Harbin Opera House

Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects at dusk, curving white aluminium wings parting around a glowing glazed entrance under a lattice of glass pyramids, above a dark paved plaza
Location: Harbin, ChinaType: Opera HouseYear: 2015Architect: MAD ArchitectsPhotographer: Hufton+Crow, Adam Mørk
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Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects in Harbin, China

Harbin Opera House is a sinuous white performing arts centre designed by MAD Architects in Harbin, in north-east China, rising from the wetlands of Cultural Island along the Songhua River. Completed in 2015, the opera house looks as if it had been sculpted by wind and snow: smooth white aluminium skins sweep up from the landscape and fold around a glazed entrance, while inside a vast timber volume carved from Manchurian ash holds the grand theatre. It is one of the best-known works of the Beijing practice founded by Ma Yansong, and was named an ArchDaily Building of the Year in 2016.

Harbin Opera House at twilight reflected in a still pool, its sweeping white roofs and faceted glass crown mirrored beneath a pale violet sky with the city skyline on the horizon

An opera house for a City of Music

In 2010 MAD won the international open competition for Harbin Cultural Island, a master plan for an opera house, a cultural centre and the surrounding wetland landscape along the river. Ground was broken in April 2011. The opera house is the focal point of the island, with a building area of about 79,000 square metres (850,000 square feet) on a site of some 180 hectares. Harbin, a UNESCO City of Music, has long been one of China’s musical capitals: it hosts the annual Harbin Summer Music Concert and is where the country’s first orchestra was founded. The new house gives the city a stage to match, with a grand theatre for around 1,600 people and a smaller theatre for about 400.

Grand theatre at Harbin Opera House wrapped in curving Manchurian ash, an oval skylight in the timber ceiling above the stage opening and rows of red seats in the stalls below

A building sculpted by wind and water

Embedded in the wetlands, the building was designed in response to the force and spirit of the northern city’s untamed wilderness and frigid climate. Ma wanted it to feel calm rather than imposing, in contrast to the towering landmarks of many Chinese cities, and to read as an extension of the surrounding waterways and snowy terrain. The curving facade of smooth white aluminium panels plays edge against surface and softness against sharpness. The journey begins on the bridge to Cultural Island, where the undulating mass wraps a large public plaza and, in winter, melts into the snow. “We envision Harbin Opera House as a cultural center of the future – a tremendous performance venue, as well as a dramatic public space that embodies the integration of human, art and the city identity,” said Ma Yansong.

Grand theatre at Harbin Opera House seen from the stage, tiers of red seats and sculpted timber balconies and boxes curving around the hall beneath lines of lights

The grand lobby under a crystalline roof

MAD describes the sequence of spaces as a narrative that turns visitors into performers. In the grand lobby, tall transparent glass walls connect the curving interior with the swooping facade and the plaza outside. Overhead, a crystalline curtain wall of glass pyramids is carried on a lightweight diagrid structure, its surface alternating between smooth and faceted to recall billowing snow and ice. Daylight washes over white walls and pale floors, while broad stairs and white balconies curve up through the space. Rising in the middle of the lobby is the grand theatre itself, a stacked timber form with ribbon-like balconies that seems to have been worn away by water.

Close view of carved wooden balconies inside Harbin Opera House, smooth ash ribbons edged with concealed lighting folding around a dark arched opening and a visitor at the rail

A grand theatre carved from Manchurian ash

In contrast to the white exterior, the grand theatre is warm and enveloping. It is clad in rich wood, conceived as a wooden block that has been gently eroded, and its walls of Manchurian ash wrap around the stage and seating in soft, layered curves. From the proscenium to the mezzanine balcony, simple materials and the shape of the room were used to give world-class acoustics, with the Zhang Kuisheng Acoustical Design Research Studio as acoustic consultant. Red seats fill the stalls and the sculpted balconies and boxes, and a subtle skylight connects the audience with the sky outside and the passing of time.

Huge arched opening in the steel and glass diagrid shell of Harbin Opera House framing a curved glazed facade and blue sky, with small figures on the plaza beneath

The small theatre and the climb to the roof

The smaller theatre opens to the landscape through a large panoramic window of sound-proof glass behind the stage, which gives performances a natural backdrop and lets productions treat the stage as an extension of the outdoors. The building is also made for the public, not only for ticket holders. Carved paths lead across the facade so that visitors can climb the building as if crossing a landscape. At the top, an open-air performance space doubles as an observation platform with panoramic views of the Harbin skyline and the wetlands below, before the route descends to the plaza and back into the grand lobby.

Timber staircase at Harbin Opera House twisting upwards between white walls, its sweeping wooden balustrade and soffit like a carved ribbon, with two people at the top

Team and credits

Harbin Opera House was designed by MAD Architects under the directors Ma Yansong, Dang Qun and Yosuke Hayano, with the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design as associate engineers. Interior design was by MAD with Shenzhen Z&F Culture Construction, lighting by Toryo International Lighting Design Center and Beijing United Artists Lighting Design, and landscape by Turenscape and Earthasia. Gehry Technologies provided BIM, and Inhabit Group and China Jingye Engineering consulted on the facade and cladding. Besides the ArchDaily award, the project won the WAN Performing Spaces Award 2016 and a 2017 IALD Award for its lighting. Photography is by Hufton+Crow and Adam Mørk. For more opera houses on Archtene, see Palais Garnier and Royal Opera House Open Up.

Harbin Opera House gallery

Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects at dusk, curving white aluminium wings parting around a glowing glazed entrance under a lattice of glass pyramids, above a dark paved plazaAerial view of Harbin Opera House at sunset, swirling white roofs and ramps spreading across a round plaza on Cultural Island, with wetlands, the Songhua River and the Harbin skyline beyondHarbin Opera House at twilight reflected in a still pool, its sweeping white roofs and faceted glass crown mirrored beneath a pale violet sky with the city skyline on the horizonGrand lobby of Harbin Opera House under a white faceted glass ceiling, the stacked timber volume of the grand theatre rising in curved layers above visitors on a gleaming white floorGrand theatre at Harbin Opera House wrapped in curving Manchurian ash, an oval skylight in the timber ceiling above the stage opening and rows of red seats in the stalls belowEntrance hall of Harbin Opera House beneath a towering diagrid wall of glass, a curved white roof edge above and two visitors standing on a circular patterned stone floorGrand theatre at Harbin Opera House seen from the stage, tiers of red seats and sculpted timber balconies and boxes curving around the hall beneath lines of lightsTimber canopy of overlapping curved wooden panels sweeping over a wide white lobby at Harbin Opera House, with long windows and more wooden forms in the distanceClose view of carved wooden balconies inside Harbin Opera House, smooth ash ribbons edged with concealed lighting folding around a dark arched opening and a visitor at the railSmall theatre at Harbin Opera House with rows of timber seats facing a bare stage backed by a full-width window to the landscape, between rippled grey wall panels and lighting rigsHuge arched opening in the steel and glass diagrid shell of Harbin Opera House framing a curved glazed facade and blue sky, with small figures on the plaza beneathHarbin Opera House at night, a long curved glass wall beneath white aluminium cladding revealing the lit timber forms of the lobby, with visitors walking outsideTimber staircase at Harbin Opera House twisting upwards between white walls, its sweeping wooden balustrade and soffit like a carved ribbon, with two people at the topWhite lobby at Harbin Opera House under a ribbed ceiling of glass pyramids, sunlight casting patterned shadows across curved white walls and visitors on a polished floorCurved glass facade of Harbin Opera House at dusk under a sweeping white aluminium roof, warm light glowing inside and the faceted glass crown rising behindBroad pale stone staircase climbing through a white sculpted interior at Harbin Opera House, with a curved white balustrade, a brass handrail and round lights set in the wallSmooth white aluminium slopes and a carved opening on the roof of Harbin Opera House against a deep blue sky with a bright light, and the distant towers of Harbin on the horizonDetail of the curved white aluminium cladding of Harbin Opera House, layered panels with dark shadow lines sweeping against a dramatic grey cloudy sky

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