Suzhou Bay Grand Theater / Christian de Portzamparc
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Description sent by the project team. The Suzhou Bay Cultural Center is part of a series of iconic projects initiated by the city through the Wujiang Lakefront Municipal Plan.
On the shores of Lake Tai, in 2013, the architect Christian de Portzamparc discovered the desert plain where the vibrant city is located today. Its rapid growth organized towers according to a grid of streets and avenues bordering a central pedestrian axis in the direction of the lake. It was clear that the meeting of this pedestrian axis and the great lake would be an exceptional place, and it was at this site, on both sides of the axis, where the cultural center was to be located during the architecture competition.
The program had two parts: the music and performance halls on one side of the axis, and the museums and educational venues on the other side. The architect chose to connect these two wings on the roof to create in this central location a large arch-shaped opening to the sky. Which is a long tape that is wound and passes from one wing to another on the roof and then on the wall of the facade, forming a figure of “eight” that crosses the pedestrian axis at a height of 40 meters to frame the opening visual to the lake.
The two loops of the ribbon cover the esplanade where the pedestrian axis meets the lake. This central place gives access to the numerous cultural facilities distributed in the two wings, to the north and south of the axis.
In the north wing you enter the great gallery in the lobby which is the entrance to the Chinese theater and opera. From this gallery you go up to the music conservatory and 360 ° cinema.
In the south of the esplanade, the wing is divided into two museum buildings: a history museum and a city museum with educational spaces, and finally a ceremonial and conference center.
The cultural center creates a new landscape connecting water, sky and city in a play of iridescent reflections that evokes this metallic ribbon (made of steel and aluminum) that extends over 500 meters of light. Curves and counter-curves are perceived from the urban axis. Its lines soar, shelter, frame the sky and recall the tapes used in traditional Suzhou theater. It is also possible to climb this belt thanks to a 40 meter high path from which you can see the entire city and the lake.
The architect visualized that these united wings represent duality in motion, in the form of alternating Ying and Yang. This project continues the research that it has been able to carry out on the subject of the möbius strip for the International Congress Center in Nara, Japan, and on the coverage of public spaces with ribbon bows for Luanda (Uganda Cultural Center) and Nanking ( competition for the Jiangsu Grand Theater, China).
The cultural center includes a 1,600-seat opera house, a 600-seat modular hall, two museums, an exhibition center, a convention center, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, as well as shopping centers, in a total area of 215,000 square meters distributed from north to south along the urban axis.
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