Zaha Hadid Architects has been selected to design the Zhejiang Shaoxing Shangyu District Cao’e River Culture and Art Centre, the cornerstone of the new cultural quarter in China's Zhejiang province.
Designed to host local and international productions of opera, dance, and drama, as well as large-scale symphonies and musical theatre, the Art and Culture Centre includes a 1,400-seat Grand Theatre, a 500-seat Black-Box Multifunctional Hall, a 2,900 sq. m Arts and Education Centre, a 3,000 sq. m Conference Centre, a 7,500 sq. m Heritage Museum, and a 10,000 sq. m Digital Art Gallery.
On the banks of the historic Cao'e River, the Culture and Art Centre's sheltered courtyards extend the centre's interiors. These outdoor gathering spaces flow into terraced landscapes that surround the centre and connect directly with the city, giving Shaoxing's residents and visitors a variety of natural parklands and gardens for relaxation and recreation along the river.
Integrating multiple levels of public spaces and technical infrastructure to host dance and theatre performances within the centre's courtyards and foyers, the design honours the rich tradition and craftsmanship of glazed tiles upon pitched roofs within the region's vernacular architecture. Creating an interconnected composition of roofs that flow above the timeless river landscapes, the Cultural and Art Centre establishes a new, yet highly recognizable, silhouette informed by the area's historic architecture.
The centre's façades are a contemporary articulation of the renowned jade-green Celadon ceramics, which originated locally at the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty approximately 1,200 years ago. In this way, traditional materials and innovative architecture are integrated coherently, defining a 21st-century cultural building with a direct connection to the region's ancient past.
Sustainability is at the heart of ZHA's creative thinking, architectural expression and design language. Responding to Shaoxing's subtropical monsoon climate, the design's large sloping roofs incorporate wide overhangs around the perimeter of each venue, providing effective shading for the glass façades that open onto covered outdoor courtyards which extend into the landscape.
Solar analysis of the site throughout each season has defined the roofs' geometries to create self-shading zones that effectively reduce solar heat gain within the building and shade the outdoor courtyards in the summer months. The distinctive forms of the Cultural and Art Centre's roofs extend further and lower on the centre's southern façades to ensure optimum protection from the stronger solar radiation. In contrast, photovoltaic panels integrated within the roof will enable the centre to significantly reduce its energy demand from the municipal electricity grid.
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Press Release
Images by Proloog
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