Structure, Material & Form

Guangzhou Opera House

Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
Zaha Hadids design won the first prize and was
confirmed as the practical one which will become
an icon for the Guangzhou City and even
accelerate the urbanization of new developing
downtown.

Key Features:
The third biggest opera architecture in China.
One opera hall (includes main stage, side stage,
and back stage) 1,800 seats.
One multiple-purpose hall with 400 seats.
Foyer, art gallery, restaurant, garage.
70,000 square meters (30,000 square meters
underground).
Total construction investment of 200 million
dollars
Design Review:
Create a new focal point in Guangzhou city.
Located downstream of Peal River.
Its unique twin boulder design enhances urban
function with open access to the riverside and
dock areas.
Create a new dialogue with the emerging new
town.
The sheltered area formed in its intersection has
been designed to accommodate outdoor
activities to complement its primary role as a
world stage for the performing art
23-09-2014 3
Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
The structure was designed by the Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, its independent auditorium,
of concrete, located within a bold exposed granite and glass, coated with a steel frame,
needed over five years to build, and was praised following its initiation architecture critic
Jonathan Glancey in the Guardian, who defined as "both, highly theatrical and insistently
subtle".
23-09-2014 4
Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
Architect Zaha Hadid gave shape to this structure so that
resembled two stones on the bank of Pearl River. The
design of the Opera House is a unique exploration of
contextual urban relationships Zaha Hadid Architects,
combining the cultural traditions that have shaped the
history of Guangzhou, with the ambition and optimism
that will create its future.
23-09-2014 5
Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
The design evolved from the concepts of a natural
landscape and the fascinating interplay between
architecture and nature, agreeing with the principles of
erosion, geology and topography. The design of the
Guangzhou Opera has been particularly influenced by
river valleys and how they are transformed by erosion.

Fold lines in this landscape define territories and zones
within the Opera House, both inside and outside
dramatic canyons for circulation, lobbies and cafes are
created, allowing natural light to penetrate deep into
the building. Smooth transitions between disparate
elements and different levels continue this landscape
analogy.

The larger boulder, clad in charcoal- coloured, rough-
textured granite, houses the opera house while the white
granite-clad smaller boulder houses the multipurpose,
black box hall. Outside, one gazes up through a canyon
between the two buildings; inside, the airy lobbies,
staircases and undulating walls evoke flowing riverbeds;
swooping angles suck the visitor in like a current.
23-09-2014 6
Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
ENVELOPE SYSTEM
The envelope system is of rigid frame structure for both
the structures:
Opera Hall
Multi-Purpose Hall
Both of them are the integrative Rigid Frame Structure
of slabs and curtain walls.
Deep steel trusses supporting roof, envelope and
ancillary equipments.
Asymmetric Horizontal Forces due to radical ribs to be
transformed to the ground via auditorium walls.
23-09-2014 7
Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
Hadid has also created a public park
around the performance complex. You
approach the main entry plaza up a
ramp or grand staircase, past the
smaller multipurpose hall; a second
ramp spirals down to a smaller plaza
and reflective pool, which offers shelter
from Guangzhous hot and wet seasons.
Escalators descend from both hall
lobbies to this under-plaza, where
ticketing, cafes and shops, including
opera retail, are found.
23-09-2014 8
Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
23-09-2014 9
Structure, Material & Form
Guangzhou Opera House
Structure, Material & Form
Philips Pavilion Expo 58
Structure, Material & Form
Philips Pavilion Expo 58
The Philips Pavilion at Expo 58 in
Brussels, Belgium, located in a small room
next to the Dutch section and away from
the centre of the fair, was built in an unusual
architectural style and new at the time: the
hyperbolic parabola.
The design was done by Le Corbusier in
collaboration with the Greek composer
Iannis Xenakis, a young architect and
engineer, working for Le Corbusier in those
days. For this special occasion, the
American composer Edgar Varse
composed a new poem Electronic,
ELECTRONIQUE POME (1957), which would
be heard during the days of exposure
through 425 speakers at the same time you
could watch a film made by Le Corbusier.
The work was a combination of musique
concrete and electronic sounds. Images
and photographs were projected on the
walls without any attempt to sync with the
sound.
From the very beginning Le Corbusier
conceived the pavilion as an interior in
which an electronic spectacle could
be presented. He said: I will not make
a faade for Philips, but an electronic
poem. Everything will happen inside:
sound, light, color, rhythm Perhaps a
scaffolding will be the pavilions only
exterior aspect. He designed the plan
of the pavilion in the shape of a
stomach, a digestive organ, capable
of absorbing the public, five hundred
people at a time.
23-09-2014 12
Structure, Material & Form
Philips Pavilion Expo 58
Every ten minutes, the pavilion assimilated five hundred spectators.
And at the end of the spectacle, the spectators were evacuated
automatically, possibly after having been transformed. Spectators
remained standing during the eight-minute spectacle. Thus, this
allowed the audience to experience the spectacle from all points.

The pavilion was designed to house a multimedia spectacle that
celebrated post-war technological progress. The pavilion is a cluster
of nine hyperbolic paraboloid in which music was spatialized by
sound projectionists using telephone dials.
23-09-2014 13
Structure, Material & Form
Philips Pavilion Expo 58
The Philips Pavilion represented an important artistic phenomenon
through its synthesis of architecture, visual media and music. It was a
great space in which slides were projected and the soundtrack of
"Electronic Poem " specially prepared by Edgar Varse was heard.

The purpose was to display the flag technology company Philips, a
specialized Dutch electronics company, from sound production to
fluorescent lighting for X-ray technology. Philips' goal was obviously
promotional. But instead of having a traditional pavilion in which to
display their products to visitors, Philips decided to create an
integrated modern art work that would use its wide range of
technologies. Therefore, the Philips pavilion did not exhibit itself, but it
was kind of exhibition in itself, a showcase covering everything that
Philips could offer.

To make the experience come through all the way had to be the
work of a multidisciplinary team, an architect, an artist and a
songwriter.
23-09-2014 14
Structure, Material & Form
Philips Pavilion Expo 58
FORM CONCEPT
Although Xenakis was the principal designer of the Philips Pavilion,
architecture originated with the general concepts of Le Corbusier. The
starting point for the structure was a series of curved hyperbolic planes
parabaloides generated mathematically from straight lines that form an
enclosure shaped store to cover the plant in the form of stomach.

Proposals by Xenakis sloping walls to cover the hyperbolic paraboloid
planes satisfy the idea of Le Corbusier irregular warped surfaces for
projecting images. The geometry also covered the wishes of Le
Corbusier for mathematical rationality, while the spectacular slopes
and contours of the flag associated with an expressionistic language.
23-09-2014 15
Structure, Material & Form
Philips Pavilion Expo 58
23-09-2014 16
Structure, Material & Form
Philips Pavilion Expo 58
The structure is made with a combination of steel and reinforced
concrete structural system. The pre-stressing steel is attached to
heavy concrete supports and the spaces between them are
covered with thin precast. At the ends, wrapped steel masts cables
that pull the structure. Complex shapes flag made it impossible to
build a conventional poured concrete structure, the solution
reached by Xenakis and his engineer Hoyte Duyster was to create a
system of prefabricated concrete panels hung in tension steel
cables. Because hyperbolic parabolic planes are generated by
straight lines , the method of using prefabricated panels was easy to
implement.