The design of China Comic and Animation Museum was revealed at the Seventh International Animation and Cartoon Festival when it opened Thursday evening in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The museum is designed by MVRDV, an international architecture and urban design company, and will be located on an island in Baima (White Horse) Lake in the Binjiang District of Hangzhou,

Inspired by the dialogue box in comic books, MVRDV's design transforms the boxes into three-dimensional bubble like structures.

The construction of the museum, with an area of 30,000 square meters, is expected to be completed in 2013. The total investment of the whole project is around 1 billion yuan (150 million U.S. dollars).

The museum will include a cartoon exhibition hall, comic hall, as well as an IMAX cinema. Once finished, the museum will be symbol of China's animation industry, said Wang Xiaomei, deputy director with the municipal publicity department.

Most collections in the museum will be famous works by cartoonists from home and abroad, including the original drafts of the Chinese animated feature films "Uproar in Heaven" and "Astro Boy shakes hands with Monkey King," a collaboration between a Chinese cartoonist and a Japanese cartoonist, according to Wang.

Hangzhou's animation industry is well-known in China for its high quality productions. The International Animation and Cartoon Festival has been held annually in Hangzhou City since 2005.