Bayuquan Theatre | DSD

When designing theatres a serious amount of time and effort has to be placed in understanding acoustics. The problem is different performances may require specific scenarios and designs to provide a better experience for the audience. One way to handle several situations and uses for a theatre is to create multiple theatres that specifically apply to the type of performance that will be occurring or to develop a design that is flexible and transforms for each performance. The Bayuquan Theatre by DSD in Yingkou, China contains two theatres. The first is a large dance theatre designed for dancing and musical performances with the capacity of 1600 people. The second is a multi-functional theatre that can hold 800 people for drama play. The center itself has 3 levels above ground level with cleanly folded façade exteriors and red interior accents.

Courtesy of DSD

According to the architect, the dome of the main Dance Theatre was designed for both structural purposes and a special function. The steel-frame dome can be rotated, opened, and closed to meet different performance requirements. The interior U-shape plan adopts the form of roman traditional theatre and space is separated into 3 levels vertically. Sight analysis was carried out to allocate the seats in the theatre. To ensure the best acoustic performance, the main source will be natural and each seat for an audience takes up 7.7 m³(the total volume is 12300 m³). The reverberation time could be adjusted due to different performance requirements.