Will the National Art Museum of China Look Like This?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner...maybe.

The image above is apparently the winning concept for a new National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), an idea that has been batted around for some time. The winning design has been selected. We think.

The confusion arises because other shortlisted competitors, such as Gehry Partners (see their design below), have stated that Ateliers Jean Nouvel (Jean Nouvel) and the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) have been declared the winners of the competition to design and build the museum, but Jean Nouvel has had little to say.

"I have nothing more to say at this moment. We are still having negotiations with Chinese officials to finalize our project," wrote Olivier Schmitt, adviser to Jean Nouvel, in an e-mail to Dezeen magazine.

Paris-based Jean Nouvel recently won other contracts, including a new headquarters for the European Patent Organization in Amsterdam, and for the "Rose of Cherbourg" project in Cherbourg, France.

We're pleased with the outcome for a few reasons. The designs shown here all look sleek and befitting a contemporary museum of art, one that holds both ancient artifacts and more recent creations. We're also pleased that they didn't go the Shanghai Museum route, and try to make it look like something Chinese, like a ding, or a dragon, or a panda, or whatever.

Lastly, we're happy that this new building will be constructed near the Olympic Park -- rather than tearing down the current National Museum of Art north of the Forbidden City, which would not only wreck that neighborhood, but also run the risk of defacing the nearby cityscape -- such as the eyesore National Center for the Performing Arts.

No word yet on a construction schedule. We'll keep you posted.

Did the best design win? Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think.

Photos: Dezeen.com