Image Credit : Snøhetta
Project Overview
The Shanghai Grand Opera House is set to be a shining new cultural destination for the city.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Project Context
The new Opera House is an important part of a new urban master plan for Shanghai that aims to place the city at the forefront of the globe, economically, scientifically, and culturally. The Opera House is expected to become one of the major cultural landmarks of Shanghai – the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan names it as the most important initiative to strengthen Shanghai’s cultural and global influence.
Project Innovation
The new Opera House will be built in the Expo Houtan neighbourhood, located at the convex bank in the riverside area near Huangpu River. The radial layout of the surrounding landscapes harmonises with the overall geometry of the Opera building, ensuring key view paths from both the Opera to the city, and from the city to the Opera.
Designed to bring artists and the public under a shared roof, the sweeping form of the new Opera House embodies the concept of movement. The helical roof surface evokes an unfolding fan, capturing the dynamism of dance and the human body. Generating both surface and space, the radial movements of the roof form a spiralling staircase that connects ground and sky and creates views towards the city and the Huangpu river banks.
The spiralling, fanning motions extend throughout the project, into the lobby, the halls, and the three auditoriums. The Opera House’s visual identity also references the same movements, with the new, clean logo characterised by a highly recognisable open fan pattern.
At the heart of the Opera is the 2,000-seat main auditorium; a finely tuned instrument that offers state-of-the-art technical solutions and superior acoustics. The 1,200-seat second stage will offer a more intimate setting for smaller productions. The 1,000-seat third stage offers a flexible stage and seating arrangement, providing space for more experimental and unique performances, aiming to attract a new generation of opera goers.
Social and Community-Oriented Design - Space
Social and community-oriented design applies a design methodology and intervention to tighten the social fabric that holds us together. Addressing issues of social inequality, such as poverty or social isolation, social design is the pathway to a more just and sustainable society. Community-oriented design is a human-centered and participatory design practice that emphasises the betterment of local communities through the improvement of public facilities, equipment, identity and experience.
The space category celebrates the design process and outcomes of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. It includes architecture, interior design and landscape design as well as set display and exhibition design.
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