Xianning Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum is located in the Cultural Center of Xianning City, Hubei, China. It’s the first museum with the theme of intangible cultural heritage in Hubei Province. In the process of designing, we insist the concept of “heritage activation” and focuses on three aspects: First, the “Xianning Characteristics”, which means the venue should reflect the richness and characteristics of local intangible cultural heritage; Second, the “time and space”, which means to reflect living characteristics in the space; The third is “interactive integration”, that is, the audience not only stays at the level of simply watching pictures and reading texts, but actively integrate into the scene through interaction such as experience, participation and learn. 

There are five theme exhibition halls in total. By presenting the five scenes of “ancient house”, “mountain and forest”, “traditional medicine store”, “opera stage” and “countryside”, we integrate the local intangible cultural heritage such wood carving, dark green brick tea, traditional Chinese medicine, opera and folk customs into the specific forms of production and daily life. “Seeing people, seeing things and seeing life” is an important concept that runs through the whole exhibition. We attach great importance to the experience of visitors. 

Therefore, we have designed and introduced many art devices, physical models and multimedia equipment, hoping to bring visitors an all-round immersive exhibition experience of vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch. In the hall of tea culture, there are artistic walls made of tea bricks, floors painted with transport route of tea, and physical models such as tea pressing machine and steamers to show the tea making process. 

In addition, visitors can even experience the fun of tea making by wearing VR devices. In the hall of folk culture, through various multimedia equipment, visitors get to know the customs of traditional festivals, learn local dialect vocabulary and pronunciation and have dialogues with intangible cultural heritage inheritors by touchable media device. For the sustainable development of the museum, in addition to the interior design, we have also planned the daily operation, from design space to design events. 

Now, on important festivals, the center often hold some cultural activities for the public to add vitality to the community, such as inviting intangible cultural heritage inheritors to perform skills, inviting famous doctors of traditional Chinese medicine for free consultation and so on. In terms of education, the surrounding schools often organize students to experience the charm of traditional culture on the spot and move the culture class directly into the venue. 

Activating the community and helping education has always been our design purpose. How to make excellent history and culture alive in a better way is a problem that every designer of cultural venues needs to think about.