zaha hadid architects: guangzhou opera house
‘guangzhou opera house’ by zaha hadid architects image courtesy roy zhuang
‘guangzhou opera house’ by zaha hadid is nearing completion with a projected opening date of early 2011. the 70,000 m2 complex rests at the heart of the city’s cultural sites development, establishing a close relationship with the pearl river to the south. featuring two volumes wrapped in a triangulated skin of concrete, glass, and steel, the project aims to enhance urban functions by opening access to the riverside and dock. the resulting design serves as an urban and iconic gateway while establishing guangzhou as one of asia’s cultural epicenters.
triangulated, structural skin image courtesy puikincz
the spine and structural frame of the faceted skin is a dominant element in the interior space: the lobby, entrance, and circulation area interacts with the dynamic treatment, moving and guiding the visitors throughout the volume. the many levels provide sight lines into the main atrium space, establishing a sense of connection and orientation within the opera house. in addition to the 1,800-seat grand theatre, the complex hosts a multifunction hall, a number of auxiliary facilities and support premises.
(left) entrance lobby (right) staircase images courtesy roy zhuang
main circulation space image courtesy puikincz
multifunctional hall image courtesy roy zhuang
hallway image courtesy roy zhuang
grand theatre image courtesy zaha hadid architects photo © virgile simon bertrand
exterior ramp image courtesy roy zhuang
parking space below image courtesy triplefivedrew
entrance plaza image courtesy triplefivedrew
between the two volumes image courtesy triplefivedrew
detail of skin image courtesy triplefivedrew
reflecting pond outside image courtesy pavel vasyliev
entrance at night image courtesy pavel vasyliev
exterior ramp lit up image courtesy pavel vasyliev
entrance image courtesy pavel vasyliev
along the pearl river image © zaha hadid architects
rendered fly-by image © zaha hadid architects
approach image © zaha hadid architects
lobby image © zaha hadid architects
circulation space image © zaha hadid architects
design team: design: zaha hadid with patrik schumacher project director: woody k.t. yao project leader: simon yu project team: jason guo, yang jingwen, long jiang, ta-kang hsu, yi-ching liu, zhi wang, christine chow, cyril shing, filippo innocenti, lourdes sanchez, hinki kwong, junkai jiang competition team (first stage): filippo innocenti, matias musacchio, jenny huang, hon kong chee, markus planteu, paola cattarin, tamar jacobs, yael grifantini, flavio la gioia, nina safainia, fernando vera martin henn, achim gergen, graham modlen, imran mahmood competition team (second stage): cyril shing, yansong ma, yosuke hayano, adriano de gioannis, barbara pfenningstorff
consultants: local architect: guangzhou pearl river foreign investment, architectural designing institute (guangzhou, china) structure: SHTK (shanghai, china); guangzhou pearl river, foreign investment architectural designing institute facade: KGE engineering (zhuhai, china) building services: guangzhou pearl river foreign investment, architectural designing institute M&E: max fordham and partners (london, UK); OK design group theatre: ENFI (beijing, china) lighting: beijing light & view (being, china) acoustic: marshall day acoustics (melbourne, australia) project management: guangzhou municipal construction group co. ltd. (guangzho, china) cost: guangzhou jiancheng engineering costing consultant, office ltd. (guangzhou, china) principal contractor: china construction third engineering bureau co. ltd. (guangdong, china)
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Wow. You can get lost in it, in several ways.
i hate to say it..but UNBELIEVABLE!!
do you mean unbelievable BAD ?
believable, but hard to understand
Impressive, not sure if it would have been better with a wider palette of materials. Comparing the photographs with the renderings it seems that the excess of material joints and colour uniformity gives more presence to the structural effort than to the material and space continuity.
money money money – it would be funny – to live in ZAHAs world
Marvellous!
impressive, very nice. zaha does her best.
I don’t like it. The interior looks cold and boring. It could be anything: a convention centre, a hotel, etc. Theatres like this and the ‘Grand Canal Theatre’ will never compare to the likes of ‘Le Palais Garnier’
Remarkable but so heavy handed on the inside. Too much ‘weight’ in the exterior shell contrasting with the spaces between the shell and the concert hall. It makes the space between look as though it is about to be crushed. Lovely lighting in the concert hall and beautiful balconies.
A theatre should be have an air of glamour about it. With this although the exterior is quite interesting, and the concert hall looks amazing, the lobby and rest of the interior is terribly executed. Look at how badly the triangles meet, how many gaps there are, vents showing, lights and wires jutting out. They look absolutely nothing like the renders. And that metal thing running along the interior of the lobby – Is THAT a drain pipe? Where’s the grand staircase? Oh yeah, just thrown in a corner as if an afterthought – just like the rest of the interior.
i have to start by saying: some of the interior spaces are just jaw-dropping beautiful and very grand indeed.
on the other hand, the detailing of joints, the envelope and interior lights/signs/vents, etc. is just awful…really poor. this is the same quality of detailing that i see my parent’s cookie cutter house in texas. admittedly, the details in this opera house are far more complicated, but nevertheless completely lacking in elegance. we’ve seen this kind of poor details in other zaha buildings, even in germany of all places.
lastly, i second the comment about the grand staircase–absolutely lacking.
ZAHA hadid understand what SPACE about.
Enough said.
Anybody who says this project is poorly detailed is ridiculous. First of all, there are no detail shots to base such an opinion upond. Second of all, from the shots that are provided, all of the joint tolerances on the triangular panels look quite good.
People commenting on the ‘grand staircase’ are really missing the point. The lobby is a total spatial experience. Anybody who thinks the GRAND STAIRCASE is this thing that absolutely must be the main focus of EVERY SINGLE THEATER LOBBY EVER shouldn’t be commenting on the work of progressive architects like Hadid.
Wow, this is a splendid beauty. Excellent Architectural work.
Appears that control was lost sometime in the process. Not a good outcome.
It looks cruddy, dirty and old – like a spaceship that landed 100 years ago. Add the rain and pollution that’s leaving streaks on the thing and it looks bad. “oh but you can’t blame Hadid for the rain.” No, but it’s a factor, and should’ve been thought about in drainage and selection of materials, for example. Plus, the triangular tiles on the exterior don’t appear to be the same shade of Nurb to begin with. And what’s with the paving….that was a bad decision.
And yes you can fault the detailing. If you’re gonna go balls out for smooth swooping curves, then it’d better be damn SMOOTH. I’ve been to the Maxxi. Looks good in pictures; it’s horrid in real life.
hmph. inclined to dislike zaha but have to say this is impressive!
I was there a couple months ago right before it opened and it looked like it was beginning to peel at the edges.
a couple of detail photos [url=http://www.triplefiveshanghai.com/zaha-hadid-guangzhou/]here[url]
this is cool! though this project seems hard to understand..and once again, zaha hadid’s style there..
its great to see such a architectural achievement.i feel it is in tune with natural flow yet extraordinary design.i will see tihs opera housen when i am in Guangzhou.
Is it a case of “Love it or hate it”?
If it is then I deeply hate it. So insulting.
Absolute nonsense; the more she builds she worse it gets. This woman has got no architectural concept whatsoever. But she’s good at spending client’smoney.
Luego de ver las imágenes de esta impresionante obra de nuestra querida genia ,sentin que al fin la gente va a poder caminar , y disfrutar los espacios que siempre solo obsevabamos en las películas futuristas,de la preexistencia a la existencia te felicito zaha !!!