Hangzhou East Lake Opera | Henning Larsen Architects

Hangzhou East Lake Opera

Like a pier, The Hangzhou East Lake Opera stretches out into the adjacent East Lake creating a public, elevated rooftop plaza overlooking the water and the city.

The Hangzhou East Lake Opera is part of a 133,000 m2 cultural center consisting of an opera, a small Theater, an art museum, a city planning museum, an exhibition center, and an art school.

Photography by © philippe Ruault

The complex’s overall design focuses on bringing the citizens of Hangzhou a diverse and lively neighborhood that includes a wide range of architectural experiences and public spaces. Some grand and iconic, some human scaled. In a symbolically significant gesture, the roof of the opera offers the citizens and visitors of Hangzhou a public destination in regional scale.

The design for the main interior spaces is meant to reflect and extend the intentions of the design of the exterior spaces: The foyer creates a rich experience to people visiting the building.

Photography by © philippe Ruault

The different building entrances are connected in a unique promenade around the fly tower that offers interesting perspectives to the East Lake and to other levels of the foyer. The different balconies and stairs of the foyer are designed to maximize exposure of people to one another.

While the opera itself acts as an icon of the whole city, the rest of the complex is broken up into smaller buildings and areas such as parks and promenades. They compose a human scale city center filled with water, intimate public spaces and covered galleries.

Photography by © philippe Ruault

The auditorium combines the capacity to welcome conferences, theater, opera, as well as amplified and acoustical performances in a multifunctional hall capable of performing outstandingly in all settings. Each of the specific functions brought a particular element to the design of the auditorium: The conference hall has ensured daylight flowing down from the roof. The theater has added two balconies surrounding the parquet, and the concert hall has provided the wooden and golden relief ideal for acoustical adjustments.

The auditorium is designed to maximize the audience’s experience of intimacy with the artists and increase the exposure of guests to one another. The balconies encircle the auditorium as much as possible to recreate those important qualities of ancient operas.

Photography by © philippe Ruault

Project Info
Architects: Henning Larsen Architects
Location: Hangzhou, China
Client: The Government of Yuhang District in Hangzhou
Gross floor area: 133,000 m2
Type of assignment: 1. prize, international, invited competition
Competition Team: Buro Happold Engineering, Bassinet Turquin Paysage, Marshall Day Acoustics, dUCKS scéno, John Thompson & Partners
Project Team: Hangzhou Architectural & Civil Engineering Design Institute Co., Ltd (LDI), Buro Happold Engineering, AECOM, Müller-BBM International GmbH, Kunkel Consulting International GmbH, KWY
Year of construction: 2014 – 2018
Type: Cultural Center, Opera

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