Guangzhou Opera House | Zaha Hadid Architects

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, I must say, I am filled with a great sense of joy when I see Guangzhou Opera House. No, it doesn’t have any particular special meaning to me. No, it’s not in the town where I grew up. This joy is derived from a much more contemporary source. It comes from the renderings of this project.

Of course, I think it goes without saying, the level and quality of work we have all come to expect from Zaha Hadid Architects, but for some reason, this particular instance rings true to me. The building is creative, it has energy, it has flow, it was designed with strong influence coming from the shapes and forms water gives to river stones after millennia of erosion.”
Opera House by the way. It is all of these delightfully contemporary things, and it is relayed to us as a ‘nothing material’ quasi-real object. There are panels. There are millions, and steel and concrete beams and structure. Yes, of course, happy people and night illumination, but also imperfections, blurred glass, but the glass that is blurred so naturally.

photography by © Iwan Baan

Perhaps I’m really only applauding the graphics card or the rendering software, but I don’t think so., At least not anywhere close to entirely. There is evidence within the renderings presenting this project, something of the ‘old world’ ethos and feeling of care to these images. No parallel bar touched these, but at the same instant, they don’t feel totally from a computer. Well done.”

So, to the opera house itself. A major new cultural landmark in Guangzhou, it has taken on the role of catalyst. With its realization, has come further development in the form of museums, libraries and archive facilities for the city. The building itself offers a state of the art 1,800-seat auditorium with the very latest in acoustic technologies, as well as a more intimate 400-seat multifunction hall for performance art, opera, and concerts-in-the-round.

photography by © Iwan Baan

Project Info:
Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects
Location: Guangzhou, China
Project Director: Woody K.T. Yao, Patrik Schumacher
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
Area: 70000.0 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Manufacturers: Reggiani
Photographs: Iwan Baan
Project Name: Guangzhou Opera House