In the history of modern architecture, Ieoh Ming Pei is known as "the last master of modernism". He always adhered to the modernist style, personifying the architecture while injecting oriental poetry into it.

In the history of modern architecture, I.M. Pei is known as the "last modernist master". He always adhered to the modernist style, and while personalizing the architecture, he injected Eastern poetry into it. He wanders between Eastern and Western cultures, is undoubtedly a special existence in the architectural world. From the East Pavilion of the National Gallery of Art, the Kennedy Library , to the Louvre renovation project, the Meixiu Gallery of Art , the name I.M. Pei can almost represent the architecture of an era.

00-year-old I.M. Pei, photographer of New York magazine, Bobby Doherty, photographed on April 7, 2017 in New York

The pyramid in front of the Louvre is undoubtedly one of the most proud works of I.M. Pei once said, "The biggest challenge I have encountered in my life and the greatest pride, that is the creation of the new Louvre Pavilion."

989, the first phase of the Louvre renovation project was completed, including the pyramid, surrounding squares and underground space. In order to make the new entrance of the Louvre harmoniously unify the original building, I.M. Pei placed an equally symmetrical pyramid on the original central axis. Visitors can go down from the courtyard to the new main entrance through an open elevator, and can choose one from any four or five directions to start the tour. The pyramid actually provides an entrance for the entire Louvre, allowing several independent palaces to unite into a complete complex, becoming the main entrance to the building, and also sharing a large amount of people.

full of homesickness Suzhou Museum

Suzhou is the hometown of I.M. Pei. He likes to walk along the winding paths of the once Beijia Garden with his close friends and guests in the evening. He likes to listen to music in the old house and savor the warmth of his home in the drooping twilight mist. He walked out of the Bei family in Suzhou. The Zhongwang Mansion, , Humble Administrator's Garden, and Lion Grove around the museum are the environments he grew up familiar with since childhood. Although he has been wandering around the world since then, his attachment to his hometown has always lingered in his heart.

At the beginning of the design of the new Suzhou Museum, I.M. Pei carefully read the classified information of the cultural relics in the Suzhou Museum. He hopes to tailor the display of each exhibit to create a design that truly conforms to Suzhou and Suzhou Museum. Suzuo jadeware, study supplies, ivory products and other artworks are known for their fineness and are generally small in size, so people prefer to appreciate them in smaller spaces. To this end, I.M. Pei designed a Duobao Pavilion-style display cabinet, putting exhibits of different sizes into the preliminarily formulated display cabinets. Overall considerations were made and the thickness of the black frame line of the display cabinet was repeatedly adjusted to achieve the best exhibition effect.

I.M. Pei designed a three-dimensional geometric glass skylight on the roof of the new Suzhou Museum. The windows are opened in the middle of the roof, forming a folding angle with the sloped roof, so that natural light can better enter the museum in a refracted manner. At the same time, in order to protect the exhibits from light damage during the exhibition, he also adjusted and filtered the metal shading strips with wooden veneers under the glass, which fully reflects the essence of his "let light be designed".

In the design of the new Suzhou Museum, the main courtyard located in the north of the central hall is the most painstaking effort for I.M. Pei. He took a landscape work by Mi Fu, one of the "Four Masters of Song Dynasty", "using powder walls as paper and stones as paintings", he split the huge stones into pieces, burned them to create shadows, create a three-dimensional effect, and then adjust the position of each stone, so that the color of the stones is arranged in front of the wall from deep to shallow and high to low, forming a unique landscape painting. The hazy rain of Jiangnan has created the artistic conception of Mi Fu's ink and water landscape paintings.

Suzhou Museum is Mr. Bei’s mountain-closing work. He combines the architectural wisdom he has accumulated over the years with traditional Eastern aesthetics and his emotions for his hometown into this building, creating a unique and charming visual beauty. The Suzhou Museum is no longer attractive because of its cherishing. The museum's art building itself is an art masterpiece worthy of tourists' viewing.

Suzhou Museum, 2002

Shanghai Art Museum

In 1946, I.M. Pei decided to design a museum in Shanghai as his graduation project. During this period he blended Eastern and Western designs - the Shanghai Art Museum, which Gropius called "the most exquisite student work I have ever seen."

Ruthie Chapel, Tunghai University, Taiwan, 1956-1963

National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 1961-1967

In 1967, the National Center for Atmospheric Research was the beginning of Pei's public architectural designs. The entire building complex stands on the top of the mountain in Colorado. Its simple and thick shape and tower-style roof integrate the building with the mountain. In order to blend the building with nature, Pei used local stone as building materials, added sand and gravel to the concrete, and then processed it with a stone chisel hammer to reveal a deep pink color on the surface. The entire building looks like it was carved out of a huge rock. It was also this opportunity that I.M. Pei’s architectural aesthetics of “building should be integrated with the land beneath its feet” began to become clear.

Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, USA, 1968

Janet Strong said: "The National Atmosphere Center project gave I.M. Pei the first opportunity to explore the art of architecture. Although Although there are still some details that appear imperfect from a close perspective, his unique style and architectural language still shine. In the following years of his career, Pei continued to refine his architectural aesthetics and produced more confident and smooth works." Pei once again completed the design of the Iverson Museum of Art.

Iverson Museum of Art Exterior

In 1969, he received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for the Des Moines Art Center and Iverson Museum of Art projects. This is the first time that the association has awarded two museum works by the same architect at the same time. After the Everson Museum was built, I.M. Pei continued to receive invitations.

According to architectural historian Janet Strong, I.M. Pei built some of the most important buildings of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but his greatest achievement was the company he founded. "Over half a century he built up a wealth of in-house expertise in design, planning and technology. He was always very generous in inviting young architects, allowing them to participate in the entire building process from beginning to end."

Cleo Rogers Memorial Library, 1969

Paul Mellon Center for the Arts, 1972

Johnson Gallery of Art, Cornell University, 1973

Wilson, University of Rochester Commons Student Activity Center, 1976

Singapore OCBC Centre, 1976

Hancock Building, 1977

It was the National Gallery project that rescued I.M. Pei from his predicament and thus "steadily propelled his career to the masters of architecture". In the 1960s, Paul Mellon decided to expand the National Gallery. I.M. Pei once again became a competitor with and Louis Kahn . A colleague commented: "Kahn and Pei are similar in many ways, but Kahn is an outsider and Pei is an aristocrat."

French President Mitterrand fell in love with Pei's design because of the National Gallery of Art in Washington

National Gallery of Art East Building, 1978

In 1978, the National Gallery of Art East Building, I.M. Pei completed the most comfortable project in his design career. The exhibition rooms in the East Building can adjust the plane shape and size according to the exhibits and the administrator's intention, and the ceilings of some rooms can also be adjusted. This design ensures the flexibility of the space to a great extent. This is not only true for the exhibits, but also for ordinary viewers. Everyone can freely experience art in this space and will not be "tired" by art.

Javits Convention Center in New York City, 1979

In the 1980s, I.M. Pei, who had built many outstanding works one after another, had already been recognized by the architectural circle. In 1983, the Pritzker Architecture Jury awarded the award to this Chinese architect. During this period, Pei began to have the opportunity to practice design in his homeland of China, which he had been away from for a long time.During this period, the Beijing Fragrant Hill Hotel was built with many shortcomings, but people can still feel the charm of East and West in it; the design of the Bank of China Tower, the tallest building in Hong Kong at that time, became a classic landmark on Victoria Harbor. In the design of the Louvre Pyramid, Ieoh Ming Pei once again proved himself on the international stage with his outstanding design.

In 1978, Vice Prime Minister Gu Mu invited I.M. Pei to come to China, hoping that he would provide consultation on urban planning and construction and usher in modernization through large-scale construction projects. He suggested not to build tall buildings near the Forbidden City to protect the open vistas on the golden glazed tile roofs of the Forbidden City. He wanted to choose another location. Beijing's tourism agency, the First Service Bureau, proposed to build a ground-floor hotel in one of the suburban parks they managed. They brought I.M. Pei and his son Bei Jianzhong to Xiangshan Mountain in the northwest suburbs of Beijing, where they gave people a sense of vast forest wilderness and another world away from the hustle and bustle of the city. In Pei's eyes, this royal garden site is covered with a thin layer of white snow, and the pavilions and pagodas are scattered in an orderly manner, just like an ancient painting. He no longer hesitated: "Let's build it here." Cao Kaiwen of the project team of

Xiangshan Hotel recalled that I.M. Pei was already successful and famous at that time. Most projects were just coming up with ideas and letting his assistants execute them, but Xiangshan Hotel was different. He was surprised to see that Pei often held a pencil in his hand and meditated on the design table. "In two or three years of practice, this was his own project."

Xiangshan Hotel, 1982 After handing over the Xiangshan Hotel, I.M. Pei moved to Hong Kong, where he was about to add a tower to the skyline of Victoria Harbor - the Hong Kong Branch of the Bank of China. This was another project he couldn't refuse, both because of the architectural challenge and the emotional weight.

The new Bank of China Hong Kong Branch is adjacent to HSBC Bank . As Hong Kong is about to return to China in 1997, the mission of this new building is self-evident. It must dwarf HSBC, a symbol of colonial rule.

Bank of China Building, Hong Kong, 1982-1990

New Wing of the German Historical Museum, 1990

This is an eternal dream of mankind. Westerners call it: Garden of Eden, Easterners call it Peach Blossom Spring, and philosophers call it Utopia. This is the ideal landscape shown to us by I.M. Pei - Miho Museum of Art in Japan. "

Suddenly I came across a peach blossom forest. There were hundreds of steps across the bank. There were no trees in the middle, the grass was delicious, and the fallen flowers were colorful. Then I found a mountain with a small mouth, as if there was light. Walking up the slope with lush trees, passing through the tunnel, and after crossing the bridge, your eyes lit up. Like the fisherman in the "Peach Blossom Spring", search and find, " "Xanadu".

For the Meixiu Art Museum completed in 1997, it was I.M. Pei who was inspired by Tao Yuanming's " Peach Blossom Spring " and created a poetic and picturesque museum entrance. There is only one way to enter the museum. You must take a battery car or walk through a tunnel in the mountain. There is another tunnel in the mountain. One end is connected to a suspension bridge across a deep valley. Entering the tunnel, you can see the art museum from a distance, as if you have entered the entrance that the Wuling fisherman accidentally discovered. When

visited the site for the first time, the designer was struck by the beautiful scenery and called it a paradise. Since the ground is a nature reserve, 80% of the buildings here are buried underground. Humbly hidden among the greenery, it is in harmony with the original proportions of nature.

The mountain is planted with pines and fragrant maples, and is dotted with many cultural monuments. The ancient and remote artistic conception of the landscape paintings of ancient Chinese literati is most perfectly interpreted here. I.M. Pei says “Only by constantly exploring it can you feel the light, wind and the sounds of growth that belong only to this valley. Until you get closer to it, you will realize that this is a paradise.

Miho Museum, Japan, 1996-1997

The Museum of Islamic Art was originally conceived by the King of Qatar and his 26-year-old daughter, Princess Sheikha al Mayassa.The museum is built not only for collection and display, but also for reshaping people's memories of the Muslim world once served as a global open and tolerant science and technology cultural center. Therefore, designer I.M. Pei strives to integrate the values ​​of the older era into today's culture.

The exterior wall of the museum is stacked with white limestone, refracted on the blue sea, forming a terrifying and grand force. The typical Islamic geometric patterns and traditional Arabic arched windows add a bit of softness to the behemoth, slightly neutralizing its heroic spirit.

is different from the simple and modern look of the building. The interior of the museum is full of complex Islamic elements. The silver dome, glass curtain walls, round arched windows and door curtains are all iconic elements of traditional Islamic architecture.

Under the huge silver dome of the museum's atrium, the 150-foot-high glass curtain wall decorates the four walls, and people can see the blue sea and golden sand through it. Under the night sky, the Islamic Art Museum decorated with lights is dazzling, like a night pearl in the sea.

Islamic Art Museum, 2006

On May 16, 2019, the architect Beiluming, who has spanned two centuries, passed away, and the countless architectural miracles he left behind were even more brilliant!