Project Description
The buildings were not conceived planimetrically, with notions of front, back, and sides, but rather were modeled dynamically in 3D, so the resulting buildings and landscape are omnidirectional. Outside, the buildings are defined by their faceted structural skin, covered in triangular tiles made of glass and white and black granite.
The lobbies are voluminous, column-free public rooms. Terraces and staircases cantilevering from the theater volume provide a grand architectural promenade and a stage for the audience itself.
The sweeping staircases and sculpted terraces of the foyer in the main volume give way to the auditorium, where curving balconies—designed to fragment the sound acoustically and to assure sight lines—emerge smoothly from walls, forming continuous surfaces within what Schumacher calls the “balanced asymmetry” of the auditorium. Here, Hadid refines the vineyard terracing first used by Hans Scharoun in the visually lyrical Berlin Philharmonie in 1963. Overhead, an installation of 4,000 LED fixtures dots the ceiling.
Read the full article: http://www.architectmagazine.com/cultural-projects/guangzhou-opera-house.aspx