Construction of the main structure of the second outlet of the Chinese Museum of Natural History in Zhejiang is complete.

Built into a sloping hillside, the new museum is made up of several exhibition halls and galleries that are connected by a loggia that covers an interior courtyard. Each gallery has about the same height as the next but, due to the slope they are built on, they vary in size.

The original museum was founded in 1929 and its main site is located in the city of Hangzhou. The new site will feature a collection of over 200,000 geological, ecological and paleontological artefacts and will include some of the discoveries from the Cretaceous period that have been unearthed in Zhejiang.

It was designed by David Chipperfield Architects' Shanghai office, led by Alessandro Milani, Miguel Angel, Shen Huiwen and Chuxiao Li.

The galleries have been rendered in red ochre in order to match the clay earth of the hillside while the roofs are green to blend into the surrounding countryside when viewed from above.

"The large visitor numbers expected, combined with the scale of some of the exhibits, gave rise to a loose infrastructure of generous circulation and spacious exhibition halls," said a David Chipperfield Architects statement.

"Set at right angles to the slope and staggered horizontally, the pavilions follow the natural topography, negotiating a 12-metre difference in height from north to south, and minimising the impact on the landscape."