2015 – Harbin Opéra House, China

HARBIN OPERA

Harbin, province du Heilongjiang, China.

It is a new opera born in China and which has just been inaugurated in Harbin, the northern capital. For those who are history buffs, the name of this great city near 12 million people is linked to the Russo-Japanese War, then the presence of the unit infamous 731 during the Japanese occupation, or today, and more prosaically and poetically as, Festival of snow and ice. It is also, who had doubted, a large industrial city.

The opening of the new opera in this Manchurian city is beyond its current, reveals the Chinese evolution. Cultural facilities, auditoriums or operas indeed grow in China like mushrooms in the meadows in the summer after a nourishing rain.

Well beyond its lyrical function, artistic or recreational, the construction of an opera is indeed the marker of power capacity and influence of a state or city. In the nineteenth century, for example, the construction of the Paris Opera Garnier was representative of the power of the Second Empire like Manaus shortly after Brazil, the accumulation of wealth in this new Eldorado Amazon . More recently we have seen in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan in the heart of Central Asia, the opening of an opera.

In a few years and China has, both on the coastal fringe and industrial in its most mainland, a concert hall or opera adornment high quality. Art, this is not the icing on the cake . It's basically the motive power of an entire society, sensitive electron, its ability entropy or to put it more simply : its dynamics and adhesion strength, Emotional exemplary vitality. Art in other words is constituted at the same time as revealing an intellectual consensus, economic, cultural, political and social.

This is particularly visible in China with the emergence of a middle class of around best estimate 240 million people out of a population of nearly 1 billion 400 million habitants.La China rebirth after the grim period of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution and the modern and reformist turn taken by Deng Xiaoping (Deng Xiaoping) then his successors today that M. Xi Jinping (Xi Jinping) and that allowed for less openness to the world in particular led a student Chinese youth to compete, And how, on Western scenes and especially in major international music competitions where they fit most often in the first three places.

The architecture is indeed the royal art and carries the symbolic function of power and influence. Which country, How great capital does not want to shine in the firmament of Records, beauty and success. Note that in this area of France, and yes and no offense to declinists, holds a place rather admired !It is a new opera born in China and which has just been inaugurated in Harbin, the northern capital. For those who are history buffs, the name of this great city near 12 millions of inhabitants (and yes, it is in China !) is related to the Russo-Japanese War, then the presence of the unit infamous 731 during the Japanese occupation, or today, and more prosaically and poetically as, Festival of snow and ice. It is also, who had doubted, a large industrial city.

Located in wetlands Harbin,
the building designed by MAD Architects is one of the most spectacular works 2015

It is covered with an aluminum coat evoking the extremely cold climate of the region.
(it can make the winter to -20 °- 30°C).

One can access the terrace which rises to 56 m by a corridor that winds and surrounded the building and is reminiscent of high snow walls. The light enters inside of the building through pyramidal shaped glass openings. The vast interior of a home is very bare and sober decor. The stairs leading to the great theater are ash wood paneled bringing a more intimate and warm note. Finally two theaters whose largest eviscerated like a frame impressive form, remarkable acoustics, and similarly paneled of a particular species of a local soft color ash. This beautiful opera house offers a capacity of 1.600 spectators.

https://youtu.be/ZUFmaFUELKY

Pierre-Alain Lévy and Bian Jingzhao 边景昭 Wukali correspondent in China.

The opera Harbin was designed by Ma Yansong and Chinese architectural firm MAD, it is built facing the modern city and its skyscrapers, amid wetlands and wife curvilinear forms surrounding landscapes. For Ma Yansong, it is to integrate this modern building in keeping with the surrounding nature. A bridge spanning a river arm allows the transition, the passage, towards the building that offers visitors.

Photography by Iwan Baan

Photography by Hufton + Raven

HARBIN OPERA HOUSE
MAD Architects

Located on the north bank of the Songhua River next to a new booming city, the design of the Opera Harbin is inspired by its natural surroundings. The dynamic shape is an extension of the landscape that looks like a snowy mountain rule gently and harmoniously within the new cultural island. The outside is covered with glass panels and white aluminum in the form of a snowy landscape.
Unlike the exterior cool white, the large wooden case is the focal point of the main entrance of the theater. It encompasses the great room and serves the entry threshold into the space of the auditorium. My role was to develop a conceptual design for the lobby and offer different design options for the large wooden hull. The design presented above is one of the options inspired by the sinuous curves of the outer shape, with subtle sculptures in the wood surface.
At the top of the auditorium, large envelopes wooden shell around the concrete structure to create a garden space on the roof, where the geometry as a bench corner along the perimeter.
Another option was to build the large wooden hull with wood strips. Based on the overall geometry, the gap between the strips of wood varies, creating the effect of a screen with changing views and openings for cooling needs.

Photographs of the completed theater main lobby as shown in Dezeen – Photos by Hufton + Raven , Photos by Iwan Baan

BONUS !

added 4 Jan. 2017
The 33rd Festival Harbin International Ice and Snow was officially opened Wednesday in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in north China -is.

The Harbin International Ice Festival and annual snow sculpture is an annual winter festival to be held from 22 January 25 February 2017 Harbin, Heilongjiang, in China, and is now the largest festival of ice and snow in the world.
The festival is held in Harbin, which is located in northern China. Harbin, Also known as “City Ice,” is one of the destinations winter China's most popular. The very cold winters provide ideal conditions for ice festival !