Architects: MAD Architect
Project Team: Ma Yansong, Wei Dong, Zhang Xiuguo, Dang Qun
Construction Deign: Beijing institute of architectural design
Project Team: Zhu Ming, Zhu Zhongyi, Xu Honglei, Wang Yunfeng, Ding Ying, Dai Fucong, Zhang Yufeng, Gao Chen, Wang Dongliang, Chen Liang
Design Year: 2010.4-2011.7
Constructed Year: 2015.9
Harbin Opera House is located on the Cultural Center Island in Songbei Distict, Harbin, facing Sun Island across the river. It is the main building on the Cultural Center Island, standing on a foreign floating base. Its design is intended to evoke the scenery of snow-capped mountains with thousands of miles of ice in the northern landscape. The refined main building seems to float above the river surface, light and graceful. It includes a grand theater (with 1564 seats), a small theater (with 414 seats), an underground garage, and auxillary supporing facilities. Its service scope covers all residents of Harbin and tourists from around the world visiting Harbin.
The design of this public building should not be limited to the theater function itself, it should strive to provide citizens and visitors with diverse spatial experiences from multiple aspects such as the theater, landscape, square, and three-dimensional platforms. An artificial lake is designed to the east of the opera house, allowing the graceful curves of the building to gently extend into the lake and disappear on the water surface, integrating with the floating bridge spanning the water and merging with nature. This symbolizes the mutual transformation of ice and snow, as well as the harmony between architecture and nature.
The entire opera house building is enclosed by a set of white ribbons, forming an outdoor square and two buildings: the grand theater and the small theater. The front areas of the grand and small theaters are public lobbies. The two theaters are connected by a sunken space in the middle, which is connected to the entrance hall on the first basement floor via a large staircase. The special-shaped glass curtain wall on the top of the lobby allows the entire public space to receive natural light from the outside. When the light shines into the richly varied indoor space, it creates a wonderful spatial experience. The lobby is equipped with service spaces such as a main service desk, a luggage storage area, and a coffee bar.