, which started construction last year.

Covering an exhibition area of 68,000 square meters, the new venue, located along the south of Beijing's Central Axis, is expected to receive 5 to 7 million visitors annually.

Zhang Yuguang, deputy director of the Natural History Museum of China, details the museum's forward-looking plans, and says it will be heavily influenced by technological integration and best international practices gleaned from the forum.

"Our new museum will have no walls," Zhang says, envisioning it as a "public, open science platform integrated into the community", directly meeting public needs.

Inspired by the speech of Johannes Vogel, director of the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, during the event, Zhang is excited over the "open storage" concept, which means where collection areas behind transparent glass become exhibits themselves, showcasing specimens and ongoing work.

"Natural science is inherently international," Zhang says, adding that the museum, renamed and inaugurated as the new facility on June 5, 2023, has started to plan a special exhibition in collaboration with international partners to mark its third anniversary. The institution was formerly known as the Beijing Museum of Natural History.