Spatial Renewal and Exhibition Design for the Technology Gallery, Shanghai Auto Museum / SLT

When automotive technology enters spatial narrative, history, the present, and the future converge within a shared time and space.

Located in Jiading, Shanghai Automobile Museum is China’s first professional automobile museum. For its third-floor Technology Gallery, SLT Design developed an integrated spatial and exhibition system under the theme “Realm of Evolution,” presenting the future trajectories of the automotive industry through scenario-based storytelling. Covering approximately 2,450 square metres, the design scope includes spatial planning, graphic standards, and a manual for the iterative renewal of branded exhibits. With polygonal and geometric elements as its visual foundation, the gallery constructs five thematic experience zones that combine temporal logic with immersive engagement.

The project proposes a multidimensional view of time and space, where each technological node relates to both the past and the future. From steam and combustion engines to electric power and hydrogen energy, technological evolution is never purely linear. The design moves beyond chronology to construct a three-dimensional field where visitors sense the tensions embedded in technological progress. Here, space becomes the field force of technological narrative, rather than merely a container for exhibits.

DEVELOPMENT
The Vertical Axis of Technological History

At the entrance, a shift in materiality marks the beginning of an experiential journey. Mirrored stainless-steel rings and circular light bands overlap with one another. Each ring suggests the closed loop of an era, while together they generate forward momentum.

CONNECTION
A Relational Network of Contemporary Technology

The exhibition takes the relationships between technologies as its curatorial structure. Interactive installations for autonomous-driving perception and V2X vehicle-road coordination help non-specialist visitors understand future mobility as an organic system, rather than a collection of isolated devices.

EVOLUTION
An Open Boundary for Future Imagination

Polygonal display platforms are arranged as “concept islands,” contrasting with the circular language of the historical zone. Full-height folded walls extend the field of vision, while the floor remains deliberately open, leaving room for deeper collaboration with automotive brands. 

Guided by the idea of evolution, temporal logic connects the entire spatial experience. History, the present, and the future become a perceptible trajectory of progression. The core task of the design is to align spatial order, exhibit relationships, information hierarchy, and functional integration around this narrative thread.

Time as Spatial Sequence

Time becomes the internal order that structures the spatial experience. As visitors move along the route, shifts in scale, rhythm, and scene draw them into the technological narrative, linking the zones beyond independent thematic areas.

Exhibits as Architecture

Exhibits become part of the spatial structure. The nested rings serve as both display systems and architectural language, while the exploded POLO car defines boundaries and guides circulation through its physical volume.

Structured Information

Each zone uses a three-tiered information structure, moving from sensory experience to technical principles and professional depth through installations, graphics, and interactive screens. Spatial positioning and media type guide visitors toward different levels of engagement.

Immersive Experience Design

Through light, materiality, scale, and sound, the space extends the exhibits into an immersive field, allowing the narrative to emerge through movement and perception.

Zone 01. History Zone

AUTOMOBILE TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION

Three 2.4-metre nested rings form the visual core, suspending Leonardo da Vinci’s self-propelled cart（1495）, Ferdinand Verbiest’s steam-powered vehicle（1678）, and the hydrogen-powered vehicle （1804） at ascending heights to create a three-dimensional technological timeline.

On one side, a modular exhibition wall forms a “living archive matrix.” The exploded POLO car is suspended above a circular stage, with all body components expanded outward, bringing the sequence to a dramatic close.

Zone 02-04. The Present Zone

ENERGY · INTELLIGENCE · CONNECTIVITY

The Energy zone presents pure electric, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell systems side by side, revealing the underlying logic and technical boundaries of each route. The hydrogen fuel cell section also integrates carbon neutrality, extending the discussion into climate and energy policy.

The Intelligence zone uses AI perception, positioning, and drive-by-wire technology to explain the “software-defined vehicle,” translating mechanical and electronic control into a tangible experience.

In the Connectivity zone, a V2X visual interactive terminal reveals real-time information flows between vehicles, roads, and the urban intelligence system, making it the gallery’s most interaction-intensive core zone.

Zone 05. Future Zone

AUTOMOTIVE WITHOUT LIMITS

Folded lines and polygonal elements shape a future-oriented exhibition space. A geometric lighting ceiling turns light into a medium of spatial division. The tension between fullness and emptiness, enclosure and openness becomes a spatial metaphor for the future: still undefined, yet already perceptible. Concept cars are displayed alongside a classic red supercar, lowering the threshold for professional interpretation and allowing visitors to perceive the evolving aesthetic language of automotive design.

MODULAR SYSTEM

SLT has built a foundational “design operating system” for the Technology Gallery, integrating brand standards and exhibit renewal guidelines so the space can accommodate exhibit replacement, brand entry, and technological upgrades without reconstruction.

A+B+C

Modular Wall Display

The exhibition zones are based on a 1200 × 1200 mm modular grid. Display shelves, multimedia screens, vitrines, and other replaceable units form a flexible system. Supported by A/B/C graphic panels, the system accommodates print, touchscreens, video, physical objects, and other media formats.

VI

Graphic Guidance

“Development,” “connection,” and “evolution” are translated into three visual symbols corresponding to the gallery’s three major zones. Typography, colour, and layout rules are applied across all touchpoints, ensuring coherence while defining boundaries for third-party brand content.

Brand +

Brand Co-Creation Framework

A spatial protocol defines how automotive brands, design schools, and technology companies can enter the gallery, covering boundaries, media access, visual integration, and content updates. This framework turns joint exhibitions into a repeatable institutional capability.

∞

Future-Proof Flexibility

As automotive technology evolves, reserved AR markers, standardised screens, structured wiring, and flexible circulation allow the gallery to update content sustainably without full renovation. From traditional engines to intelligent driving, the Technology Gallery uses space to drive technological narrative, shaping the automotive industry’s evolution as a coherent exhibition field. With technological iteration at its core, SLT’s modular exhibition system and flexible protocol framework allow the space to carry automotive history while continuing to evolve.

From traditional engines to intelligent driving, the Technology Gallery uses space to drive technological narrative, shaping the automotive industry’s evolution as a coherent exhibition field. With technological iteration at its core, SLT’s modular exhibition system and flexible protocol framework allow the space to carry automotive history while continuing to evolve.