MAD's sinuous Harbin Opera House completes in north-east China
Beijing studio MAD has completed an opera house in the Chinese city of Harbin, featuring an undulating form that wraps two concert halls and a huge public plaza (+ slideshow).
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_1.jpg)
The Harbin Opera House is the first and largest building that MAD has designed as part of Harbin Cultural Island, a major new arts complex among the wetlands of the Songhua River.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_4.jpg)
The 79,000-square-metre building features a three-petalled plan. One houses a grand theatre with space for up to 1,600 visitors, while the other is a more intimate performance space for an audience of 400.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_5.jpg)
The building is designed to mirror the sinuous curves of the marsh landscape, with an exterior of smooth white aluminium panels and glass.
These contrast with the rooftops, where a textured surface of ice-inspired glass pyramids allows light in from above.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_7.jpg)
According to MAD, the building is designed "in response to the force and spirit of the northern city's untamed wilderness and frigid climate".
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_15.jpg)
"We envision Harbin Opera House as a cultural center of the future – a tremendous performance venue, as well as a dramatic public space that embodies the integration of human, art and the city identity, while synergistically blending with the surrounding nature," said studio founder Ma Yansong.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_10.jpg)
MAD has designed several cultural buildings, including an artificial island of art caves, an icicle-shaped wood sculpture museum also in Harbin and Chicago's proposed George Lucas Museum. Curved surfaces are a recurring theme through them all, picking up Ma's ambition for a new style of architecture, referencing the landscapes of traditional Chinese paintings.
"We treat architecture as a landscape," he told Dezeen in an interview last year.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_22.jpg)
The smooth surfaces of the opera house's exterior continue inside, where a large entrance lobby features arched windows and a latticed ceiling that is located beneath the sculptural glass roof.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_21.jpg)
At one end, a large block of Manchurian Ash wood encloses the grand theatre, with balconies and staircases wrapping around the outside. MAD describes is as "emulating a wooden block that has been gently eroded away".
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_18.jpg)
The second theatre offers more of a connection to the exterior, as its backdrop is a soundproof glass wall. Its walls look more like a pair of weatherbeaten stone cliffs.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_25.jpg)
The huge public plaza forms the third petal of the plan, and can be used as a venue for outdoor activities and performances.
![Harbin Opera House by MAD](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/Harbin-Opera-House_MAD-Architects_Beijing_Hufton-Crow_dezeen_936_17.jpg)
There is another outdoor performance space at the top of the building – a terrace that also serves as an observation platform.
For job opportunities at MAD Architects, visit their company profile on Dezeen Jobs.
Photography is by Adam Mørk and Hufton + Crow.
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