COO creates new Rainbow Chapel and Kids Museum of Glass

May 18th marked the third anniversary of our long term partner, the Shanghai Museum of Glass. On this festive day, on which a smashing 6,000 people paid the museum park a visit, new developments for the future were revealed. We are proud to be the co-initiator and design partner for amongst others the Rainbow Wedding Chapel and Chin’a very first Kids Museum of Glass.

Since 2009, COO has collaborated with the team of the Shanghai Museum of Glass to create a lifestyle destination evolving around the culture of glass. Starting from a spectacular museum for glass culture and art, a DIY Workshop and a Hot Glass Performance Hall, the Museum of Glass Park has steadily expanded its concept, with new functions such as a Coffeeshop, a Museum Arts Club, a Design Space and a Design Store. An increasing number of visitors as well as international media have recognized the museum as a cultural hotspot. Visitors numbers have doubled every year, and over 250,000 people have found their way to the museum in Baoshan in the last 3 years.

Building further on the credo that ‘the possibilities of glass are endless’, we’ll work on several exiting new functions in the Park’s fourth year of operations. The possibilities of glass are explored quite literally in a new business venture that focuses on Shanghai’s thriving wedding market. The Park will be the prime event location of this new initiative, offering a unique new wedding venue: a glass Rainbow Chapel. The Rainbow Chapel is created in close collaboration with logon urban. architecture. design. Paired with the chapel, the Park will expand with a multifunctional event hall, that is first and foremost a location for wedding parties up to 28 tables. It can also host third parties for medium-sized and larger events in the cultural sphere. With this new space, the Park can position itself as a premium, spacious and hassle-free alternative to downtown event locations, for concerts, shows and parties.

Whilst the multifunctional hall and wedding chapel have a clear commercial perspective, the park will also deepen its focus on education. The existing DIY Creative Workshop will be extended in a new building, where it will form the heart of the new Kids Museum of Glass. Children from 4-12 will be invited here by museum mascots Bobo & Lili to experience a first encounter with glass and all its characteristics. Built around the concept of ‘play & learn’ and creative expression, the new Kids Museum will boast not only an extended and re-designed DIY Workshop, it will also host a dedicated children’s exhibition space, a kids café and a Bobo & Lili giftshop. COORDINATION ASIA’s Tilman Thürmer is the initiator of this new museum that will open in December 2014.

Adding a 1,500 sqm multifunctional hall, a 390 sqm wedding chapel and a dedicated museum for children of 2,000 sqm, the Museum of Glass Park will grow further into COO best example of ‘the living museum’, by offering young and old an opportunity to come together, explore and share inspiration.