Archinect - News

Bao'An Performing Arts Center by Rocco Design Architects opens in Shenzhen

2022-02-21T15:24:00-05:00

Rocco Design Architects Associates have completed the Performing Arts Center as part of their wider Bao-An Cultural District masterplan in Shenzhen, China. The 600 seat, 28,000-square-meter building houses Shenzhen’s first performance hall and will host opera, dance, symphonies, and dramatic performances.

Overlooking Quanhai Bay and the South China Sea, the building anchors the southern end of the Bao-An Cultural District. The 110,000-square-meter arts and performance complex was masterplanned and designed by Rocco Design Architects and includes three major new destinations: the Performing Arts Center, a Library, and a Youth Palace. The Library was completed in 2013 and the Youth Palace in 2018.

The design of the Performing Arts Center takes inspiration from the long and narrow waterfront site. The base of the building is a low-slung, wave-like volume that provides a sense of rhythm and movement along the campus’s axis. The building’s delicately perforated façade refers back to an...

Turn like a wheel inside a wheel: Steinmetz Hall is almost ready to move and groove in Orlando

2022-01-11T18:49:00-05:00

Future generations of concertgoers in the Orlando area will want a ticket to commemorate the moment the city’s dynamic new $612 million performance venue makes its theatrical debut at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts this Friday.

Designed by former UCLA faculty member Barton Myers, Steinmetz Hall is a mechanical wonder made even more remarkable by the way its form can be shifted to adapt to one of the building’s myriad uses. The concert hall has a maximum seating capacity of 1,650 and consists of multiple layouts that can be applied to a variety of individual types of musical and artistic performances.

Photo courtesy Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

With help from Gala Systems, Myers created a series of interchangeable components that can be rearranged seamlessly according to need. A retractable acoustic shell is moved in and out of place thanks to 65 feet of track that facilitates the theater’s biggest area of public use as a concert hall. Additional space...

Ennead Architects unveils “eggshell” performance center in Shenzhen

2021-10-12T11:15:00-04:00

Ennead Architects has released images of their competition-winning design for the new International Performance Center in Shenzhen. The company, which is currently hiring a BIM Specialist and Computational Designer on Archinect Jobs, hopes that their scheme will “reimagine the possibilities of immersive performing arts experiences.”

Image courtesy of Ennead Architects. Rendering by Plomp.

Referred to as “The People’s Performing Arts Center,” the scheme is one of three new buildings to be built as part of a cultural masterplan for Shenzhen’s Futian District, alongside the Shenzhen Reform and Opening-Up Exhibition Hall and the Shenzhen Finance Culture Center.

Image courtesy of Ennead Architects. Rendering by Plomp.

Ennead’s scheme adopts the form of two richly-textured, golden egg-like shells to create a façade that changes with the time of day and season. The two elements are both dependent and complimentary of one another, reflecting the relationship between the performer and the a...

OMA reveals NASA-inspired music venue in Houston, Texas

2021-05-17T09:06:00-04:00

OMA/Jason Long have unveiled their design for The Terminal, a 5,000-capacity music venue for Houston, Texas. The scheme, developed in partnership with global live entertainment company Live Nation, will form the cultural anchor for POST Houston, a hub for culture, food, shopping, and recreation set within the rejuvenated historic Barbara Jordan Post Office.

The Terminal view from stage. Image: OMA + Luxigon

OMA’s scheme features a large, flat general assembly area with a balcony of raked seating hovering above the main floor. The flat central area allows for flexible arrangements and complex scenography, while the balcony seating is clad in fiberglass grating to provide expansive views. Behind and below the balcony, a sheltered space is formed for visitors to gather away from the main act, while not being completely removed from it. The design team compare this anomaly to “students hanging out under the bleachers during a homecoming game.”

The Terminal Tribune. Image: OMA + Luxigo...

RUR Architecture completes the Taipei Music Center's Performance Hall

2020-09-03T12:52:00-04:00

RUR Architecture's (formerly Reiser + Umemoto) 756,000-square-foot Performance Hall at the Taipei Music Center (TMC) has officially opened with its first concert planned to take place this month. Located in the Nangung District, the project sits on a 9-hectare site in Taipei and is dedicated to the performance, production, and celebration of pop music in Asia.

"Ten years ago, the outskirts of Taipei were characterized by industrial areas situated right up against verdant, forested hills," said Jesse Reiser, Principal at RUR in a statement. "There was, and still is, no gradual transition of city to suburbs – in fact no suburbs at all. The effect of that contrast is a striking juxtaposition between city and nature. Once the old industry was removed and the Taipei Music Center was constructed, we found that nature and new architecture amplified each other’s beauty. Taipei Music Center functions as a discrete urban organism within the natural landscape, an urban peninsula connected to t...