harbin opera house case study pdf

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Harbin Opera House / MAD Architects

• Curated by ArchDaily
• Architects: MAD Architects
• Area Area of this architecture project Area:  850000 ft²
• Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2015
• Photographs Photographs: Hufton+Crow , Adam Mørk
• Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:   Sika , Nuprotec
• Stage Mechanical Engineers : Chinese PLA General Armament Institute of Engineering Design
• Interior Design : MAD Architects , Shenzhen Z&F Culture Construction Co.Ltd.
• Lighting Design : Toryo International Lighting Design Center , Beijing United Artists Lighting Design Co.Ltd
• Landscape Architect : Turenscape (Beijing Turen Design Institute) , Earthasia Ltd.
• Acoustic Consultants : Zhang Kuisheng Acoustical Design Research Studio
• Directors:  Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
• Design Team:  Jordan Kanter, Daniel Gillen, Bas van Wylick, Liu Huiying, Fu Changrui, Zhao Wei, Kin Li, Zheng Fang, Julian Sattler, Jackob Beer, J Travis Russett, Sohith Perera, Colby Thomas Suter, Yu Kui, Philippe Brysse, Huang Wei, Flora Lee, Wang Wei, Xie Yibang, Lyo Hengliu, Alexander Cornelius, Alex Gornelius, Mao Beihong, Gianantonio Bongiorno, Jei Kim, Chen Yuanyu, Yu Haochen, Qin Lichao, Pil-Sun Ham, Mingyu Seol, Lin Guomin, Zhang Haixia, Li Guangchong, Wilson Wu, Ma Ning, Davide Signorato, Nick Tran, Xiang Ling, Gustavo Alfred Van Staveren, Yang Jie
• Associate Engineers:  Beijing Institute of Architectural Design
• BIM:  Gehry Technologies
• Signage Design:  Shenzhen Freesigns Signage Co.Ltd
• Facade & Cladding Consultants:  Inhabit Group, China Jingye Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Stage Lighting Design Design:  EKO Lighting Equipment Co., Ltd.
• City:  Harbin
• Country:  China

Text description provided by the architects. MAD Architects unveils the completed Harbin Opera House, located in the Northern Chinese city of Harbin. In 2010, MAD won the international open competition for Harbin Cultural Island, a master plan for an opera house, a cultural center, and the surrounding wetland landscape along Harbin’s Songhua River. The sinuous opera house is the focal point of the Cultural Island, occupying a building area of approximately 850,000 square feet of the site’s 444 acres total area. It features a grand theater that can host over 1,600 patrons and a smaller theater to accommodate an intimate audience of 400.

Embedded within Harbin ’s wetlands, the Harbin Opera House was designed in response to the force and spirit of the northern city’s untamed wilderness and frigid climate. Appearing as if sculpted by wind and water, the building seamlessly blends in with nature and the topography—a transfusion of local identity, art, and culture. “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, while synergistically blending with the surrounding nature,” said Ma Yansong, founding principal, MAD Architects.

On the exterior, the architecture references the sinuous landscape of the surrounding area. The resulting curvilinear façade composed of smooth white aluminum panels becomes the poetry of edge and surface, softness and sharpness. The journey begins upon crossing the bridge onto Harbin Cultural Island, where the undulating architectural mass wraps a large public plaza, and during winter months, melts into the snowy winter environment.

The architectural procession choreographs a conceptual narrative, one that transforms visitors into performers. Upon entering the grand lobby, visitors will see large transparent glass walls spanning the grand lobby, visually connecting the curvilinear interior with the swooping façade and exterior plaza. Soaring above, a crystalline glass curtain wall soars over the grand lobby space with the support of a lightweight diagrid structure. Comprised of glass pyramids, the surface alternates between smooth and faceted, referencing the billowing snow and ice of the frigid climate. Visitors are greeted with the simple opulence of natural light and material sensation—all before taking their seat.

Presenting a warm and inviting element, the grand theater is clad in rich wood, emulating a wooden block that has been gently eroded away. Sculpted from Manchurian Ash, the wooden walls gently wrap around the main stage and theater seating. From the proscenium to the mezzanine balcony the grand theater’s use of simple materials and spatial configuration provides world-class acoustics. The grand theater is illuminated in part by a subtle skylight that connects the audience to the exterior and the passing of time.

Within the second, smaller theater, the interior is connected seamlessly to the exterior by the large, panoramic window behind the performance stage. This wall of sound-proof glass provides a naturally scenic backdrop for performances and activates the stage as an extension of the outdoor environment, inspiring production opportunities.

Harbin Opera House emphasizes public interaction and participation with the building. Both ticketholders and the general public alike can explore the façade’s carved paths and ascend the building as if traversing local topography. At the apex, visitors discover an open, exterior performance space that serves as an observation platform for visitors to survey the panoramic views of Harbin ’s metropolitan skyline and the surrounding wetlands below. Upon descent, visitors return to the expansive public plaza, and are invited to explore the grand lobby space.

Surpassing the complex opera house typology, MAD articulates an architecture inspired by nature and saturated in local identity, culture and art. As the Harbin Opera House deepens the emotional connection of the public with the environment, the architecture is consequently theatrical in both its performance of narrative spaces and its context within the landscape.

Project gallery

Project location

Address: harbin, heilongjiang, china.

Materials and Tags

• Sustainability

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Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects: Design inspired by the surroundings

The Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects on the banks of river Songhua, surrounded by the wetlands on the outskirts of the city of Harbin in China is a cultural island flaunting its white fluid structures across the surrounding landscape. The enormous island of 444 acres consists of performance art theatres, overlooking the rapidly urbanizing city of Harbin with its tall skyscrapers. The island containing the Harbin Opera House is occupied by a built-up structure of 850,000 square feet. 

The cultural centre consists of two theatres, underground parking spaces and exterior performance areas. MAD Architects, a firm based in Beijing founded by Ma Yansong, won the Cultural Island Competition which was conducted to decide the designers of the Opera House. The construction of the cultural complex began in 2011 and was completed by 2015.  

Extension of Surrounding Landscape | Harbin Opera House

The sinuous design of the Harbin Opera House was inspired by the surrounding wetlands and the abutting river and was designed to be a fluid extension of its geographic context. The city has snowy terrain during winters and the pristine white cultural centre looks as if camouflaged within its site. 

The design of the structure by the head architect Ma Yansong of MAD architects was derived from the idea to create a public space in contrast to the towering skyscrapers of the typical urban fabric of many cities in China. The concept was to design a cultural centre that could be pivotal in how the public spaces in the city are perceived. 

The cultural island is often used by people for taking long walks, to have picnics and functions as an intended public space that Ma Yansong derived.

The Public Plaza

The Harbin Opera House consists of a large plaza at the entrance, functioning as a welcoming public space set amidst the built structures, leading up to the two theatres. The grand theatre can house 1,600 people and a smaller adjoining theatre can accommodate an audience of 400. There is also a spacious exterior performance space with an observation deck between the theatre spaces. The cultural centre has ample parking situated underground that can be accessed directly through a tunnel below the ground level. 

The entire transit areas including all of the parking and vehicular circulation are directed underground at the helm of the entrance to the plaza. So visually all the users see are the surreal white shells of the built structures on the flat open space overlooking the river and the city. 

Light Material Palette 

The warm spacious lobby of the theatre complex in the Harbin Opera House is enclosed by curved walls made of white concrete and the entire flooring is clad in marble, the white palette seamlessly transitioning to the Manchurian Ash wood-clad sculptural staircases and balconies that lead up to the theatres. 

The marble flooring is equipped with radiant heating systems to deal with the extreme cold in the region with its temperature dipping as low as -19 degrees Celsius. This keeps the spaces comfortable during long winters where the public can enjoy the amenities of the cultural centre. 

Pristine Glass 

Seamless glass walls connect the exterior plaza with the naturally lit high-ceilinged lobby of the Harbin Opera House. A part of the roof of the fresh white lobby is composed of a lightweight diagrid structure that supports a glass curtain wall. Numerous transparent pyramids sit in the framework of the curtain wall. It is equipped with a customized system that melts the snow and it, in turn, gets directed to integrated drains. 

The roof structure has contrasting elements of smooth white aluminium plates that look like overlapping shells and skewered glass curtain walls.

Warm Interiors of a Music Instrument 

The organic exterior of the Harbin Opera House encompasses warm wood-clad interiors of the theatres with seats arranged in pockets overlooking the stage and equipped with acoustical ingenuity. The insides of the theatres – from the galleries and balconies to the walls and ceilings are clad with Manchurian Ash. The raked seating of the small theatre is furnished with perforated and non-perforated wood panels to enhance the acoustics . 

The interiors of the theatres are designed to evoke the warmth of the inside of a musical instrument, says Ma Yansong. The acoustics are designed in such a way as to accommodate both classical and contemporary music.

Accessible Roof | Harbin Opera House

The roof of the Harbin Opera House, made of overlapping white shells contains a niche with a winding marble-clad staircase leading up scenic views of the surroundings. MAD Architects collaborated with the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design in designing the steel skeleton that holds the fluid exteriors. Parts of the pristine white shells are clad with smooth white aluminium panels. 

A roof garden being the destination of the winding path was designed as an ode to the tradition of trekking up sacred mountainous terrain in China’s landscapes. 

www.architecturalrecord.com. (n.d.). Harbin Opera House . [online] Available at: https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11368-harbin-opera-house [Accessed 2 Apr. 2021].

Journal. (2018). Behind the Building: Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects – Architizer Journal . [online] Available at: https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/collections/harbin-opera-house/#:~:text=Precast%20Concrete&text=Working%20in%20tandem%20with%20the [Accessed 2 Apr. 2021].

Wikipedia. (2020). Harbin Grand Theatre . [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbin_Grand_Theatre [Accessed 2 Apr. 2021].

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Harbin Opera House

Embedded within Harbin’s wetlands, the Harbin Opera House was designed in response to the force and spirit of the northern city’s untamed wilderness and frigid climate. Appearing as if sculpted by wind and water, the building seamlessly blends in with nature and the topography—a transfusion of local identity, art, and culture. “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, while synergistically blending with the surrounding nature,” said Ma Yansong, founding principal, MAD Architects.

On the exterior, the architecture references the sinuous landscape of the surrounding area. The resulting curvilinear façade composed of smooth white aluminum panels becomes the poetry of edge and surface, softness and sharpness. The journey begins upon crossing the bridge onto Harbin Cultural Island, where the undulating architectural mass wraps a large public plaza, and during winter months, melts into the snowy winter environment.

The architectural procession choreographs a conceptual narrative, one that transforms visitors into performers. Upon entering the grand lobby, visitors will see large transparent glass walls spanning the grand lobby, visually connecting the curvilinear interior with the swooping façade and exterior plaza. Soaring above, a crystalline glass curtain wall soars over the grand lobby space with the support of a lightweight diagrid structure. Comprised of glass pyramids, the surface alternates between smooth and faceted, referencing the billowing snow and ice of the frigid climate. Visitors are greeted with the simple opulence of natural light and material sensation—all before taking their seat.

Presenting a warm and inviting element, the grand theater is clad in rich wood, emulating a wooden block that has been gently eroded away. Sculpted from Manchurian Ash, the wooden walls gently wrap around the main stage and theater seating. From the proscenium to the mezzanine balcony the grand theater’s use of simple materials and spatial configuration provides world-class acoustics. The grand theater is illuminated in part by a subtle skylight that connects the audience to the exterior and the passing of time.

Within the second, smaller theater, the interior is connected seamlessly to the exterior by the large, panoramic window behind the performance stage. This wall of sound-proof glass provides a naturally scenic backdrop for performances and activates the stage as an extension of the outdoor environment, inspiring production opportunities.

Harbin Opera House emphasizes public interaction and participation with the building. Both ticketholders and the general public alike can explore the façade’s carved paths and ascend the building as if traversing local topography. At the apex, visitors discover an open, exterior performance space that serves as an observation platform for visitors to survey the panoramic views of Harbin’s metropolitan skyline and the surrounding wetlands below. Upon descent, visitors return to the expansive public plaza, and are invited to explore the grand lobby space.

Surpassing the complex opera house typology, MAD articulates an architecture inspired by nature and saturated in local identity, culture and art. As the Harbin Opera House deepens the emotional connection of the public with the environment, the architecture is consequently theatrical in both its performance of narrative spaces and its context within the landscape." Text: MAD Architects Photographs: Pawel Paniczko Architectural Photography

Architect : MAD Architects

Directors : Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano

Advisor : Bao Pao

Design Team : Jordan Kanter, Daniel Gillen, Bas van Wylick, Liu Huiying, Fu Changrui, Zhao Wei, Kin Li, Zheng Fang, Julian Sattler, Jackob Beer, J Travis Russett, Sohith Perera, Colby Thomas Suter, Yu Kui, Philippe Brysse, Huang Wei, Flora Lee, Wang Wei, Xie Yibang, Lyo Hengliu, Alexander Cornelius, Alex Gornelius, Mao Beihong, Gianantonio Bongiorno, Jei Kim, Chen Yuanyu, Yu Haochen, Qin Lichao, Pil-Sun Ham, Mingyu Seol, Lin Guomin, Zhang Haixia, Li Guangchong, Wilson Wu, Ma Ning, Davide Signorato, Nick Tran, Xiang Ling, Gustavo Alfred Van Staveren, Yang Jie

Architectural Design Institute : Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) Institute

Interior Design : MAD Architects, Shenzhen Keyuan Construction Group Co., Ltd.

Stage Mechanical Engineers : Beijing New Era Architectural Design Ltd.

Signage Design : Shenzhen Freesigns Signage Co., Ltd.

Beijing Turenscape Institute

Stage Lighting and Acoustics Design : Acoustic and Theatre Special Design & Research Studio of East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (ECADI)

China International Engineering Design & Consult Co., Ltd.

Façade/cladding Consultants : Inhabit Group, China Jingye Engineering Co., Ltd. BIM : Gehry Technologies Co., Ltd. Interior Decoration Consultants : Harbin Weimeiyuan Decoration Design Co., Ltd. Acoustics Consultants : Acoustic and Theater Special Design & Research Studio of East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (ECADI)

Harbin Songbei Investment and Development Group Co., Ltd.

• Client Harbin Songbei Investment and Development Group Co., Ltd.
• Program Theatre, Cultural Center
• Area Surface 850000.0 sqft
• Architecture Goes Wild
• Auditoriums
• Concert Halls
• Plans of Performing Arts Centers
• The Fifth Facade

Harbin Opera House

The sensual lines of a performing-arts complex express a city's bold bid for attention..

The 850,000-square-foot complex rises from a 444-acre park a 20-minute drive from downtown Harbin. The Opera House, with its two theaters opened in October, while a convention center and hotel, also designed by MAD, is still under construction .

Photo © Adam Mørk

Image courtesy MAD Architects 

The Opera House, with its two theaters opened in October, while a convention center and hotel, also designed by MAD, is still under construction

A ramp incised in the side of the building takes visitors to a terrace above the main theater.

The interior facade of the theater is clad with narrow bent pieces of Manchurian ash.

Skylights bring daylight, a precious commodity in this northern part of China, into the main lobby

Skylights bring daylight, a precious commodity in this northern part of China, into the main lobby and a rehearsal studio.

A lobby stair combines both warm and cool elements in its design.

The architects orchestrated the interiors to contrast. For example, cool spaces, such as the upper lobby, with its white fiber-reinforced plastic lattice play off those given a visual warmth by undulating wood cladding, like the 1,600-seat main theater (seen here).

The architects orchestrated the interiors to contrast. For example, cool spaces, such as the upper lobby (seen here), with its white fiber-reinforced plastic lattice play off those given a visual warmth by undulating wood cladding, like the 1,600-seat main theater.

Architects & Firms

Harbin, china, people and products.

From the bridge connecting bustling downtown Harbin to bucolic Sun Island, the new Harbin Opera House comes into view, with its impressive sloping forms that suggest the snow-capped mountains found in this northern Chinese region. Emerging from the surrounding wetlands, the building’s double-humped silhouette rises to an apex of 183 feet and curls around mounds of glass panels that appear to burst forth like spikey balloons.

Designed by MAD Architects, which has offices in Beijing and Los Angeles, the 850,000-square-foot theater complex serves as a glittering new icon for a city once known mostly for its winter snow festival. MAD, founded by Yale-trained Ma Yansong in 2004, won the commission for the project in an international competition in 2010. “As a public building, it has to be an open, accessible place,” says Ma. “It has to be dramatic. When people enter it, they need to feel they’re onstage, that they’re performers,” adds Ma, who was chosen last year to design Star Wars producer George Lucas’s Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago. Ma completed his first project in Harbin in 2013, the 656-foot-long China Wood Sculpture Museum.

The new Harbin project—which includes a pair of theaters, dressing rooms, rehearsal halls, and support spaces, as well as a separate conference center and hotel that are still under construction—was envisioned as a “city landmark to showcase Harbin’s own DNA and cultural heritage,” says Liu Zhenbo, the director of the government’s Harbin Songbei District Construction Management unit, which commissioned the project. Built in the 444-acre Sun Island nature park, the opera house opened in October.

Visitors to the project not only can go inside it, they can climb it. A long set of granite steps—open to the general public as well as ticket-buying opera goers—runs up the building’s great curving roof, offering spectacular views of the city’s skyline and the Songhua River. In a nod to treks up China’s sacred mountains, as immortalized in traditional poems and paintings, the walkway snakes up the building, culminating in a rooftop landing. “The building goes from horizontal to vertical,” says the architect. Visitors can’t see the rooftop terrace from the ground, so “it’s like a temple. You go to a public but kind of secret place and have a conversation with the sky.”

MAD worked with engineers at the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design to develop the intricate steel skeleton supporting the building’s mountainous forms. From inside, the opera house feels like a snow cave, with passages of white curved concrete walls and ceilings. Faceted glass skylights—built with a customized system to melt actual snow and direct it into drains—flood the grand lobby with sunlight, precious in China’s northern regions. Polished marble floors equipped with radiant heating make the space comfortable in the winter, when temperatures can drop to 37 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. 

From the lobby, visitors see the undulating wood facade of the larger performance venue, clad with bent narrow planks of Manchurian ash. Ma says that he and his team chose the wood—a common material in the area—to  evoke the warm interior of a musical instrument.

The large theater, which seats 1,600, has an elevated stage and the usual orchestra pit. The same curved wood found on the theater’s lobby facade wraps around balconies, box seats, walls, and ceilings inside the theater. Wanting audience members in the less expensive upper seats to feel “a little bit special,” Ma ensconced the top tier in leather walls and adorned it with a crystal-encrusted edge lit by LEDs that can change color.

The big theater is designed acoustically to cater to both Western and Chinese operas—the former usually relying on unaided sound projection, while the latter has performers using microphones. (The architects report that the Harbin Symphony Orchestra, founded by Russian émigrés in the early 1900s and reputed to be China’s oldest, recently performed at the venue and found the acoustics to be superb.) 

The smaller theater, which fits 400 people, is a rectangular hall with raked seating. Gray wood panels, some perforated, clad the walls to optimize sound. Floor-to-ceiling glazing behind the stage can be closed off by curtains to darken the room and absorb sound.

MAD is currently busy with other ambitious projects in China, the United States, and Europe. It recently completed Huangshan Mountain Village, a large residential complex in Anhui Province, and is working on the Pingtan Art Museum in Fujian Province, a mixed-use residential development in Los Angeles, and a residential renovation project in Rome.

Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, has a population of 4.5 million and dates back to the late 19th century, when an influx of Polish immigrants arrived to build the Czarist Russia–funded Chinese Eastern Railway, a critical link connecting the Trans-Siberian Railway with China. Today, the city is not only an important commercial and industrial hub, but is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, thanks to its extreme winter weather and diverse offerings of performing arts. In the cold months, visitors and locals revel in Harbin’s frozen landscapes and world-renowned ice-sculpture festival. In the summer, the city hosts European-style music programs. Thanks to its history as an outpost of Russian culture, Harbin boasts China’s oldest music academy.

MAD’s bold design for the opera house, says Liu, the client, helps establish Harbin as a place with “its own unique contemporary character,” one that is rugged, powerful, and dynamic. In recent years, Chinese cities have erected magnificent public buildings—airports, museums, performing-arts centers—spending large sums to assert their cultural greatness. It has yet to be seen if they can generate the content and programming to properly activate these buildings. But the architectural swagger already matches the aspirations. 

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Alexandra A. Seno is a Hong Kong–based architecture and design critic who has written for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times , among other publications.

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Harbin Opera House in China by MAD Architects

2 November 2015 By Manon Mollard Today

Bursting forth from its wetland setting, MAD’s incongruous Harbin Opera House and urban park belie the exquisite spaces within

The local people thought they were getting an amusement park, the building’s naked steel skeleton reminiscent of rollercoaster rides. ‘We’ve dropped an alien in Harbin,’ smiles MAD principal partner Dang Qun.

We are in the north-east of China, on a small island on the northern bank of the Songhua River, an oasis of green at the heart of the country’s eighth most populous city. Not that long ago, Harbin was nothing more than a Russian-built outpost of the Trans-Siberian line. Today, judging by the number of cranes and tower blocks under construction, the city is still very much in the making. The transport network is only just catching up, and its expansion will provide MAD’s newly completed opera house with its very own underground station.

Location plan

Due to the rapid pace of urbanisation in the country, China finds itself faced with numerous citified settlements actually lacking the essential characteristics of true cities. Once populated and supplied with basic infrastructure, the government’s response was straightforward: a city must have culture, so a series of competitions were launched calling architects to design gargantuan complexes including, all at once, an opera house, a museum, a library and a cultural centre.

Harbin’s turn came, and in February 2010, MAD won the Cultural Island competition. Conscious of this ill-conceived idea - that the sudden injection of a large cultural nucleus could radically transform even the most monotonous accretion of residential tower blocks - the architects stripped the programme down. Their winning proposal concentrates on the opera house and an urban park, arguing that the uniqueness of the wetland site should be preserved rather than crowded with a disparate set of programmes housed in too many distinct built elements.

Floor plans - click to expand

The site was the obvious starting point for MAD, who wanted the building to sit in continuation of the landscape’s topography, as if emerging out of it. The opera house is complemented by a small ticket office and supported by an annexe building to house a restaurant, hotel and exhibition space. In the middle of the plan lies an artificial lake. As the slope of the first building approaches the ground, the continuous surface becomes a public piazza, extends into a bridge over the water and rises back up to shape the second built structure, in an attempt to form a cohesive whole. In the surrounding wetlands, light structures provide walkways and platforms for visitors and fishermen alike. This 1.8 km2 parkland is already well used by citizens for taking walks, having picnics and flying kites.

If the architects understood the importance of preserving the wetlands as an island of green between the old and new city, the opera house itself feels like it just landed there by mistake. Dang says they feel their work must stand in opposition to the spate of homogeneous apartment buildings and their duplicates germinating everywhere. Certainly, there is a deliberate willingness to create a surreal setting here. The piazza is elevated above the ground level, disconnecting it from the surrounding nature. No trees are planted on it, only lampposts. The architects pushed practical elements, such as lorry access and loading bays, out to the sides and underneath the building in order to liberate the ground, leaving pedestrians standing in a barren artificial landscape.

Sections - click to expand

Ma Yansong, founder of MAD, confesses his favourite render is of the scheme in Harbin’s harsh winter, which gives the project the appearance of a snow dune, blending the artificial with the natural. When the entire city is covered in a white blanket of snow, no doubt the scheme will dissolve into its surroundings. And conveniently, Harbin is reputed for annually hosting the world’s largest Ice and Snow Festival because, being so close to the Russian border - a few hundred kilometres, but we are talking at the scale of China - winter can last as long as half a year.

‘The interiors of Harbin Opera House constitute the real delicacy of the scheme’

Approaching the building’s carapace, slight bumps are visible on its surface, reminiscent of the raggedness of reptile skin. The external aluminium cladding is layered to make the lower row of panels overlap with the row immediately above it. Tucking the panels in prevents the cast of any horizontal shadow onto the building’s skin and emphasises the undulating, icy mountain look. Two cuts interrupt the larger volume, one reserved for staff and the other, open to the general public, enabling people to climb all the way to the top. At 35m above ground, the terrace offers panoramic views of Harbin.

It used to be fairly common for architects in China to supply the exterior shell of the building and hand over the fit-out to contractors, but they are now much more likely to take ownership of projects as a whole. In fact, the interiors of Harbin Opera House constitute the real delicacy of the scheme. The project’s internal spaces are unexpectedly warm and sensitive. In the lobby, flooded with light both from the side windows and the triangulated glazing overhead, timber wraps the large auditorium and staircases in an exquisitely sculpted conformation.

Section detail - click to expand

Imposing yet elegant, the timber composition stands at the heart of the larger volume, coming down in torsion before reaching the ground. The curves are soft yet structured, articulating a movement of their own. Wood in all forms - solid, panel and veneer - is brought together, inducing a crafted touch to an environment exported straight out of 3D modelling software and brought into the world via digital fabrication. The architects were faced, however, with the inescapable reality that the human hand was a much more reliable tool for this job. Some 50 craftsmen came from Guangzhou and were on site for four months, cutting and hammering the wooden strips in.

A timber interior is also found inside the main auditorium, improving acoustics and elegantly concealing technical equipment in its folds. The stage proves highly versatile, capable of transforming to accommodate requirements for any kind of performance, from Western opera to traditional Chinese theatre and modern drama. Able to welcome an audience of 1,600, the sitting area is divided into a series of smaller booths to create a more intimate experience. At the very back, a small window can be opened to let natural light in, an unusual characteristic for such a space.

Expanded section - click to expand

Light is also a potential actor in the small auditorium, with a seating capacity of 400 people, where the back wall of the stage is glazed offering a panoramic view of the landscape, bringing the surroundings in, and encouraging stage designers to play with the boundary between the two environments. Initially, MAD wanted the glass panel to fully open out. While this was not particularly difficult at a technical level, it would have required the help of a specialised foreign firm, which the budget did not allow for - the architects did not trust their Chinese counterparts to do the job.

MAD want to be provocative and challenge the language of architecture used in their country, promulgating the integration of art, culture and landscape. They feel that until now, China has been seeing and taking from other places, rather than bringing something new to the table. They believe that due to the acquired freedom and sense of possibility available in China, its local architecture could prove particularly innovative and in turn, inspire beyond its national borders. Although the Chinese government has recently expressed a will to move away from the ‘bizarre’ architecture the country seemed so fond of, Ma and Dang feel strongly about the responsibility of architects to help shape society, and believe architecture should challenge perceptions and environments. Visiting the project on a Monday afternoon, one week before its inauguration, a newly wed couple was posing in front of the mountainous structure. Does an amorphous shape really broaden horizons and question the status quo?

Harbin Opera House

Architect: MAD Architects

Project directors: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano

Photographs: Hufton+Crow

November 2015

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Rising from the wetlands like a sinuous ice formation that has been sculpted over time by wind and water, the Harbin Opera House is undoubtedly a new landmark on the skyline of the Chinese northeastern city of Harbin . Designed by Beijing-based MAD Architects as a creative response “to the force and spirit of the northern city's untamed wilderness and frigid climate", the building is a sculptural tour de force that organically blends into the horizon. 

Part of Harbin Cultural Island, a major new arts complex located on the wetlands of the Songhua River, the new Opera House contains three distinct focal spaces that form a three-petalled plan: a grand theater with seating capacity for 1,600, a smaller theater comprised of 400 seats and a large public plaza. All three sections are bound together by an undulating surface composed of smooth white aluminium panels that fluidly wraps around them mirroring the waters of the surrounding marshlands. Meanwhile, the smooth white texture of the billowing shell is juxtaposed with the faceted rooftops that crown the two theater volumes with an array of glass pyramids. The combination of the smooth with the prismatic poetically evokes the snow and the ice that envelope the area in the winter—after all, Harbin is not called the Ice City for nothing.

Photo © Iwan Baan.

Photo © Adam Mørk.

The exterior’s fluidity is also predominant in the interior spaces . Upon entering the grand day lit lobby, you’re mesmerized by the billowing form of the lattice structure below the atrium roof and the immense wooden mass that contains the opera. Sculpted from Manchurian Ash that elicits a warmth that is sorely needed in  the ice-white interior, the sculptural volume of the opera is designed as per the architects to emulate “ a wooden block that has been gently eroded away ”. The sinuous wooden skin is also used inside the theater where it wraps around the stage and seating, all the way to the ceiling where, at the back, it surprisingly incorporates a skylight.

Photo © Hufton+Crow.

In contrast to the opera’s introverted design, the smaller theater opens up to the exterior through a soundproofed glass wall that acts as the stage’s backdrop providing spectacular views. Although rectangular in plan, the space is far from regular as it features undulating walls, their ripples made all the more dramatic by the daylight flooding in through the glass façade.

While the public plaza provides ample space for outdoor activities and performances, the architects have also designed a second exterior performance space located on top of the main volume. Accessible through curving paths along the building’s mass and open to the general public, the space, which doubles as an observation platform with views of both the city skyline and the surrounding marshlands, truly epitomizes MAD Architect ’s philosophy of treating architecture as landscape.

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Harbin Opera House, China

Known as the ‘Ice City’, Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, houses an expansive, impressive opera house. Set amongst the city’s untamed wilderness and frigid climate, the building boasts a crystal-like purity and transparency, blending in with the surrounding nature and topography.

The lighting for this remarkable structure, managed by Beijing United Artists Lighting Design, was designed to complement the architectural concept that the building grows out from the local environment and responds to the aforementioned untamed wilderness, while also revealing the purity and clarity of the space, creating an enriching experience for visitors in the process. To help them work towards this concept, the lighting team devised a motto of ‘lighting the rhythm of the frozen music’.

Beijing United Artists came on board with the Harbin Opera House project having previously worked with MAD Architects for the Ordos Museum in the Gobi desert, and Dongning Wang of Beijing United Artists, believes that this prior relationship helped create a harmonious working environment. He said: “During our work together on the former project, we had built up trust with MAD and found an effective way of communicating with each other by using the language of light.”

This trust between MAD and Beijing United Artists helped the lighting designers in the bidding process, with MAD insisting throughout that Beijing United Artists was the right firm for the job. “It was a long and tough journey,” explained Wang. “But based on the Ordos project, we were the first lighting design team that the architects were thinking of and proposed to the clients. They liked our ideas so much that they acted quite stubbornly and proposed us to the client again and again.”

Such insistence landed Beijing United Artists with the interior lighting design for the project. However the team still created a full, comprehensive lighting strategy for the whole project, from the interior to the exterior, the façade and the landscape. “We did this because we believe that to achieve a good and responsible design, you should consider the project as a whole, not just the one part that you are being told to do,” said Wang. “One thing that we are still very proud of is that we provided an interior lighting design that is seamless with the exterior, to the extent that it’s hard to tell that it is done by different lighting consultants.”

Working with the concept of revealing the purity and clarity of the space, the team at Beijing United Artists devised three ways of lighting the main atrium in one piece of roof, developing a hierarchy. From this hierarchical aspect, the designers made a careful lighting plan with a ‘less is more’ concept to be more adaptive to the functions of the varied spaces, and the movement of visitors.

At the lobby entrance, a ‘welcome mat’ of light; in the middle, a super indirect light; and on the wooden shell at the end of the lobby, a vertical glow. All light fittings are completely hidden in the architecture, creating a pleasant rhythm of light unobstructed by technical details, and unplagued by hot spots or sharp corners.

The wooden shell is the focal point of the lobby; washed lighting from above gives the whole lobby a warm, inviting atmosphere, while on the canopy outside, spotlights were placed in slots, directing light on the ground to avoid reflection and allow people inside to see out.

To achieve the desired ‘purity’ in the space, it was important for the designers that guests see the light, but not the fixtures. The concept designer worked with a software expert and an industrial designer; together, this team calculated the illumination of each space, while making expert recommendations on where fixtures might be hidden. Through their efforts, visitors can explore the beauty of the space without awareness of any lighting fixtures.

To create a twinkling effect on the pyramidal glass roof, the designer selected a quarter of each faceted unit, attaching it with dotted film. Sunlight adds a twinkle to each pyramidal unit, creating different glass reflections throughout the day. At night the filmed glass is grazed from below by LED light bars, seeming to glow from within and attracting visitor attention from far away.

Within the smaller theatre, guests are reminded of the exterior of the building by a panoramic window behind the stage. This seamless connection to the outside world mimics the gleaming ripple effect of the lake outside. Narrow-beam in-ground features, carefully placed at the aisles along the walls, create the gleaming ripples of light on the walls. The irregular wall texture works with the light to create drama, rhythm and pleasing shadows.

In the big theatre, the architect called for a glowing ‘diamond’ for the owner’s VIP area above the mezzanine. Custom RGB LED fixtures are hidden behind the acrylic diamond panel and transition from starry white to warm amber, changing according to the event or the seasons.

This starry, twinkling diamond approach is replicated in the corridor connecting the basement parking plaza and the main lobby. Fibre optic lighting minimises the visual impact, but creates a dream-like grand entrance at the steps.

Although impressive, this isn’t what the lighting designers originally had in mind, as Wang elaborated: “We initially designed a huge ‘cloud’ or ‘snowflake’ pendant lamp over the grand steps linking the lobby to the parking plaza. We carried out intensive studies on lightweight, fireproof materials, along with other feasibility studies, but in the end we had to make a compromise due to some of the state’s fireproof regulations. It’s a shame as MAD were very fond of the idea too, but we had to lose it and go for the fibre optic solution instead, which we like, even if it’s not what we originally designed.”

In spite of this, Wang remains happy with the final outcome of the project, even if it was more demanding than other projects that he has been involved with. He said: “For me, I feel that it is the toughest project that I have ever worked on! I want to thank the architect, Ma Yansong from MAD architects, for his pursuit of perfection, as this encouraged us to create an equally perfect lighting solution.

“Generally, we are very happy about the final effect. Whether looking at it from outside or inside, or moving from A to B inside, it presents most of our initial plans, in that we tried to create a hierarchical richness and a rhythmic mood to complement the music.

“Now, the light gives the space a poetic elegance and reveals frozen movements in time. Thanks to the open-mindedness of the people at MAD architects, they treated lighting as a very important design element when they were composing architectural design ideas. Now you can see that the lighting has become one of the most vital and poetic design treatments for the space.”

“From my personal point of view, I think it is the best combination of hierarchy and rhythm, and it is the purest lighting that I have ever done.”

Since its completion, the Harbin Opera House has gained a lot of plaudits for its stunning lighting design, most notably at the IALD Awards, held in Philadelphia during this year’s Lightfair International trade show, where it won the Radiance Award – the grand prize of the event. Such recognition was warmly received from Wang: “It is a great honour to win this internationally recognised award, and I was thrilled to step on stage to receive it.”

Wang added that while the award win was a great personal honour, he was hopeful that such recognition would have a knock-on effect for the Chinese lighting design profession as a whole. He said: “The award is a very important recognition for my more than fifteen years in lighting design. Along with my team, we were some of the very first lighting designers in China’s recent lighting history. Back when we started out, there were very few people or clients who would think of lighting design as an independent design discipline, let alone pay for our work. It took a lot of strength and belief from us to get through.

“Fortunately, due to more and more outstanding architects like MAD, and other great projects involved with more international cooperation, we have become more and more confident. I’m hopeful that this award will raise awareness of the IALD in China, and my winning experience will bring more attention to my Chinese peers in the lighting industry, as this will help the lighting industry grow very healthily and rapidly.”

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GRAND THEATRE OPERA HOUSE

In 2010, MAD Architects 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 Harbin’s Songhua River. The sinuous opera house is the focal point of the Cultural Island, occupying a building area of approximately 850,000 sqft / 79,000 sqm of the site’s 444 acre / 1.8 sqkm total area. It features a grand theatre that can host over 1,600 patrons as well as a smaller theatre to accommodate an intimate audience of 400.

Embedded within Harbin’s wetlands, the Harbin Opera House was designed in response to the force and spirit of the northern city’s untamed wilderness and frigid climate. Appearing as if sculpted by wind and water, the building seamlessly blends in with nature and the topography, a transfusion of local identity, art, and culture. According to MAD, the building is designed “in response to the force and spirit of the northern city’s untamed wilderness and frigid climate”.

Architectural Concept

On the exterior, the architecture references the flowing landscape of the surrounding area. The resulting curvilinear façade, composed of smooth white aluminium panels, becomes the poetry of edge and surface, softness and sharpness. The journey begins upon crossing the bridge onto Harbin Cultural Island, where the undulating architectural mass wraps a large public plaza and, during winter months, melts into the snowy winter environment. The architectural procession choreographs a conceptual narrative, one that transforms visitors into performers. Upon entering the grand lobby, visitors will see large transparent glass walls spanning the grand lobby, visually connecting the curvilinear interior with the swooping façade and exterior plaza.

“The cladding of the building is custom-made pure white aluminium. White stone and concrete are also used as part of the wall, introducing a pure feeling as ice and snow. The curvilinear façade is composed of smooth white aluminium panels.” Dr Chang Jian Shao, Founding Partner and Executive Director, Beijing

On approaching the building, slight bumps are visible on its surface. The external aluminium cladding is layered to make the lower row of panels overlap with the row immediately above it. Tucking the panels in prevents the cast of any horizontal shadow onto the building’s skin and emphasises the undulating, icy mountain look. Two cuts interrupt the larger volume, one reserved for staff and the other, open to the general public, enabling people to climb all the way to the top. At 35m above ground, the terrace offers panoramic views of Harbin.

A triple-glazed glass fin glass wall spans floor to ceiling and is suspended from above to ensure the straightness of the fin and avoids buckling due to dead load and self-weight of the glass. The facial glass is a triple glazed unit to ensure a good level of insulation from the extreme external temperatures along with reducing the risk of condensation forming on the glass surfaces. The facial glass is structural glazed to the glass fin providing a minimal and slick looking glass wall system.

Soaring above the bright atrium, a lightweight diagrid structure supports a crystalline glass curtain wall. Comprised of transparent glass pyramids, the surface alternates between smooth and faceted, referencing the billowing snow and ice of the frigid climate. Visitors are greeted with the simple opulence of natural light and material sensation – all before taking their seat.

The smooth surfaces of the opera house’s exterior continue inside, where a large entrance lobby features arched windows and a latticed ceiling that is located beneath the sculptural glass roof. The undulating form appears to be sculpted by the location’s elements.

On this project Inhabit’s role was to assist MAD to rationalise the 3D models and develop cladding systems with flexible fixing of 3-way adjustment, continuous thermal insulation and weatherproofing layers. Inhabit was also responsible for the review and inspection of construction design and installation.

• Scope FAÇADE CONSULTING
• Location HARBIN, PRC
• Developer HARBIN GOVERNMENT
• Architect MAD ARCHITECTS
• Photos KRIS PROVOOST + INHABIT

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Study of the behavior of vver and pwr fuel irradiated in the hbwr reactor (halden, norway)

• Published: 23 March 2012
• Volume 111 , pages 413–421, ( 2012 )

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• B. Yu. Volkov 1 ,
• E. P. Ryazantsev 1 ,
• V. V. Yakovlev 1 ,
• A. K. Panyushkin 2 ,
• A. V. Ivanov 2 ,
• O. V. Kryukov 2 ,
• P. I. Lavrenyuk 3 ,
• Yu. V. Pimenov 3 &
• C. Vitanza 4  

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The methods, techniques, and results of comparative studies of VVER and PWR fuel tested in the HBWR reactor (Norway) are presented. Experimental VVER fuel elements with uranium dioxide fuel were fabricated at the Machine Building Plant (MSZ) (in Elektrostal) using standard technology; the experimental PWR fuel elements were fabricated according to the model specifications. The results obtained made possible a comparative evaluation of the changes in the thermophysical parameters and the heat and radiation resistance of the two types of fuel as well as the kinetics of the gaseous fission products as a function of the heat load and burnup.

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B. Volkov, H. Devold, E. Ryazantzev, and V. Yakovlev, In-Pile Data Analysis of the Comparative WWER/PWR Test IFA-503.1 , Final Report HWR-590, April 1999.

B. Volkov, E. Ryazantzev, V. Yakovlev, and H. Devold, “In-pile WWER fuel investigation in the Halden Reactor,” in: 3 rd Int. Sem. WWER Reactor Fuel Performance, Modelling and Experimental Support , Pamporovo, Bulgaria, October 4–8, 1999, pp. 158–164.

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National Research Center Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia

B. Yu. Volkov, E. P. Ryazantsev & V. V. Yakovlev

Machine Building Plant (MSZ), Elektrostal, Moscow Oblast, Russia

A. K. Panyushkin, A. V. Ivanov & O. V. Kryukov

TVEL Company, Moscow, Russia

P. I. Lavrenyuk & Yu. V. Pimenov

Halden Reactor Project (HRP), Halden, Norway

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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 111, No. 6, pp. 342–348, December, 2011.

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Volkov, B.Y., Ryazantsev, E.P., Yakovlev, V.V. et al. Study of the behavior of vver and pwr fuel irradiated in the hbwr reactor (halden, norway). At Energy 111 , 413–421 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-012-9512-y

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Received : 25 March 2011

Published : 23 March 2012

Issue Date : April 2012

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-012-9512-y

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