• Login / Join
  • About
  • •
  • Contact
  • •
  • Advertising
bustler logo
bustler logo
  • News
  • Competitions
  • Events
  • Bustler is powered by Archinect
  • Sign up for Bustler's Email Newsletters

  • Follow these Bustler feeds:

  • Search

    Search in

  • Submit

    What are you submitting?

    News Pitch
    Competition
    Event
  • Login / Join
  • News|Competitions|Events
  • Search
    | Submit
    | Follow
  • Search in

    What are you submitting?

    News Pitch
    Competition
    Event

    Follow these Bustler feeds:

  • About|Contact|Advertising
  • Login / Join
Tagged: opera house

Heatherwick Studio's first opera house design aims to enrich Hainan Island

By Josh Niland|

Wednesday, Apr 6, 2022

Image: Devisual

Another high-profile international firm is getting a chance to leave its mark on one of China’s most popular tourist destinations as Heatherwick Studio has been selected by the Haikou Tourism & Culture Investment Holding Group to design a new performing arts center for the island province of Hainan.

Located in the capital city of Haikou, the center will bring together an opera house, theater, and concert hall into one sweeping canopy to form an “open-air village.”

Partner Eliot Postma says the center will be “an extension of the city [that] will contribute to life on the street throughout the day.”

Image: Devisual

Featuring a suite of educational spaces, performance, and rehearsal areas, the venue has a total capacity of 3,800 and will serve as the centerpiece of the Jiangdong urban area’s cultural quarter.

Image: Devisual

The project represents Heatherwick Studio’s first foray into opera house design after previously being chosen as the co-designers of a doomed Lincoln Center revamp in 2015. Postma says the design inspiration takes from the surrounding volcanic landscape and costuming traditions of the Hainanese opera in a way that “blends the formality of performance with the informality of island culture, making opera more accessible and offering everyone a space to meet whether you have a ticket or not.”

Construction will begin sometime before the end of the year. Archinect will share more project updates as soon as they are made available. 

RELATED NEWS KPF + Heatherwick Studio win bid to design Changi Airport's Terminal 5
RELATED NEWS Thomas Heatherwick and others win ACADIA's 2017 Awards of Excellence
RELATED NEWS London Design Medal 2010 Awarded to Thomas Heatherwick

Related

heatherwick studio ● hainan ● opera house ● performing arts center ● china ● competition ● thomas heatherwick
Heatherwick Studio
Heatherwick Studio

Share

  • Follow

    2 Comments

  • Gary Garvin ·  Apr 06, 22 9:10 PM

    Our inspiration came from the volcanic landscape and the costumes, colours and movement of Hainanese opera.

    Why design a performing arts center that looks like a volcano?

    And it does look like a volcano.

    Why cover a volcano with shapes and colors that resemble the costumes?

    . . . the canopy shelters a mix of different spaces that form an open-air village, of which the halls are a part.

    Why suggest a village inside a volcano? Why not make the center look like a village, using genuine reference to place and culture?

    The associations confound and disrupt. Once more, Heatherwick sounds the artificial, throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks without creating a meaningful or coherent expression. I do like the colors and patterns, however.

    Last question, here and elsewhere: Why doesn't China promote its own architects, Wa Shan for example, who do have sense of place and culture? For all its construction, China has added almost nothing to the architectural discussion on its own, which one would think is a worthwhile goal for a country trying to preserve its identity and establish itself in the world.

  • The_Crow
    The_Crow

    The_Crow ·  Apr 06, 22 9:12 PM

    Someone stop Heatherwick...

  • Comment as :

Heatherwick Studio's first opera house design aims to enrich Hainan Island

Snøhetta's spiraling design chosen for new Shanghai Grand Opera House

Snøhetta's Winning Design for the New Busan Opera House

Busan Opera House Proposal by Columbia University Team

Busan Opera House Proposal by Orproject

Busan Opera House Proposal by PRAUD

Nuvist Architecture & Design's Entry to Izmir Opera House Competition

Sign up for Bustler's Email Newsletters

Next page » Loading

Heatherwick Studio's first opera house design aims to enrich Hainan Island

By Josh Niland|

Wednesday, Apr 6, 2022

Share

Image: Devisual

Related

heatherwick studio ● hainan ● opera house ● performing arts center ● china ● competition ● thomas heatherwick
Heatherwick Studio
Heatherwick Studio

Another high-profile international firm is getting a chance to leave its mark on one of China’s most popular tourist destinations as Heatherwick Studio has been selected by the Haikou Tourism & Culture Investment Holding Group to design a new performing arts center for the island province of Hainan.

Located in the capital city of Haikou, the center will bring together an opera house, theater, and concert hall into one sweeping canopy to form an “open-air village.”

Partner Eliot Postma says the center will be “an extension of the city [that] will contribute to life on the street throughout the day.”

Image: Devisual

Featuring a suite of educational spaces, performance, and rehearsal areas, the venue has a total capacity of 3,800 and will serve as the centerpiece of the Jiangdong urban area’s cultural quarter.

Image: Devisual

The project represents Heatherwick Studio’s first foray into opera house design after previously being chosen as the co-designers of a doomed Lincoln Center revamp in 2015. Postma says the design inspiration takes from the surrounding volcanic landscape and costuming traditions of the Hainanese opera in a way that “blends the formality of performance with the informality of island culture, making opera more accessible and offering everyone a space to meet whether you have a ticket or not.”

Construction will begin sometime before the end of the year. Archinect will share more project updates as soon as they are made available. 

RELATED NEWS KPF + Heatherwick Studio win bid to design Changi Airport's Terminal 5
RELATED NEWS Thomas Heatherwick and others win ACADIA's 2017 Awards of Excellence
RELATED NEWS London Design Medal 2010 Awarded to Thomas Heatherwick

Share

  • Follow

    2 Comments

  • Gary Garvin ·  Apr 06, 22 9:10 PM

    Our inspiration came from the volcanic landscape and the costumes, colours and movement of Hainanese opera.

    Why design a performing arts center that looks like a volcano?

    And it does look like a volcano.

    Why cover a volcano with shapes and colors that resemble the costumes?

    . . . the canopy shelters a mix of different spaces that form an open-air village, of which the halls are a part.

    Why suggest a village inside a volcano? Why not make the center look like a village, using genuine reference to place and culture?

    The associations confound and disrupt. Once more, Heatherwick sounds the artificial, throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks without creating a meaningful or coherent expression. I do like the colors and patterns, however.

    Last question, here and elsewhere: Why doesn't China promote its own architects, Wa Shan for example, who do have sense of place and culture? For all its construction, China has added almost nothing to the architectural discussion on its own, which one would think is a worthwhile goal for a country trying to preserve its identity and establish itself in the world.

  • The_Crow

    The_Crow ·  Apr 06, 22 9:12 PM

    Someone stop Heatherwick...

  • Comment as :

Archinect JobsArchinect Jobs

The Archinect Job Board attracts the world's top architectural design talents.

VIEW ALL JOBS POST A JOB

Intermediate Architect / Designer

de Reus Architects

Intermediate Architect / Designer

Wailea, HI, US

Pre-Press Designer

Calico Wallpaper

Pre-Press Designer

Senior Architect

DXA Studio

Senior Architect

New York, NY, US

Architectural Designer

Bone/Levine Architects

Architectural Designer

New York, NY, US

Architect/Designer with Healthcare Experience

Payette

Architect/Designer with Healthcare Experience

Boston, MA, US

BIM Coordinator

Morphosis Architects

BIM Coordinator

Culver City, CA, US

Modular Studio Architect

EVstudio

Modular Studio Architect

Denver, CO, US

Design Architect

Blalock & Partners

Design Architect

Salt Lake City, UT, US

Project Architect

Architecture X Design, PLLC

Project Architect

New York, NY, US

Architect/Designer - Retail

O'Neil Langan Architects

Architect/Designer - Retail

New York, NY, US

Next page » Loading