Nestled between the bustling city of Hangzhou and the calm shores of East Lake, the Hangzhou Yuhang Opera cuts a distinctive profile in the skyline, its landscaped peaks appearing to dip beneath the water’s glassy surface. The new building forms the heart of a new cultural node in Yuhang, a fast-growing district in the metropolis of Hangzhou.

Crucial to the design was East Lake, an expanse of water that lies at the heart of the surrounding park and forms the shimmering, reflective backdrop for the new Opera. While at first glance an established landscape, the lake was in fact part of Henning Larsen’s winning competition design, mirroring Hangzhou’s famed West Lake and creating a geographically contrasting node for culture in the urban region. A meandering promenade circles the lake, passing through small pocket parks (including a traditional Chinese water garden) and commercial facilities. The exterior edge of the park borders a high-speed rail station that has been instrumental in Yuhang’s recent growth and will welcome even more visitors to the new cultural destination.

The opera dominates the lake and the surroundings with a publicly accessible sloping landscape reminiscent in form and scale to ancient manmade landforms that have been discovered in the region.

“There is a competition amongst Chinese cities to create new destinations, each with their iconic cultural landmarks,” explains Claude Godefroy, Partner and Design Director of Henning Larsen’s Hong Kong office. “When designing those cultural nodes our most important task is to create truly lively urban centers that can welcome citizens at all times whether they are paying guests or not. That is why we take care to design a diversified and activated public realm around the venues to complete the experience and to complete the city with livable city centers.

People in this region are proud of the 3000 year old mysterious gigantic sloping landforms their ancestors built while laying the foundations of the Chinese civilization. We were inspired by them to use the roofs of the Opera to re-create similarly elevated vantage points above the surrounding lake and landscape.”

“The capacity of auditoriums to serve multiple purposes is essential to secure lively venues that are utilized throughout the year,” says Godefroy. “Those auditoriums are complex to design because of seemingly conflicting requirements for the different configurations, but it is possible and the increase in cost is marginal compared with the cost of single purpose venues.”

auditorium 1.200 seats

teatro ridotto 500 seats

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