China Breaks Ground on Cube-Shaped Building That Will ‘Transform Itself'

A new arts center featuring a unique changing facade is being built on the coast of Xiamen in southern China.

Designed by OPEN Architecture for Meitu Inc., the Meitu Cube Visual Arts Center is envisioned as a cube-shaped cultural hub overlooking Xiamen’s East Rim coastal area of beaches and lush vegetation.

Dubbed "The Cube of Change," the design firm describes the project as an exploration of adaptability-an arts center designed to shift with changing cultural needs and technologies. Its groundbreaking ceremony took place in late April. With excavation complete, the foundation work is underway: "The construction has just begun," the design team at OPEN Architecture told Newsweek.

China's architecture scene has rapidly evolved into one of the most dynamic in the world, driven by decades of urbanization, technological innovation and cultural reinvention.

Recent projects, from large-scale urban developments, like the Goldin Finance 117, the world's tallest abandoned skyscraper-which was reported to have been reaching its completion last month, nearly 18 years after construction began-to cultural institutions, such as the striking Shanghai Grand Opera House, reflect a maturing architectural culture in China.

Chinese architects are also exploring how buildings can respond to ecological challenges and digital technologies, positioning architecture as a framework for evolving relationships between people, cities and the environment.

The concept behind The Cube of Change began with a simple premise-the cube as a vessel for reinvention. The firm told Newsweek that the cube form was chosen because it "can transform itself into myriad possibilities." That flexibility, the team said, emerged from a long process of exploration.

"We had tested countless design options before arriving at the moment of ‘that's it!'-the simplest form, a cube, that can transform itself into myriad possibilities, making the most of the compact site while providing the maximum flexibility to accommodate the evolving needs of digital media and public programming," the firm told Newsweek.

Perforated Facade That Reduces Heat and Filters Light

The Cube is 42 meters (around 138 feet) in length and width, and the building's "height above grade plus the depth of the basement" is also nearly 138 feet, the design firm said.

Its defining feature is its unique facade, which opens and closes to help reduce solar heat and allow for better air ventilation while also filtering and softening incoming light.

The design firm told Newsweek that "the double-skin PTFE facade can open and close, facilitating spatial and visual porosity and natural ventilation," an approach meant to give the cube a lightness despite its strict geometry. PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) is a material known for its extreme durability, chemical resistance and self-cleaning properties.

The building also transforms into “a luminous projection canvas” at night, the firm said, with its open facade showcasing its interior space, which features a red spiral staircase.

The Cube's interior is made of "interlocking spatial components," the firm explained, with “a series of configurable exhibition and gathering spaces, a library and rooftop terraces overlooking the sea."

Its galleries and public areas have been "designed to transform in scale, atmosphere and function," to accommodate everything from exhibitions and installations to performances and other events, according to OPEN Architecture.

Building Designed to Evolve

The firm framed the design around questions that go beyond aesthetics or site constraints.

"How do we respond, through architecture, to our time of accelerating cultural, technological and social change? Can architecture itself change? These were the central questions in the design of this project," the design firm told Newsweek.

The company also ties the Cube of Change to a deeper cultural reference point, telling Newsweek: "We drew inspiration from the ancient Chinese Book of Changes. Cube of Change, the title we give to this visual arts center, crystallizes OPEN's reflection on flexibility-not merely as a functional strategy, but as an architectural ethos."

That ethos is expressed as a chain of possibilities rather than a fixed plan: "The facade can open and close, the internal spaces can combine or subdivide, the circulation and the functional space can interchange, spaces can multi-function," the firm told Newsweek. "We believe that in a time defined by constant transformation, architecture must also be capable of change."

The Meitu Cube Visual Arts Center is expected to be completed in 2028.

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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 1:00 PM.