When Archinect first covered the Wuxi Taihu Theatre project back in 2018, many were mesmerized by the theatre's alluring design and its resemblance to China's iconic bamboo rainforest. A year later, Archinect catches up with London-based architect Steven Chilton of SCA | Steven Chilton Architects, as he reflects on the theatre's recent grand opening and the project's completion. 

It's exciting to see the progress of the theatre. How has the year been for you since the theatre's completion?

Our work on the theatre finished earlier this year. Since then we have been working on a number of interesting and exciting projects in China and Saudi Arabia. 

With the theatre's debut on the 22nd, how did you hope people would respond? The theatre really influences the surrounding area structurally but also culturally. It's a great representation of China's iconic bamboo forests.

We hope the audience found a connection with the architecture that resonates with them emotionally. Wandering through the Sea of Bamboo forest on the edge of Wuxi will be a common memory for many visitors and we hope the experience of visiting the theatre will prove to be evocative and meaningful.

The photographs taken by architectural photographer Kris Provoost are stunning. You can see the detail in the structure's canopy. The canopy and columns' intentionality to passively cool the building load is a detail bystanders wouldn't think about. Can you walk us through the technical process of merging the bamboo design influence with the building's construction?

The canopy is primarily a shading device designed as an abstract interpretation of the leafy branches that exist at tree top level within a bamboo forest. We identified a characteristic triangular shading pattern on the floor of the forest where light has passed through the overlapping bamboo trunks and adopted a similar geometry at canopy level to define a series of structural bays that brace the top of the columns whilst supporting prefabricated units of variably spaced and orientated aluminum louvres. 

There is a lot of repetition in the size and shape of prefabricated shading units which we have masked through the density and orientation of the louvres. This approach has allowed us to create an organic dimension to the canopy within a relatively modest budget.

I'm fascinated by the theatre's ability to transform during the day and night. Was lighting something you considered initially or was this something that came about towards the end?

We conceived a simple up-lighting scheme that would illuminate the canopy from ground level along with the inner surfaces of the columns. We were keen for light to emanate from within the forest of columns in a lantern like manner that would produce a landscape of spoke like shadows all pointing toward the centre of the building. 

The lighting scheme developed for the final building was actually created by a lighting consultant who incorporated our concept into a wider pallet of ideas that use color and gobos to create a variety of different moods and textures that completely transform the appearance of the theatre at night when compared to its relatively monotone colouration during the day. 

Are there any other future theatre projects that you're working on?

We hope so, this summer we were invited to compete for an exciting new theatre for a stunning new development in Saudi Arabia. We were privileged to find ourselves in competition with two of the most admired and successful modern architecture practices working in the world today. We will find out in the New Year if we have been chosen, we are very pleased with and excited about our submission, but when you are up against such strong competition, we take nothing for granted and hope for the best.