Located in Yanqi County, Xinjiang, along the southern route of the Silk Road, Shikshin Buddhist Temple Ruins Museum stands beside the only Buddhist site in Xinjiang that integrates both grotto and ground temples.

Positioned south of the ruins and adjacent to the existing visitor center, the project faced with the constraints of severe damage to the ruins, fragile ecology, and limited technology and investment in a remote district, we adopted a "light intervention, high adaptability" design philosophy.

To preserve the historical narrative of the ruins, the museum adopts strategies of spatial guidance, formal resonance, and material continuity, presenting itself as an extension of the context.

To minimize its perceived scale, the museum is arranged alongside the existing visitor center, maintaining a central visual corridor toward the ruins. Native Gobi vegetation, including reeds, is introduced on both sides to support ecological restoration and reinforce the desert landscape.

Extracting the layout characteristics of "unitization" and "grouping" from the ruins, along with the varied and layered volumetric relationships, the museum uses 12m x 12m squares as its basic units. Flexible exhibition spaces are created through the arrangement and combination of different units, with gaps between units serving as light wells or auxiliary spaces. Each unit is assigned a height appropriate to its program, generating a composition that is cohesive yet varied, establishing a quiet dialogue with the ruins.

The adobe bricks commonly used in Buddhist temple ruins and local traditional dwellings form the primary material system. A double-layer adobe sandwich wall enhances thermal performance while expressing the material’s raw texture and tectonic logic. Collaborating with local artisans, we developed an economical straw-mud finish incorporating reeds and native soil, allowing the building to merge poetically with its environment and embody a true sense of being built in place.