044 AUDITORIUM LIGHTING / GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE, GUANGZHOU, CHINA Photograph: Virgile Simon Bertrand
The sleek lines of the indirect lighting of the interior scheme are continued into the exterior space. In every instance a mantra of “see the illumination but no the light fittings” was adhered to.
Photograph: Courtesy HI-MACS
Like pebbles in a stream smoothed by ero- sion, the Guangzhou Opera House’s unique twin-boulder design enhances the city by opening it to the Pearl River, unifying the adjacent cultural buildings with the towers of international finance in Guangzhou’s Zhujiang new town. The design evolved from the twin concepts of natural land- scape and the fascinating interplay between architecture and nature; engaging with the principles of erosion, geology and topogra- phy. Fold lines in this landscape define ter- ritories and zones within the Opera House, cutting dramatic interior and exterior canyons for circulation, lobbies and cafes, and allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the building. Smooth transitions between disparate elements and different levels continue this landscape analogy. The Opera House design is the latest realisation of Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA)
Photograph: Courtesy Light & View
unique exploration of contextual urban rela- tionships, combining the cultural traditions that have shaped Guangzhou’s history, with the ambition and optimism that will create its future.
An example of a new type of structure called ‘spatial folded plate triangular lat- tice’, the complexity of the building’s shape meant significant challenges for the lighting designers at the Beijing office of Light & View Design, and in particular the Project Lighting Designer Xiaojie An, who worked very closely with Hadid on the three-year design and one-year engineering process for the project. Xiaojie An spent a long time studying Hadid’s boulder concept. The meeting room was constantly full of models by ZHA and Light & View. During that period, Xiaojie An and his team studied the models every day and made every effort to comprehend
the soul of the architecture. Eventually An decided to enhance Hadid’s complex curves and arches with an equally elaborate light- ing scheme, to further extend and intensify their pleasingly gentle visual feel. In this way, the lighting concept for the twin boul- ders was conceived.
“From the perspective of lighting, the ar- chitectural complexity of Guangzhou Opera House does not lie in its structure,” says Rongxing Yan, Beijing Light & View’s Chief Lighting Designer, “but in its space form and architectural shape which is different to our familiar conventional style. There are no straight lines at all. From the interior space to the architectural shape or even the landscaping on the plaza, almost all are interlinked by undulating curved surfaces beyond your imagination. Its perfect archi- tectural form made us reluctant to fix any light fittings.”
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