Oriental Art Centre
- Concert Hall & Performance Spaces, Shanghai
2000-04
Paul Andreu Architects
Oriental Art Centre Shanghai - images + text from Paul Andreu Architects
Oct 2007:
What is it?
During the day, at the end of Century Avenue, opposite Town Hall, it is
a building made of curves out of a pearl gray, shiny material. It resembles
no other building in the city. Nothing, no sign, no writing indicates
its function, which is not otherwise immediately apparent.
What is it? It is some sort of enormous sculpture set amidst trees in
the middle of the roads. Highlighted by reflections and shadows, its shape
changes as you move around it. It soars up from the ground and opens out
to the sky above. Opposite Town Hall, is an entrance with a big flight
of steps leading up to it. From here, at the bottom, the building front
becomes transparent and you can see inside another flight of steps and
colorful high walls. Something precious and mysterious must be happening
inside, something at once solemn and joyous, something set here in the
middle of the city like familiar object, an object that is here for the
sole beauty of the city and the pleasure of its inhabitants. At night,
the building becomes bright and transparent as if by magic. It shines
like a light in the darkness. One can see all the people entering the
building, moving about, climbing the stairs, spreading out in all directions
around three interior volumes whose contrasting colors fade in the color
of the ceiling as they rise. There is a sense of gaiety and brightness
in the movements of the people, the colors and the lights.
What is it? A place made for this calm, happy crowd. A place that the
light opens up, and that you progressively enter, gradually approaching
something important and simple, something that you love. It is, of course,
a place of art, a place for exhibitions and performances. The three interior
volumes that rise out of the base in which they are rooted, becoming lighter
in color as they reach the ceiling, house three auditoriums. They house
and protect them as one might protect a place that is precious and fragile.
The common space around them, composed as a variation on the twin theme
of transparency and curves, comprises an entrance lobby, lounges, the
circulation space and exhibition areas. Functionally and visually, this
space links the auditoriums to the city, visible from everywhere, and
to the surrounding landscape, the trees and the sky above.
What is a performance space? It is the site of an encounter, meticulously
prepared yet new and unique each time, a place where artists, public and
artworks meet. Everything in the building is designed to make this encounter
possible, easy and happy. Seen from this perspective, anything that might
have seemed odd in this sculpture set amidst trees in the city centre
becomes perfectly legible, crystal clear.
Shanghai Oriental
Art Centre : main page
Shanghai Buildings
Shanghai Expo 2010
- British Pavilion
Shanghai Building
Oriental Pearl Tower, Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai
Shanghai tower
Jin Mao Tower, Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai
Shanghai building
: Tallest building in China since 2005
Oriental Art Centre Shanghai:
Location: Century Avenue, Shanghaï
Total surface area: 39,694 sqm
Auditorium capacities:
Philarmonic Orchestra Hall: 1,979 seats
Lyric Theatre: 1,054 seats
Chamber Music Hall: 330 seats
Shanghai context
: Chinese Architecture
Hong
Kong and Shanghai Bank
Comments / photos for the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre: Architecture
page welcome: info@e-architect.co.uk
Oriental Art Centre Shanghai
- page : adrian welch / isabelle lomholt