The Jiangning Weaving Museum (江宁织造博物馆) is housed in a beautifully designed contemporary building that contains within it a recreated section of the Imperial Silk Weaving Office that once stood on the same site. The Qing-dynasty silk manufactory here was one of three imperial weaving bureaus that produced robes and fabrics exclusively for court use. The novelist Cao Xueqin, whose family managed this office for generations, is said to have been born in the compound — the great novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" is saturated with the silk, luxury, and social world of this place.
The museum covers cloud brocade (Nanjing's traditional silk weave), the history of the imperial textile industry, and the connection to "Dream of the Red Chamber." The building design by Wang Shu, who won the Pritzker Prize in 2012, incorporates traditional architectural materials in a striking contemporary form. It is one of the best museum buildings in the city.