Guangzhou Opera House
Now Guangzhou has an opera house as well – Guangwho? Some may have wondered, having lost track of Chinese urban development. However, water under the bridge, ever since the opening of Zaha Hadid’s opera house in Guangzhou the world stares into the Pearl River delta displaying the opera house, a project which is the currently most ambitious from an architectural point of view.
Guangzhou has already found its place within the global competition of citie: as a family and nature friendly global city. Here, the new building on the ”Haixinsha Tourist Park Island“ fits into the requested concept.
Like two washed up pieces of gravel, shaped by the water, “mirroring the symbiosis between the encounter of Western and Eastern opera tradition“, the building protrudes from the surrounding topography. It wouldn’t be a work by Zaha Hadid if the building wouldn’t develop like a landscape with structures and rooms, meandering like a river. The principles of geology, topography and erosion are the theoretical basis of the play with spatial flow and light. But just as well the realization of complex urban contexts, combined with cultural traditions and the history of Guangzhou, is what characterizes the architectural shape. Within the organic shapes the central auditorium providing 1,600 seats is placed, as well as a small, multi-functional flexible hall with 400 seats. Like canyons the rooms’ edges fold towards each other and thus define a multi-façeted play of cuts, references to the inside and the outside, openings and meeting points. Seamless transitions confuse and accompany the visitors’ spatial perception, additionally fortified by the impact of free shapes.
The topic of stream-lined overhead lights, accompanied by a daintily appearing dynamic supporting structure, has already been successfully tested at the MAXXI in Rome. For the “liquefied” surfaces of the inner rooms shaped boards made of glass-fiber fortified plaster were used. Thanks to current material developments without which the realization of such an idea would have resulted in banal fragments. Not to mention the quality of the latest technological equipment regarding tonal experience and acoustics.
The backdrop of the new opera house is the new Zhuijang New Town office and commercial district – which has, according to Jonathan Glancey from the Guardian, already left Las Vegas far behind regarding the lightshow. Let’s hope the new opera house has just as much attracting power.
Guangzhou Municipal Government
Zaha Hadid Architects
Construction time: 2003 - 2010
Project: 70,000 m2
Site: 42,393m2
Comments (8)