Yangliping Performing Arts Center

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
aerial view. Image © Weiqi Jin

YANGLIPING PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Studio Zhu-Pei

CATEGORY
Performing Arts Center

LOCATION
Dali, China

ARCHITECTS
Studio Zhu-Pei

LIGHTING CONSUTLANT
Ning Field Lighting Design CO. LTD.

ACUSTIC CONSULTANT
China IPPR International Engineering Co.Ltd.

AREA
8155 m²

YEAR
2020

MEP CONSULTANT
Ccdi

STRUCTURE CONSULTANT
Professor Fu Xueyi National Engineering Survey and Design

PHOTOGRAPHS
Weiqi Jin, Yao Zhang

CONSTRUCTION
The Third Construction CO. LTD. of YCIH

DESIGN PRINCIPAL
Pei Zhu

DESIGN TEAM
Mo Han, Fan He, Ling Liu, Zhigang Wu, Changchen You, Gary Poon, Jun Ke, Peng Wang, Zheng Wang, Xinyue Ding, Chaoying Feng, Yida Chen, Yi Han, Wendi Lin, Yao Du

THEATER CONSULTANT
dUCKS scéno Creative Solution Integration LTD.

FACADE CONSULTANT
Shenzhen Dadi Facade Technology CO. LTD.

LEAD DESIGNERS
Edwin Lam, Shuhei Nakamura

CLIENT
Dali Yang Liping Grand Theatre Co., LTD

Text description provided by architect.

Zhu Pei was invited by friends Yang Liping and Wang Yanwu to design their performing arts center in Dali. As a dance artist, Yang Liping has been enthusiastically caring for nature and culture here and devoted to discovering the local folk dance art in Yunnan.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
southeastern aerial view. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
Cang mountain, old town and the performing art center. Image © Weiqi Jin

The Performing Arts Center is located on the northeast side outside the ancient city. Its east and south sides are farmland, streams, woods, and wetlands; the west and north sides are villages.

The stretch of Cang Mountain stands on the west side of the Performing Arts Center, and the Zhonghe Stream among the eighteen streams in Cang Mountain passes through the ancient city from west to east, passing through the south side of the site and heading straight to the Erhai Lake.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
the performing arts center at sunset. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
roofscape and outdoor theater. Image © Weiqi Jin

The original idea of the Performing Arts Center is rooted in the perception of the local natural climate and the specific culture bred from it, as well as the survival wisdom of the locals.

An open, outward-looking, horizontal roof that looks like an earthy landscape and shelters from rain is like the horizon at the junction of Cang Mountain and the Erhai Lake, creating a huge shelter, shaping a public space that contains the possibility of various events. It also provides an ideal habitat for people traveling between the ancient city and Erhai Lake.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
teahouse. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
teahouse and outdoor theater. Image © Weiqi Jin

In people's impression, the theater has always been a huge black box wrapped by some fragmentary auxiliary functions such as a foyer, lounge, rehearsal hall, etc. It strives to isolate itself from the outside world and regards natural phenomena such as light, sound, and wind as its natural enemies.

The greatest effort made by the architecture of the Performing Arts Center in Dali is to try to subvert people's perception of theater and create a new theater concept and new experiences.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
outdoor theater and outdoor peformance space. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
view from outdoor theater to roof ramp. Image © Weiqi Jin

The Performing Arts Center tries to avoid the concept of internal and external distinction, black and white, and self-integrity, whether in terms of architectural space and form or in terms of performance and event activity content.

This may be like the blank space in traditional Chinese painting. The author expects to use the incompleteness of his own painting to complete the work together with viewers of different eras with their own imagination, thus giving life to the work.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
outdoor theater. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
outdoor theater. Image © Yao Zhang

This kind of intertwining and interdependence between the multiple elements of nature, architecture, performance, and people, together to create a full theater, thus realizing its integrity.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
view from outdoor theater to roof ramp. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
wooden roof details. Image © Weiqi Jin

Another idea is to fully interact with nature to realize natural intelligent ecological architecture. Dali is located on a plateau with strong sunlight. The far-reaching and horizontally extended roof is like a big canopy. While resisting ultraviolet rays, it also shapes shadows and provides a comfortable environment for people to shade and avoid rain.

Through targeted design strategies, the Performing Arts Center fully responded to the local natural environment and climatic conditions and realized the diversity and mobility of architectural forms and spaces.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
view from outdoor theater to roof ramp. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
wooden roof and outdoor theater. Image © Weiqi Jin

In a nutshell, the concept of Yangliping Performing Arts Center is rooted in the perception of Dali's natural climate and culture. It is also another in-depth experimental work on the design philosophy of "Architecture of Nature" after the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum.

This building indeed subverts our traditional cognition of theater, constructing a porous, open, and fluid alternative theater, more precisely an art space.

Yangliping Performing Arts Center
roofscape and outdoor theater. Image © Weiqi Jin
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
lights lit up the theater. Image © Weiqi Jin

It does not strive to be a monument, but sets a stage for the vast natural landscape beyond it: back against Cang Mountain and facing the Erhai Lake. It is like a ten-mile-long pavilion outside the ancient city, welcoming people who visit Dali.


Yangliping Performing Arts Center
west facade. Image © Weiqi Jin


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Yangliping Performing Arts Center
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Yangliping Performing Arts Center
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Yangliping Performing Arts Center
Yinyang conceptual diagram
Yangliping Performing Arts Center
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Yangliping Performing Arts Center
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Yangliping Performing Arts Center
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